landscapes, such as Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson, and Nana in the City, by Lauren Castillo. Ms. Gomez adds city-related informational texts like The Ultimate Book of Cities, by Anne-Sophie Baumann and illustrated by Didier Balicevic, to the classroom library for children to explore on their own or in small groups.
In addition, she adds butcher paper to the table, so the children can draw rivers and roads. She adds blocks for bridge construction. The children rearrange the city as they consider the needs of residents and add buildings like hospitals and libraries. The class revisits this focus on building the city each morning over four weeks. Ms. Gomez observes and documents throughout these experiences to monitor each child’ s engagement and growth related to their evolving understanding of cities and the needs of communities.
Family members visit during drop-off time to see and learn more about the city the children have built. The children share their work and celebrate their learning with their peers, teacher, and family members.
The vignette illustrates how a teacher guides a group of children through the three phases of the project approach. To begin the project, Ms. Gomez identified that the children were interested in how cities grow. She guided children through a KWL chart to determine what they already knew and what they would like to learn about cities. This highlights the importance of curricular goals and expectations as well as children’ s interests and experiences. It shows that teachers can attend to both as they plan and support children’ s active learning and critical thinking.
To develop the project, the children investigated the topic and worked to build a model city. Ms. Gomez supported their investigation by planning and implementing certain learning experiences and materials to address children’ s questions and the main learning goals. For example, she incorporated texts about cities and supplied materials( butcher paper, blocks) for building the city.
To conclude the project, children shared their work with their family members as they visited the classroom during drop-off time. They showcased new words, ideas, and skills that they had gained as a result of the project.
Ms. Gomez was intentional as she implemented the project approach to support children’ s learning. She knew the district’ s core literacy program well and was able to leverage it. She used her professional knowledge, immediate insights, and observations and documentation to provide fuel for the new project and to monitor how it was going. Ms. Gomez’ s curriculum included other approaches to working with her class, as suggested by Helm and colleagues( 2023). These range from“ less child initiation and decision making” to“ more child initiation and decision making” and include a“ teacher-instructed single concept, units, themes, and learning centers”( Helm et al. 2023, 17 – 18). Ms. Gomez supported the project through her classroom organization, interactions with children and families through documentation and verbal communications, and experience in curriculum development.
In early childhood education, projects like these provide an invitation for learning to children, their families, and their teachers. Although deeply rooted in the history of early childhood education, projectbased teaching and learning remain relevant and important today. Projects offer a springboard for jumping deeply into curriculum while maintaining children’ s interests, concerns, wonderings, and engagement at the heart of the learning process.
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