I hope summer has been relaxing and rejuvenating for you all and you have done some amazing things for you! I can't believe that summer is almost over -- ahh! But, nevertheless I thought I would pop on (Lauren) and share a bit about a project that my first graders did this past year.
Our district is focused on different characteristics that we work on during the year, such as: create, innovate, investigate, collaborate, and serve - to name a few. We work towards achieving these characteristics in our project-based learning environment and having students understand what these mean. Students also post blog posts that they share with family and friends of their work and "tag" with these characteristics.
In first grade, we wanted to have a culminating unit that was focused on "serve." Students LOVE animals, so we thought what better way to work that to everyones advantage then to help our local animal shelter in Cleveland? Students did research on adopting, not shopping as information research, wrote an information writing, TV commercial, and then we focused on something that we would be able to give back in return: cloth dog toys. We wrote a letter that we sent home to parents about recycling to help with our project, and students also wrote how-to writings, along with pictures, and made some pretty amazing dog toys that we gave to the animal shelter during an all-grade assembly. We even had the local news come do a short segment on it to help get some cute pups adopted.
Overall, it was an amazing project that incorporated many standards, engaging, and helped others in a fun way (and great end of the year activity!). It was amazing to collaborate with others in our grade, too.
I will be posting the unit soon, but wanted to share a sneak-peek of what it was all about.
Enjoy the last bit of summer,
Lauren
