Projects of Chicagoland 3Ed.Indd
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Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago Presents Projects of Chicagoland Successful Implementation of the Project Approach From Early Childhood Connections Participants Third Edition Edited by: Stephanie Bynum Ericka Farag Erika Gray Dave Judy Amelia Troutman Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago Presents Projects of Chicagoland Successful Implementation of the Project Approach From Early Childhood Connections Participants Third Edition Edited by: Stephanie Bynum Ericka Farag Erika Gray Dave Judy Amelia Troutman Projects of Chicagoland: Successful Implementation of the Project Approach From Early Childhood Connections Participants Available for download at www.kcmgc.org/projects First Edition Edited by: Erika Gray, Margaret Hanly, Annie Herriott, Dave Judy, and Mary Trieschmann Copyright © 2007 by Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago. All rights reserved. Second Edition Edited by: Erika Gray, Julie Minasian, and Mary Piñon Copyright © 2009 by Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago. All rights reserved. Third Edition Edited by: Stephanie Bynum, Ericka Farag, Erika Gray, Dave Judy, Amelia Troutman Copyright © 2018 by Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago. All rights reserved. Published by: Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago 2100 Patriot Boulevard Glenview, Illinois 60026 Layout and Design: Ross Bay; Updated by Maria Choronzuk Table of Contents PAGE PAGE Introduction . 1 Kindergarten Projects (continued) Centerbased Childcare Projects Horses. 82 Babies. 2 Exploring Ice Cream . 84 Bakery . 4 The Mail. 86 Boxes . 6 Pumpkin . 88 Buildings. 8 School Buses . 90 Drum . 10 Spiders . 92 Garbage . 12 Spiders . 94 Melon Madness. 14 Trees . 96 Our Pet Project . 16 Turtles . 97 Growth of Plants . 18 El Veterinarian . 99 Life at the Pond . 20 Worms . .100 Quilting. 22 First – Third Grade Projects Shoes Investigation . 24 Bicycles. 102 Vegetable Gardening . 26 Birds of Prey . .104 Our Wheel Project . 28 Building Houses . .106 Worms . 30 Instruments . 108 Prekindergarten Projects Pizza. .110 Aquarium . 32 Pizzeria . 112 Bakery . 34 Pond. .114 Bakery . 36 Post Office . 116 Our Investigation of Balls. 38 Post Office . .118 Beautiful Butterfly . 40 Radio and Sound . 120 Beauty Salon . 42 How Are Rocks Made?. .122 Birds of a Feather. 44 States of Water . .124 The Car . 45 Family Childcare Projects Car Wash . 47 Airplanes. 126 Clothing . 49 Bean . .128 Doctor. 51 The Summer of Cicada Adventures . 130 Dogs & Cats . 53 Learning About Corn . 132 Investigating Lucky Hamster . 55 Dogs . 134 The Hat . 57 Egg. 136 The House . 58 Life on a Farm . 138 Investigating Instruments . 60 Grocery Store. 140 Tools. 62 Horse . .142 How to Make Tortillas. 64 Plants . .144 The Train . 66 Playhouse . 146 Growing a Water Frog . 68 Shoe/Boot . .148 Worms . 70 Trees . .150 Kindergarten Projects Appendices Animal Habitats . 72 Appendix I: How to Create Thinkers . 152 Boat . 74 Appendix II: Resources. .154 Cooking . 76 Appendix III: List of Contributing Teachers . 156 Fire Truck . 78 Appendix IV: List of Supporters . 157 Going Green. 80 Board of Trustees Dear Friends, John F. Ball, Jr. CHAIRMAN Sheridan Turner, PRESIDENT & CEO For over 30 years, Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago has been a strong advocate of the project approach in early childhood education. As the only Kimberly Bors David Buhl institution in the Chicago area focusing exclusively on interactive exhibits and Lori Carlson Shannon Carstens programming for young children ages birth to 8, we have witnessed firsthand the Franco Cisternino power of complex play and the significance of enabling children to direct their Stephen Cummings Mayor Sam Cunningham own learning experiences. Our interactive environment of 17 hands-on exhibits Merri Dee encourages curiosity, creativity, and self-discovery, many of the key elements of the Kate DeLeeuw Alison Donnelly project approach. Mike Farrell Nancy Firfer Art Fogel By engaging children’s natural interests, steering them into in-depth explorations, Angela K Fontana Dan Gary and helping them embrace the learning process, the Project Approach has been Matt Gibbons Jon Glick a key element of the Museum’s Early Childhood Connections (ECC) program. Catherine LaPlante Guin Hundreds of classrooms and day care centers throughout the Chicagoland area Yulia Gurman John Hamill have partnered with the Museum through ECC to provide meaningful learning Tim Hannahs experiences, teacher training, and parent involvement for children at risk of Carrie Hughes Kathryn Ingraham academic failure from schools in low-income communities. Jennifer Keating Stephen Kohl Anthony Licata The following collection of projects is a direct result of the hard work, innovation