Project work

Project work is but one aspect of teaching at the Charter, and yet, at some point of the year, it appears to take over everything else. At least that's what's happening in our 2nd/3rd grade class.

At the beginning of the year, teachers are engaging the children in a variety of experiences, often directly related to the natural world and/or artistic materials and/or community issues ... it's very open-ended, it seems. At some point, teachers begin to identify potentials for project work and continue homing in on a topic by providing experiences and provocations that directly respond to children's observations of prior experiences. It is very much in the spirit of the "ball toss" metaphor that Reggio offers - teachers and students collaborate in the emergence of curriculum.

In our classroom, it is all about BUGS. Bugs are everywhere - dead ones, live ones, small ones, bugs with wings, bugs with shed skin, bugs with more legs than one can count, bugs that lay eggs, bugs that hatch from those eggs, bugs from home, bugs from the school meadow, bugs that other classes bring to us ... BUGS!

In response to a lot of dramatic play around bugs, the teacher of the class decided to engage the children in a game of writing a play about their bugs. One morning, out of nowhere, there appeared a green box on her desk, titled: "How to Make a Play". We were stunned! It was as if the game was made just for the class.

It was, of course. As the teacher began to explain the game to the children, I was remembering our conversation earlier about what parameters to put on the game to make sure it had enough structure and enough provocation for creativity.

Slowly, but surely, I am seeing what this ball toss implies for the teacher... I am seeing how playful, open-ended, and almost celebratory this project work time is, and yet, how deeply it reaches into children's thinking:

If there were no bugs, the earth might not survive.

Don't step on bugs, because they're living creatures like you. We're both living creatures.

Bugs are us, we are bugs - What we do to the bugs affects us, too.


To contract this open-ended session, the teacher went on, after the game (which was part of "Project Work" on the schedule) to begin Reading with a mini-lesson on inferences, based on a folktale about a bug. A few days later, in the midst of a poetry unit in Writing, a poem about stink bugs emerges on the easel. Project work is everywhere!

What did John Muir say? Something along the lines of: Tug on anything, and you will find it is connected to everything else. So, also, is the network of learning.