It's Scrapbooking time!!!

Have I ever told you that I find teaching Social Studies very difficult?  I have?  My fiancé tells me all the time that I repeat the same stories over and over again!...  Ugh!  Well, I' m going to talk about it again anyway.  I find teaching Social Studies SO difficult!  So I have being trying really hard to find engaging ways to teach content that is just about impossible to make exciting.

Most of you who know me also know that I LOVE scrapbooking, and I LOVE the Cricut I got for Christmas from my lovely fiancé!  So, I thought I'd bring the art of scrapbooking to school to help me in my teaching and to motivate me to teach a subject that I have always found slightly boring...  Until now!  Here`s what happened:

The grade 3s have to learn about urban and rural communities and grade 4s have to learn about Canadian provinces and regions.  When I was in grade 4, I remember getting a blank map of Canada and copying the provinces that my teacher was writing on the overhead projector... Yawn!  I remember going home and memorizing them and repeating them over and over in my head until I have to spit them back out on a quiz the following week.  Then, I remember forgetting everything.  Some students may have remembered the information, but for me, memorizing was not the best way to learn or remember anything. 

Anyway, back to 2013!  I made up child-friendly checklists with different information that the students had to find and put into a SCRAPBOOK!

I then told them that they could use the computers, the iPad, my iPhone (it`s in a VERY protective Otterbox case), the computer/SMART Board and different books in the school to find this information and display in their own scrapbook.  It can be displayed any way they like.  I was afraid that the kids would think "Geeze, what an old lady...  She wants us to scrapbook?  What's next?  KNITTING?".  Luckily, most of the kids were intrigued.  A couple weren't too sure, but I hope that as they get working on this project, a love for scrapbooking will grow within them!  Wow, I do love this hobby a little too much! 

What REALLY got the kids was when I took out the fun paper!  I LOVE paper!!!

So far, this project has been successful.  My class contains students with a wide variety of learning needs and styles (as do most classes), and I'm really hoping that this type of project and learning will provide them with enough freedom that they can approach it in a way that suits them.  While all of the research (one of my favourite words, accoring to my lovely fiancé... Ugh!) is happening, I'm going around from group to group or individual to individual checking up on them, assisting them, and even scribing for some!  I love that this project gives me loads of time to work one-on-one with students that really need that individual attention. 

I have learned so much about my students from this project!  They are brilliant!  I already knew that but, they blow me away all the time!  Their research skills are incredible already, and I certainly can't take all of the credit for that.  They are such disciplined, determined, skilled and knowledgeable kids!  Some of my students are more advanced than others, and this project is making them shine because they are challenging themselves by finding more details, by adding information that I didn't even ask for and by taking their scrapbook to a whole other level! 

I don't know if this is the "right" way to teach Social Studies, but so far, this has been a successful approach and I can't wait to see everyone's final product!  I will update you on it and will confirm whether or not this project-based learning approach worked in a few weeks when the projects are complete.  I have heard and read a whole lot about project-based learning and have discussed it with coworkers, including my very talented fiancé, and I think it's amazingly effective if you are there to guide and support the students the whole way through.  I am confident that my students will complete this project, having learned something new, while feeling supported and having had a great time learning it!