Rusty Magner Bryan R. Malis and commitment of the Early Childhood Connections participants who have Sean McCracken embraced the project approach and have successfully integrated it into their Dawn Meiners Paul Melville curriculum. I encourage you to find inspiration from these projects with the hope Carl Rutstein Brian Schuster that you will begin to implement the approach into your own settings. Erinn Siegel Greta Suss Paul Sutenbach Enjoy changing the future! Karen Tamley Claudia Temple Michael A. Tobin Sincerely, Nilofer Umar Dan Verdeyen Rachel Winer EX OFFICIO BOARD FELLOW: Alex Romero-Wagner Sheridan Turner CHAIR EMERITUS: President and CEO Frederick H. Waddell PAST CHAIR: Paul Sutenbach FOUNDER & LIFE TRUSTEE: Dolores Kohl LIFE TRUSTEES: Thomas Donahoe Diana Mendley Rauner, Ph.D. John J Schornack W. Fritz Souder Introduction Kohl Children’s Museum of Greater Chicago has trained over 1400 early childhood teachers working with children at risk of academic failure on the Project Approach in the Chicagoland area since 2001. The underlying principles of the Early Childhood Connections program are grounded in the Museum’s belief that children learn best when they are engaged, motivated, intrinsically curious and most of all, having fun. The program utilizes the project approach, which encourages children to formulate questions, seek out and discover answers, consider their findings and form conclusions. In this environment, teachers become the facilitators of learning rather than distributors of knowledge. It also encourages all children to explore and learn in their own way as well as fostering the development of critical thinking, cooperation and communication skills. Early Childhood Connections is designed to achieve the following goals: • To increase the use of the project approach and developmentally appropriate practices in classrooms and childcare settings serving children at risk of academic failure ages 3-8; • To increase the positive attitudes of teachers and childcare providers toward project approach learning; • To provide parents with opportunities to play an active role in their children’s education. The Early Childhood Connections Program provides several critical components: professional development for teachers and childcare providers created by Dr. Judy Harris Helm, world-renowned expert in the Project Approach; focused field trips to the Museum; resources and support in the Project Approach; parent/child in-school activities; family celebrations; and family memberships for future Museum visits. The training component consists of three full professional development workshop days conducted in the fall, winter and spring of each school year. Each participating educator conducts one or more projects in their classrooms and childcare settings during the year of training and has opportunities to share their successes and challenges with their peers. Throughout the past seventeen years, the Museum has been assessing the program using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Through collaboration with Dr. Jan Perney, Emeritus Professor, National-Louis University, we have concluded that through the rigorous standard of a pre- and post-test control group design, and controlling for initial differences between the intervention and control groups, there is evidence that the Early Childhood Connections Program is producing statistically significant and practically meaningful positive changes in educators’ attitudes toward the Project Approach and an increase in the use of developmentally appropriate methods and strategies by early childhood educators. The Project Approach is a valuable tool for learning. It is our hope that the following projects will motivate early childhood professionals to begin to implement this approach into the everyday lives of their classrooms, centers or homes. Introduction | Page 1 Babies A project by children 2 – 3 years old Easter Seals Gilchrist Marchman, Chicago, Illinois Length of Project: 2 ½ months Educator: Theresa Caballero Beginning the Project In the beginning, my co-teacher and I noticed that there was a lot of baby play in the dramatic play area. Along with a few children talking about babies and asking questions about babies. The class started with a web and used the web to find out what the children knew and wanted to know. The children had basic knowledge: babies cried, drank bottles, and were brothers or sisters. Their questions were: Why do babies cry? Why do they only drink bottles? Why don’t babies eat regular food? I was unsure if they would be able to investigate on their own. Phase One Phase Developing the Project During phase two, we had a few investigations take place. The investigation the children enjoyed the most was how much urine a diaper could hold. Each child got to pour a cup of water into a diaper. After they poured their cup