The Project Approach In The Early Years Summary

What is the project approach? According to ProjectApproach.org, simply that; “The Project Approach refers to a set of teaching strategies that enable teachers to guide students through in-depth studies of real-world topics. Projects have a complex but flexible framework within which teaching and learning are seen as interactive processes” (ProjectApproach.org, n.d.). The project approach is designed for 3-year-olds and beyond. However, it can be used for toddlers, as well. While reading the book Young Investigators: The Project Approach in The Early Years, by Judy Harris Helm and Lilian G. Katz, I got the impression that this would be great teaching strategy do try with the preschoolers and how much fun it would be if I worked with them. I love investigating different
We have a center-wide curriculum, so I think that the project approach should almost be done organically with my toddlers. I think you can incorporate the project approach whenever a child has a question or shows interest in something. I do not think it has to be part of the “normal” curriculum. I had a child find a green ball about the size of a tennis ball on the playground. Another teacher wanted to throw it over the fence. I had stopped her and started to ask open-ended questions to the child about it, more and more children got interested in the object. Then the topic grew into us looking for more, touching it, drawing it, and finally opening it. It turned out to be a black walnut. We then took it a little further by walking around the grounds to see where it came from and if we could find any other strange seeds. Anything that we found we had brought into the classroom, so the children could play and experiment with. We took pictures of each step and the activity we had done and posted it in the room. The children could relive the experiences at any