Website Archive - August

Spotlight on the Project Approach

This month, our topic and spotlight are on websites which offer insights for parents and teachers on the project approach and activities for parents, teachers, and children to explore in support of that approach. The project approach shifts away from short, teacher-centered lessons and focuses on student-centered, long-term lessons which integrate classroom activities with the real world. Per The Project -Approach website“. Projects are comprised of three phases and each phase has key events which shape the project. When teachers implement the Project Approach successfully, children can be highly motivated, feel actively involved in their own learning, and produce work of a high quality.” Check out this month’s Teacher’s Websites for examples of actual projects

Children

Chateau Meddybemps, Uncommon Amusements for GrownUps and Children, offers a large number of unusual but very entertaining and educational assortment of activities and stories for young children.  Activities include a fresh look at spatial concepts, the opportunity to create new animals, and some clever crocodiles who teach about fruits and vegetables.

Meddybemps also includes guides to assist parents and teachers in helping children learn with this site.  They include:

  • Learning Skills Guide
  • Book Lists & Reviews
  • More About Learning
  • 15 Ways to Help
  • The Big Cheese
  • Recommended Links

The Little Animals Activity Centre offers animal themed games and activities which support early speaking, listening, reading, numeracy, and science skills.  Starting a butterfly project? Check out The Butterfly Trail story under Storybear.

Parents

Chateau Meddybemps, Uncommon Amusements for GrownUps and Children, offers a large number of unusual but very entertaining and educational assortment of activities and stories for young children.  Activities include a fresh look at spatial concepts, the opportunity to create new animals, and some clever crocodiles who teach about fruits and vegetables.

Meddybemps also includes a Parents Guide to assist in helping children learn with this site.  The Parents Guide includes:

  • Learning Skills Guide
  • Book Lists & Reviews
  • More About Learning
  • 15 Ways to Help
  • The Big Cheese
  • Recommended Links

Don’t miss this wonderful family fun learning site!

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website offers Pets. Get involved with the class project your preschooler is working on!  If the project is fish, pets or other animals, this BBC site offers interesting fact sheets, activities, and guides about the lives of many small and large animals. You may be surprised at what you’ll learn as you guide your child’s learning adventure.

AtoZ Kids Stuff offers lots of fun, educational activities including this section on Bugs – insects, bees, and ladybugs. This is another great site for supporting your preschooler’s class projects or for starting your own family projects.

Teachers

Sylvia Chard’s website “The Project Approach” offers everything you need to know about beginning to integrate project-based learning into your early childhood classroom.  You will find complete information on this developmentally appropriate practice including:

  • Description and purpose of the project approach.
  • Criteria, key events, and curriculum for strategic planning.
  • The Three Phases – beginning, developing and concluding the project.
  • Project examples and even an email link for contacting Dr. Chard.

Under Resources, you can explore “The Project Approach: Taking A Closer Look” which is available on CD but is reviewable on the website.

Eileen Borgia, Assistant Professor at Illinois State University addressed Curriculum: Birth to Five (Curriculum Birth to Five - Using the Project Approach) at the 2000 National Head Start Conference.  At http://128.146.206.237/Video/200012_CDI/001204_borgia.ram you can watch a 13-minute streaming video of Ms Borgia’s discussion of the Project Approach and details of how the Shoe Project was developed and completed by the Child Care Center at Illinois State University. You may be surprised at what these very young children discovered during their investigation of shoes. If you are using a dial-up connection, the streaming will be slow so be patient.

Creative Curriculum Study Starters offers a free download of “BALLS- A Step-by-Step guide to Project-Based Investigations in Science and Social Studies” This document includes everything you will need to engage your young students in an investigation of the world of balls. What a great resource for those just beginning to implement the project approach!

Candy’s Project Website documents a three-year old class’s investigation of the world of chickens. The three phases of the project approach are well-documented on this site which includes lots of photos of their activities and projects.

“For Goodness Sakes, So Many Snakes” at Young Children’s Learning website documents a project on Snakes. Although this particular project was completed by a kindergarten class, it is also appropriate for a preschool classroom.

The Kente Kinder Centre’s website showcases nine projects their children have completed and talks about how projects are selected. Projects include: 

  • The Fish Project
  • The Ladybug Project 
  • The Airplane Project
  • Making Maple Syrup
  • The Butterfly Project 
  • The Bird Project
  • The Money Project
  • Stain Project 
  • Building a Tree

Chateau Meddybemps, Uncommon Amusements for GrownUps and Children, offers a large number of unusual but very entertaining and educational assortment of activities and stories for young children.  Activities include a fresh look at spatial concepts, create new animals, and crocodiles who teach about fruits and vegetables.

This site offers lots of support for projects. For example, go to:

http://www.meddybemps.com/deepblue/deepbluesea.html to identify fish living in the ocean, http://www.meddybemps.com/deepblue/sortingfish.html to sort fish, and http://www.meddybemps.com/deepblue/fishditty1.html to read Tippity Witchet’s Fish Ditty.

Meddybemps also includes a Teacher’s Guide to assist teachers in helping children learn with this site.  The Teacher’s Guide includes:

  • Learning Skills Guide
  • Book Lists & Reviews
  • More About Learning
  • 15 Ways to Help
  • The Big Cheese
  • Recommended Links

Don’t miss this wonderful fun learning site!

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website offers Pets. Whether your project is fish or pets or other animals, this BBC site offers interesting fact sheets, activities, and guides about the lives of many small and large animals.

AtoZ Kids Stuff offers lots of fun, educational activities including this section on Bugs – insects, bees, and ladybugs. Start your bug project research here.

 

 

 

[Updated on August 2, 2005]

 







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