All Seasons, All Stories: An Intergenerational Project
It was the week before school started and I was seated next to Grandpa Ray, a gentleman living in the Memory Care unit at our senior living facility. The preschool where I teach is also located inside this building, and a part of our mission is strengthening community and relationships with the “Grandmas and Grandpas” who live alongside us. This approach is more widely known as intergenerational learning which is defined by Generations United as the deliberate integration of interactions between generations in the learning environment. On the table in front of Ray, I noticed the sports page and asked if he was a baseball fan. He told me an incredible story about the great Stan Musial who Ray was lucky enough to see play on both his MLB debut and the last game he played. After listening to his story, I was electrified. He had an extremely vivid recall of the games he’d seen Stan play and of how he’d felt sitting in the bleachers next to his father. I couldn’t wait to have him tell our students this story. What struck me most was the energy and life still within Ray. In our society, many have been conditioned to think of older adults as colorless or confused or boring. Ray was none of those things. A few months later, before I’d had the chance to have Ray share his story, he passed away quite suddenly. In my shock, I felt that memory of his evaporate; no one would ever hear it quite the same way again. It broke my heart.
Later in the year, I was able to attend the Early Childhood PBL Conference. While I’ve long been aware of PBL, I had never received training and was curious to know how one might leverage it in a preschool classroom. It was refreshing to hear practitioners talk about the deep abilities of young children that can be drawn out through well planned and executed projects. I left that conference with a fire lit within me: young kids can research, write, collaborate and communicate in substantial ways, and as such, I began to feel that no project idea was off the table. I could make anything work, with the right scale, scaffolding, and expectations.
My entry point into considering projects began with our beloved seniors. I decided we needed to share the project with them and it felt only natural to include the seniors as integral partners, as we often do at our school. Grandpa Ray’s story flashed back to me. Encouraging Grandmas and Grandpas to share their stories in their own voices felt like exactly what we needed to do. An element of intergenerational learning is walking alongside loss; students, staff, teachers, and seniors are all familiar with the inevitable deaths we experience yearly, but they don’t become less impactful. This project offered a beautiful chance to create a lasting memory of those we will always miss.
The project was not without its hurdles, including
talking my co-teacher into the project
teaching interviewing skills to the 15 three-, four-, and five-year-olds
learning about the technology needed to record stories
encouraging seniors to join the podcast
At every turn of the project I felt sure it would fall apart. For our entry event, I shared a video of my mother-in-law telling a personal story. I was expecting the students to lose interest, but they didn’t! They were thrilled by the idea of capturing Grandma and Grandpa stories and couldn’t wait to get started. It helped that my 4-year-old daughter, a student in a different class at our school, was eager to share her grandma’s story with the class. As we solicited seniors, I worried no one would participate. Wrong again! I thought the tech might be too complex, and yet, within fifteen minutes the kids were loudly reminding me, “No, Ms. Julie! The lapel mic goes on your clothes. That cord goes to the receiver!” During a pivotal lesson, “What is a question?”, I was ready for student questions like “What is your favorite color?” so imagine how far my jaw fell open when one student asked another, “Can you tell me what you are afraid of?”
Students interview Grandma Marion in her apartment
It was astounding how quickly the kids absorbed our mini-lessons and implemented their knowledge in all aspects of the day. They practiced asking questions to anyone they could find, and delighted in learning more about each other. As we interviewed Grandmas, their stories became integrated into their play. While building with big blocks, students built a ship “just like the one Grandma Marion’s dad was on!” This project I was sure would fail was suddenly running on its own steam created by these now-thoroughly invested young people.
Our interviews were teacher-edited with feedback from the students. Upon listening to the episodes, looks of awe appeared on their faces and excited giggles erupted. “We’re on the podcast!” one child exclaimed as he heard his own voice rise from the speaker. Eyes widened as they heard Grandma Carol describe squeezing eight people into a small car for a vacation and when they learned Grandma Sheila had traveled to China. Each time we listened to a finished podcast for the first time, they demanded to hear it again and again. Their professionalism in the final product wowed them and the pride they showed was catching.
Students listen to an edit of the podcast with their teacher, offering suggestions about what to keep and cut.
We invited a party planner to visit as an expert to help us plan the podcast listening party we would throw for the seniors, our families, and the other students. Children soaked up party etiquette like greeting guests and offering food, and about the details of a good invitation. Students chose decorations, refreshments, and designed invitations that were hand delivered to families and seniors alike.
Isaac successfully crosses off his need to know question, “Learn to speak clearly” after students agreed they all knew how!
The listening party was a smashing success. Family members and seniors cried, laughed and gushed over the final product itself but also over the sharing of the learning process. As a class, all students had practiced interviewing each other, brainstormed questions, chatted with seniors, and come up with the idea for a party but each child chose an area to take ownership of. Most students joined interview teams, but others were art directors or party planners. Every student had an important role and felt proud of their accomplishments. A student who chose not to interview told his mom, “I made that invitation!” We shared that our podcast could be found published on Apple Podcasts and available worldwide. Children, parents, and, frankly, myself can still not completely believe that!
Students share their learning about how to ask good interview questions during our podcast listening party.
As a first foray into Project Based Learning in the early elementary classroom, I am blown away by the way this project unfolded. I was braced for it to be a labor intensive slog that might not even pan out, but what I found was that my preparation and detailed planning allowed for the project’s momentum to carry itself all the way to the conclusion. Furthermore, the outcomes of the project are amazing. Students grew their resilience, (It doesn’t matter if we make a mistake…we can edit it out or try again!) confidence, practiced collaboration, developed communication and listening skills, and deepened their understanding that every person has value and their own unique stories. This project was joyful: it was a joy to write and be excited about, a joy to see students engage with, a joy to hear stories from our elders, and a joy to share them with others. My hope for teachers reading this? To be courageous and try a project that inspires you; we all deserve more joy in our classrooms!
If you’d like to listen to our podcast, you can find it on Apple Podcasts and PodBean.
Julie Strande has over a decade of varied educational experiences ranging from international teaching, community programming, and outdoor education. She currently teaches at All Seasons Preschool, an intergenerational and arts based program. She lives with her family in St. Paul, Minnesota.