Starting Down a New Path

I am Nikki Scott, a kindergarten teacher at Tilden Hogge Elementary in Morehead, Kentucky. My little school, with approximately 200 kids, is nestled between small farms and National forests in Rowan County, where I was born and raised. The faculty, staff, and students of Tilden Hogge are like family. We work together to grow the hearts and minds of all who enter our building. We call our school “the school with heart where learning is at its best.”

I began teaching almost 23 years ago as a third grade teacher in Rowan County. My love for little people led me to pursue an additional degree in Early Childhood Education. During my teaching career I experienced teaching several years of first grade, seven years in a preschool setting, and for the past nine years, I’ve taught kindergarten.

You are about to share the experience my kinders and I had implementing the Recess Path PBL unit, my first ever PBL unit, and a project that was a perfect fit for our Tilden Hogge crew! Hello adventure!

Once Upon A Rainy Day

It was a rainy September day at Tilden Hogge Elementary. We were learning about weather, and the students understood that the rain created a problem for them when recess time rolled around. This was the moment I chose to present the driving question for our very first PBL project:

How can we play on a rainy day?

This question led to a great discussion among the students about why they could not play outside that day. It also opened the door for thinking about other types of weather that might prevent outdoor play. Students discussed extreme temperatures and storms of various types. Making connections with weather directly addressed our science standards.

We then discussed the importance of exercise and its benefits for our bodies. Sitting when playing doesn't allow hearts to beat faster. We are unable to expend energy when we must have recess in our classroom. The students began to brainstorm ways to move their bodies that would be fun as well as get their hearts beating.

We returned to the student-generated list many times to add ideas. We discussed special needs in our building, and how we could make things fun for all students. We also shared ideas about possible locations for the activities on our list to take place.

What’s next?

Many great ideas were generated in our little classroom. But what about the rest of the school? How would we know what they thought about the ideas we had created? “We could ask them what they like!” was the response my kinders gave. Since my students are new to many math concepts, we toured our building and examined what our friends in the upper grades had posted in the hall. We discovered that the upper grades were polling the school to learn about the various interests of students, and they had recorded their data for all to see. Tilden Hogge kids were voting for their favorite things! So, you guessed it, we visited the classes in our building, shared our classes’ ideas for a recess path and the activities we had considered, and invited them to vote for what THEY liked from our plan.

*Learning about voting from the upper grades and presenting our ideas to the other classes and asking them to vote.*

After all students voted for their favorite activities, we needed to find a way to show everyone in the building how our recess path would work. Earlier in the school year, we had learned about maps in our Social Studies lessons. The students became very curious about maps which allowed for more kindergarten standards to be covered during our project experience. At this point we decided to shift our project toward making maps of areas in our school to show students and teachers where the activities will take place on our recess path. The students connected their background knowledge from their Social Studies lessons and began to make maps as a way to show where the recess path would be and where activities could be offered. We planned to connect with our 4th graders and pass our project to them after our maps were complete for them to create a plan focused on asking for funding for the materials we need for our recess path.

We invited guest speakers to our room to share more about maps. Morehead Tourism spoke with us about the many types of maps and their uses in our town. They provided each student with a map of our county and our city. Kentucky Department of Forestry personnel also visited our classroom. They showed students maps that they use in their work and students were able to see maps of our school and the surrounding area. Our community members were eager to work with the students, and the students learned a lot about our community. The students were also very excited to share what they already knew about maps, as well as ask questions to gain more knowledge.

Creating our Maps

When the time finally came to create maps of the recess path, the kids were so excited! They worked in teams. They used their math skills to measure the gym to determine if it was a rectangle or a square. They walked the halls to count how many rooms they would need for their map. It was a pleasure for me to observe the different groups working together to decide how to design and organize their recess path map. The students used reading and writing skills when labeling parts of their map and creating their keys. Maps were designed, students engaged in conversations with peers and teachers, and the maps were revised as needed.

The students were fully engaged and full of excitement! When developing their maps they were allowed, as much as possible, free access to material and tools throughout the classroom. It was a pleasure for me to circulate among the groups, listening to the different ideas and observing the strategies demonstrated by the students. I enjoyed asking questions to clarify and better understand the amazing thought processes involved in their planning!

Our Culminating Event

We invited our Social Studies experts from the upper grades to come to our room and allow us to share our maps with them. The students proved to be true owners of their projects. They were full of information which excited our guests! The students were confident and ready to tell all that they had learned, and eagerly offered more information than they were asked to provide. Every student demonstrated ownership. It was clear that through this project they had grown as learners. Now, everywhere they see a map, students get excited and shout out something that they observe about the map.

The type of learning involved in the PBL project goes miles beyond what my students have experienced in the past.

The students were able to incorporate skills needed for being lifelong learners. Effective communication was a must as the students worked in teams to determine what their plans and next steps would be. The students were to feel ownership in making a positive impact on the world around them, their school! So much excitement and a feelings of pride were generated by this opportunity. The students became aware of people in the world around them rather than focusing mostly on themselves. All of these skills are extremely valuable when preparing kids for their future! The Recess Path project gave all students the opportunity to engage in critical thinking and to experience actively collaborating with others. These are all priceless, critical skills that we want our students to feel confident in before they graduate. Hooray for our kindergarten peeps getting a head start!

Passing the Baton

We will now be passing our completed project on to our Tilden Hogge 4th graders. Our recess path was designed and mapped for our K-5 students to use when they are not able to play outside. We prepared and presented the “what” and the “where.” We decided to extend the collaboration by passing our project on to the next round of amazing thinkers so they can determine the cost of materials/equipment and come up with a way to get our materials for the recess path funded. We are so excited to see the outcome! We look forward to the opportunity to enjoy a new, wonderful way for our Mustangs, now and for years to come, to play on bad weather days.

Adapting An Existing Project

As someone with only a little experience with PBL it was nice having an example to follow for my first project. Our school leader was hoping our teachers could find some projects that could go across grades. The Recess Path was a project that our school team thought could be adapted to do just that! I found it to be a great learning experience as I adapted the project to meet the needs of my own kids and allow my students’ ideas to be the driving factor along the way as well as making sure that my students were learning the required academic standards for kindergarteners in Kentucky. If you are an educator who wants to give PBL a try but are a little nervous or are having trouble coming up with your own ideas I recommend looking for an already established project that sparks interest and could open doors of learning opportunities for your students.

TIPS:

Have your standards in mind and be prepared to adjust accordingly.
Don’t be afraid to make changes.
Look over the project carefully prior to starting so that you already know the parts of the original that won’t be doable for your students.

Nikki Scott is a momma of four precious kids and one sweet Newfounland. Outside of school she enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, reading, and fishing for musky with my husband, Adam. Her heart's desire is to love the people around her to the best of her ability.