Hooked Them! Project based learning - day one!

Today we launched our first day of PBL.   We have been working all summer on lessons to use with our second graders.   We decided to jump right in and start with our citizenship unit.    Our students will be researching what being an exemplary citizen means,  what they do,  what they DON'T do,  and comparing their role in the community to the role of a superhero.   They will be creating a digital presentation that includes some well known exemplary citizens, and highlights what they find to be the most important.    We had planned to have them present it to the student body at our school during a campus pep rally.  We backed our town mayor into a corner at convocation gently asked our town mayor to launch the project.

He very graciously accepted and joined us this morning at 8:00 (on his vacation none the less - the man is awesome).  Our kids were over the moon.   We practiced giving a respectable handshake,  making eye contact and greeting a guest.   Our kids dressed up (one lil man wore a suit and tie - be still my heart!). I think he might have been a little creeped out when he asked the kids what they knew about being the mayor and they answered things like,  "you have four kids",  "your wife's name is Amy",  "you used to live....".   What can I say, our kids did their research!  LOL!  He launched our project by explaining that he needed help teaching people about exemplary citizens and needed their help.   He even invited them to present their findings to the town council at city hall.   OMWord - they are so excited!   Our principal was awesome about it and said we would get them there.   I am so excited.   So tomorrow we begin researching and making plans.   I am really anxious to see what they come up with.   Let the journey begin!

 

 Our challenge brief: