Keep students on track as winter holidays approach by including seasonal project-based learning (PBL) in your plans! The holiday season can be a time when students lose interest in classes, but it’s actually a great time to build enthusiasm around PBL. Acknowledge the excitement of the season and build those 21st Century Skills with fun projects like planning parties and making gifts.
- Engage younger kids by letting them discuss their favorite holidays. Prompt them to think critically and communicate by asking them to think about what the different holidays mean and what days they would want to be holidays. This activity can include learning about holidays celebrated around the world.
- Get students focused on hands-on learning with these Let it Glow holiday cards. These are a perfect activity for several grade levels and are a fun way to make a holiday gift or prepare for a card exchange with classmates.
- Another way to work Math Standards into holiday PBL is planning a holiday party. Students can go through the process of planning a party or cookie exchange for their entire class. Or, instead of planning a real party, ask students to figure out how to plan a holiday dinner for their families.
- Lots of projects can be reimagined with a holiday theme. For example, if you want to get your students using tools, Modular Picture Frames can make a terrific gift and strengthen measurement, engineering, and design skills!
- If you’re looking for something less focused on holidays, consider a winter-themed project. Thinking about changing seasons is a great Pre-K to 1st grade project that can also be used to develop critical-thinking and communication skills. Also, this Sphero Olympic ski jumping project helps students at various grade levels learn about angles and speed.
Don’t let your PBL progress fall by the wayside when students start thinking about winter break. There are tons of project ideas that can feed off of that excitement. And next year, get a jump on winter projects by trying out a Flickering Jack-o-Lantern!