By: Bobbi Lynn Frensley, Kindergarten Teacher

George C. Payne Elementary School is a hidden gem in the Silicon Valley, known for its use of cutting edge technology and teaching philosophies. Recently we received the California Distinguished School Award and have set forth a plan to be a Project Based Learning (PBL) school.

Project Based Learning engages students in developing working products while dealing with real world issues. Learning in a project based setting involves students trying to answer a question that interests them and creating a real world product that answers or addresses the question.

Project Based Learning Includes:

Driving Question(s)

Driving Question(s) Critical Thinking Research

Collaboration

Collaboration Communication

Sharing

Technology Integration

Every grade in our school is working on PBL to improve our school and our community, even my class of kindergartners! At first I felt a bit overwhelmed: how do you get kindergartners to accomplish all of these steps? I simply took the process one step at a time.

Here are some key tips that helped me with each PBL step:

1. The “Ah Ha” moment

Think of something related to the topic that will catch their attention. I played a music video for the kids. After watching, they were so curious. It really got their minds flowing.

2. Driving Question

Choose a question to start a discussion. I started telling my students that in the United States there are some schools that might not know about JiJi, the penguin from the ST Math software program. My students love JiJi and have become fully invested in ST Math, where they help JiJi get across the screen using problem solving and conceptual math understanding. Since JiJi culture is big at our school, and ST Math creators MIND Research Institute were hosting a JiJi Believer Video Challenge, I knew this was an opportunity to create a driving question that would result in a real world product.

I asked them to sit with their table groups to discuss how they could fix that issue. Our driving question became, “How can we share our love of JiJi Math to help inspire others?” The class felt that this question would be a good one for everyone. I then told the kiddos about the contest. The music video and our driving question were perfect together.

3. Critical Thinking and Research

To start this step the kids helped me make a list of everything we needed to make a music video. Then we had to find ways to get these items. Ask your community to help! A local tech company came to my classroom and talked to my students about making videos and using technology. We also had dance parties while watching music videos to help research dance moves.

4. Collaboration

I allowed students to work in cooperative learning groups to create storyboards in the form of a flow map. The kids presented their storyboards to the local tech executives. They felt very official.