Project Based Learning in First Grade: I've learned a few things about PBL after a decade teaching in the early grades. These are the tenets I follow.

2. 1.Inquiry
2.Research
3.Representing their knowledge
Project Based Learning (PBL) in the early grades
follow three basic steps:

3. Inquiry in 1st
Grade means
asking the right
questions.

4. Drawing on the background knowledge of your 6 & 7 year olds will
force you to be flexible in your teaching. Sometimes you have to
abandon your plan and let the project flow in unknown directions.

5. Be interested in your students’ ideas.You may not always un-
derstand the direction your inquiry questions will take your
students, but keep asking questions.

6. Research in
early grades
can take many
forms: books,
iPad apps,
video, conver-
sations, and
experiences.
Water ecology research in Austin.

7. Talking through concepts
gives all students the ability
to be experts, play with new
ideas, and contribute to the
whole classroom discussion.
In this case, my class de-
cided to write a book so
that everyone could feel
comfortable talking about
their feelings.

8. Students representing their knowledge of the inquiry question.
Learning is messy and sometimes loud.

9. Representing what
they have learned can
take days or months.
There isn’t usually a
timeline needed. The
kids will direct them-
selves to completion
with you as the guide.

10. Completed
projects are
shared, often
beyond our
classroom.

11. Be Prepared
1.First Graders get real, really fast. We’ve creat-
ing projects about slave trade, the death of Nel-
son Mandela, gay rights.
2.Surround yourself with literature and kid-
friendly ways to research.
3.You can still teach state standards are create
projects. No discipline is to complex for PBL.