Today we started Project Learning Tree! I really enjoyed all the activities we got to try out. I especially liked the Bird Race. We separated into two teams of four and did a sort-of relay trying to find our worms (pasta noodles) scattered in the grass. We could only pick up one at a time. The first round, we all picked orange, yellow, and red pasta noodles. The second round, I found one green one!
Our instructor talked about how we could use this activity for many different things. We could graph the amount of certain colors that we found. We could use it as a team-building exercise. We could talk about prey and predator relationships. We could even talk about camouflage! (Those green ones were hard to see!)
Definitely the coolest thing about Project Learning Tree is its many, many different applications. We can take just one lesson and activity in the book and stretch it into multiple content areas! This way of learning is more authentic, more genuine, for us (for me, especially). We don't break our activities or our knowledge down into such black and white categories as "subjects," we have broad understandings of interrelated ideas. I look forward to taking Curriculum Integration and being able to show off my fancy, new Project Learning Tree book and all its integrated content.
I can't wait to participate in everyone's lessons tomorrow!
PLT and our conversations about integration got me thinking for sure! I look forward to reading more of the book and thinking of creative ways to integrate fun science activities into everything.
ReplyDeleteSo excited you love the integrated curriculum of PLT. Just wait for Project WET. Awesomeness!
ReplyDeleteIf you have the chance, consider Project WILD and especially Project Growing UP Wild (early childhood, the curriculum defines integration and is phenomenal!)