Castle Dreams
5/11/2019
This week was full of castle dreams. Our sweet little ones have been excited to build and sleep in the castle since the beginning of school. Throughout the year, I have been asked almost weekly about when we would be building the castle and having our sleepover. Now that it's time to build, our engineers couldn't be more excited. I framed the project with the question, "How can we, as engineers, build a castle out of cardboard that we can play and sleep in?" Of course, if you're going to build a castle, you need to study castles! Our engineers have been busy studying castle books. We took a look at what castles historically included: walls, weapon rooms, and guardhouses for protection, dungeons, stables, kitchens, great halls, and bedrooms (among other things). Then, we had to think about what we would need to do in the castle: eat, sleep, play, and take care of horses and other animals. We would need to make space for all of these things within the castle in our classroom. Our little ones worked hard this week to make individual plans and then provide each other with feedback so they could refine those plans and make them even better. It also provided the opportunity for us to talk about the constraints of our building material and available building space. Some of their elaborate three-story bunk beds and spiraling staircases would need to be reimagined and redesigned. After refining their plans, they chose their favorite parts from their individual plans to combine into one castle plan in small groups. It truly melted my teacher heart to see them pouring excitedly over their designs and working together to include each other's ideas and dream up their castle. Next week, we build! It is always so fun to bring their dreams to life. This project, which is also kindergarten's spring "trip," is one of the many reminders of why I love teaching at PNA. Students are motivated and excited because building a life-sized cardboard castle with your classmates is PURE FUN, but the entire project is framed around standards, such as engineering and comparing life in the past to life now, and refining important soft skills, such as communication, collaboration, social-emotional and community building. It's just another example of the beauty of PBL... and PNA. (Each class at PNA goes on a Spring Trip together, which is a truly wonderful community building and bonding experience for students that also helps them gain independence and confidence.)
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Saania AliMs. Ali graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. She specializes in Early Childhood Education, ESL, and Special Education. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, and painting! Archives
April 2021
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