We built more than a Structure, we built a Foundation

We’ve been doing a lot of challenges in Grade 1 – thanks ‏@bfinnimore . Our challenge, to build a structure that can hold as many dictionaries as possible.There have been a lot of tears in Grade 1. We’ve had conflict. Resolution. Design. Redesign. It’s been an interesting week. We’ve been involved in design thinking. We’ve been incorporating Math, Science, Social Studies, Art and Technology in design projects.

The kids like projects like these I think. Yes, theres turmoil and stress but in the end they are left with some sort of satisfaction of completion. Of teamwork. You cant get that feeling from a workbook or a worksheet. Most of our weekly challenges involve teamwork. Some kids ‘hate’  it. Others love it. Some kids assume role of leaders, others are given the role. It depends. Its hard! We blog about it here too.

As a teacher I need to stop myself from jumping in and solving their problems, conflicts. Its hard to stand back but this is authentic learning. I provide guidance when needed, when asked, but I do not give them an answer.

These types of projects foster teamwork, collaboration, thinking skills. Real like situations here that will challenge these kids. We learned alot about math, max. weight capacity and bridge load. We used estimation and accurate measurement using standard measurement. In these challenges we have a our specs. For example make s structure X high or X long.. If kids want to innovate, awesome. Go for it. We often get other grades involved like the grade 4. They love to come in and test our hypotheses and give their expert feedback on how to better the design. How do they know? They had similar experiences years ago in grade 1. We learn that we can use other designs and make them better. We learn that we use other people for inspiration and for information. These are real life skills.

Afterwards we talk about what skills we used, why we even did this challenge and what weve learned. They get it. Its applied learning. In PYP speak kids are ‘Applying Meaning’ and using higher order thinking skills. I love the inquiry into maths here in these challenges. What I dont want to do is to plan everything the kids do. Plan each step. Thats not inquiry. Learning unfolds. If I did this next year it would be very different Im sure.

So what did I learn as a practitioner?
Kids need time
We make mistakes
We have different ideas
We use prior knowledge to make future decisions

Its great to learn from my kids. Building on my own foundation of learning.