Project-based lessons

I am so glad that Atomic Learning finally got us up and working. Once I got into the project- based lesson sectionI tried to search for K-2 lessons, but none were found, so I viewed two 3-5 grade lessons that I thought could be adapted to my second grade classroom.

The first one I viewed was an Excel project called Breakfast Nutrition. This one caught my eye because we do a unit on nutrition in second grade. The tutorial began by giving some wonderful tips on Internet research and how to conduct an in depth search. It gave tips on which were good and bad resources and how to bookmark your favorite websites. I thought the first few clips would be a great resource to show teachers in a staff development. It would show the basics of research. Then the Excel tutorial began. It went step by step showing how to set up the spreadsheet for a Nutrition research project using nutrition labels brought in by students. The actual project was a little advanced for my students, but I could definitely use the idea and modify it for second grade. I think I would have to go in and set up the Excel sheet with all the cells titled and organized and then save that on the public drive for all students to access and use as a template. The students would then have to use their nutrition labels to fill in the remaining cells. I could then show them how to use the formula tools or even show a clip from atomic learning to show them exactly how to use the SUM function. I think this would be a great culminating activity at the end of our nutrition until. I am going to share this with the rest of my team using Atomic Learning, to see what they think.

The second project I watched was using Kidspiration. I have not used this in my classroom and after viewing this project, I think it would be so easy and fun to use. The project I watch was called the Four Seasons. Once again the tutorial went step by step which was very easy to follow. I was thinking as I viewed it that I could use this in the computer lab when all my students are logged into a computer as a teaching tool. I could show clips from the Atomic Learning project for my students to follow along with. I would like to play around in Kidsiration to see what other thinking maps I could use.

I like the project-based lesson and found them very informative. I can see myself using these in the future for myself and with my students.