CREATING
OUR
CLASSROOM
COMMUNITY
A PBL unit designed for in-person, hybrid, or distance learning in PreK-2
Developed by Early Childhood PBL in collaboration with Ryan Kurada. Additional contributions by Erin Gannon
DRIVING QUESTION:
What can we do to get to know each other and create our classroom community?
PUBLIC PRODUCT:
Class E-book, print book, or class website
Project Overview
In this project, children will collaborate to create an E-book, print book or website that helps them learn about one another so that they can begin to create a strong classroom community. Children will first learn what “community” means and then explore their role in their own communities, sharing a bit about themselves, their families, and their homes. They will learn mapping skills by creating maps of favorite rooms in their homes. They will also learn about non-fiction texts to learn how to write and create their content. Children will then bring all of these elements together into one public product (a website or book) that will be collected and shared with their classmates and families at a Book/Website Launch party! This project can be adapted for in-person, distance, or hybrid models.
Project Learning Goals*
Social Studies:
Learning and working together, being a good citizen, community
Geography/Mapping
English Language Arts:
Print concepts, Phonological Awareness, Speaking and Listening
Informational writing and reading
21st Century Skills / Social and Emotional Learning
Critical Thinking, student agency, self-awareness, oral/written communication
*We have purposefully left these learning goals broad so that you might see where they naturally align with your state standards or school requirements.
Project Milestones
The project is laid out by “Milestones” which are the key moments or “chunks” of a project that guide the inquiry process (PBLWorks.org). Each milestone may correspond to one week, or it may not depending on your schedule and how long lessons take. Feel free to adjust the timing (and even the order of the milestones) to meet your needs. You may find, for example, that if you are implementing this project in a full distance learning model, one “day” may actually span two days: one day to introduce an idea and assign a Seesaw or Flipgrid lesson, and a second day to share children’s work to inspire others who have not yet done an assignment, or to complete an activity.
Milestone 1:
Launch/Entry Event
Launch the project, share the driving question and introduce the public product. Then, generate a list of questions your children need to know in order to answer that driving question. Those questions will guide the project.
Key Question: How can we get to know each other and create our classroom community?
Formative Assessment at this Milestone:
Questions generated on the “Need to Know” list (Individual)
Milestone 2: Defining Community
Students will explore the concept of “community” and dig deeper into this topic by investigating the different types of communities, including their own.
Key Question: What is a community?
Formative Assessment at this Milestone:
Community web and model (Individual), collaborative definition of “community” (Team).
Milestone 3:
My Family and Me
As children become familiar with the different aspects of a community, they begin to understand how their family is an important part of the school community.
Key Question: Who am I as a member of our community? Who are the people in my family and what communities are we a part of outside of school?
Formative Assessment at this Milestone: self-portrait, family photo or drawing with labels and descriptions (Individual)
Milestone 4:
Personal Maps
Children investigate maps and learn about the essential features of maps. They design and share maps of favorite rooms in their homes as a ways to share their environment with their new classmates.
Key Question: Where do I live in my community?
Formative Assessment at this Milestone:
Personal map of a favorite spot at home or a map of the whole home (Individual).
Milestone 5:
Book or Website Creation
Students learn about the important parts of a book or website and collaborate to put all of their work together in the creation of their public product.
Key Question: How can we put all of our work together so everyone can see it and learn about one another?
Formative Assessment at this Milestone: Personal page of the public product (Individual).
Milestone 6:
Book/Website Launch Party
Children rehearse and then share their work with families either in a virtual family celebration or in person.
Key Question: How can we share our learning with our community?
Summative Assessment: Presentation of public product (Individual and/or Team).