Project Based Learning in a first grade classroom

Hello all! You know that I am a HUGE fan of PBL! HUGE!
I have tried it in my classroom two times. I guess three times is a charm. I have finally gotten it! We are going to be studying the lake in our town. At the end of this, the culminating project will be a field guide of the lake that will be published.
We have watched videos of lakes and ponds, read books about lakes and ponds, looked at websites about lakes and ponds. We will be having a few guest speakers in to talk to us about our town and the lake.
The most exciting thing that has happened so far is our peer critique.
We started out with discussing the different fish in our lake. Then we looked at photos of four of the fish. I gave them a choice of one of the four to illustrate.

This is one of our first drawings.



The next day, I modeled peer critique and showed them the video of Austin's Butterfly with Ron Berger.



The class took a look at this work and told him two things that he could work on. We focused on the shape of the fish.


This was the second draft. Pretty good right?
Well, we took another look at it. I sent them back to their tables and they worked in small groups. They told him two more things he could work on for the shape. 
And...



This is the third draft and the bottom photo is what we were looking at for guidance.



We are not done. We have to add in the patterns and do a little more tweaking, but I am so amazed at what they have accomplished in three tries already.

The students were so thoughtful in their comments and critique. I am so AMAZED!!!

I am so excited about this project!
Do you do PBL in your classroom? What kinds of things are you working on? What works for you?

Have a wonderful day!

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1 comment

  1. I have heard lots about PBL. This is a great example of it working. So impressed!
    Laurie
    Chickadee Jubilee

    ReplyDelete

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