PBH Kids

Sharing self-directed kid projects — see Project-based-homeschooling.com to learn more about mentoring kids to be self-directed learners & to submit projects to share

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Baking project by Fionna, age 8

Fionna started a baking project — read more about it here!

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Fox Encyclopedia, by Ella, age 9

Ella spent nearly a year studying foxes, and she filled our home with drawings of foxes and stuffed foxes she sewed. A couple of months ago, she decided she wanted to write a book about different types of foxes. She used a pack of index cards to take notes from a variety of library books and websites and she saved images of foxes in a folder on my computer desktop. When she finished gathering notes, I asked her to take a look at some of her other reference books to see how they were arranged and to decide how she might like to organize her own book. She settled on a title page, a table of contents, an “about foxes” page, pages for each of the fox species she learned about, and a page at the end to show where she got her information.

After a quick tutorial on how to use some of the formatting features in the word processor, she set out to type all of her notes.  She began with the “about foxes” page, then moved on to the species pages. I asked her if she wanted all of those pages to look alike, and then asked how she could do that. She made all of the decisions and executed all of the formatting on her project. I only asked questions from time to time and showed her how to do things if she asked for help.

Once she had all of the text typed and formatted, she created a separate document for her table of contents and another one for her title page. Then she inserted the photos she collected, and I reminded her that she needed to attribute each to the source where she found them. So she added attribution captions to each.  Next, I helped her scan some of her drawings and upload her own photos, since she included pages for her stuffed fox, its puppies that she sewed, and our dog, who looks a bit like a fox. I fully support an author’s creative license!

Then came the bibliography.  I helped her out by printing a sample online, so she could see how to cite websites (she already had a little experience with citing books in a class earlier this year).  In the process, she realized she had forgotten to write some of the information on her index cards, so she went back to the web sites and books to get the missing items.

She printed the title page on cardstock, printed the rest of the pages on regular paper, and used my ProClick to bind her book.  The weekend after she finished the project, she had a chance to show the book to our extended family at a gathering.  Now it sits proudly on our shelves with the rest of our reference books.

Fox and den made out of clay

A costume Ella sewed for her stuffed fox

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Human body project by Jack, age 4

Jack wanted to know all about the digestive system. Here are some of the things he’s worked on:

drawings of the digestive system – how food travels through the body

labeling drawings – learning proper terms like oesophagus

paintings

pretend play — doctors

clay modelling of the intestines — he was particularly interested in how they made poop

working with his organ torso “Organ Man” — talking about each organ (oesophagus, stomach, liver, large intestines, small intestines, bowel) and putting them in order

we took a trip to the National Science Museum where Jack was able to ask lots of questions to the staff and investigate lots of different animal skeletons.

Read more about Jack’s project (and see more photos) here: Studying the Human Body: A child-led project @ An Everyday Story

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Wildlife park project by Ruaraidh, age 5

Ruaraidh has been interested in wildlife parks, and in particular wildlife parks with trains or at least drive-round areas, for just over a year now.

He started with an interest more in the map of the wildlife park than in the actual park itself, but his interest in the animals took off from there.

He visits the parks occasionally, and he spends pretty much all of his free time either setting up wildlife parks (either replicas of those he visits, or new ones from his imagination), reading leaflets and brochures about them, or drawing his own maps and leaflets for them.

He draws some really great, detailed maps, and his writing has really developed through this because his maps always have a key. His spelling is mostly phonetic, but through his map-making he has learned the correct spellings for some of the words he uses.

He has also learned loads about the animals. In fact, I’ve learned about loads of animals from him! His parks usually include things like goral, mishmi takin, Himalayan tahr, and Przewalski’s horses — things I’d never heard of before!

He is also learning about different parts of the world through understanding about the difference between things like a North American bison and a European Bison.

His project is also helping him learn to tell time. He sets up a wildlife park and then has to drive the train at certain times of day. He changes his clocks after every train journey to show when the next train will leave.

Here’s a link to a video we made, with his commentary. It’s a replica of East Links Family Park — a wildlife park near us. There’s a narrow-gauge railway there (see his reference to “naroy gaij rail wai” on some of the pictures!) and the train driver does a commentary as he goes ’round just as R does here.

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Holt Green LEGO project by Malachi, age 7

First I read some books, then I went to Holt Green.  I took some pictures and measured the Green.  I built the lego Holt Green and then I made a video of it.

Click any of the pictures to see Malachi’s video!

Quotes from the video:

“I didn’t have enough bricks to make the Holt Green twenty times smaller, so we made it forty times smaller.”

“I measured the Green and took pictures and I used the measuring tape. I put the flower pots in front of the memorial because to remember people having fought people and dying in the war. And I decided to make some buildings real and some building imaginary because I thought it was good and people would like it.”

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Papier-maché mountain for LEGO minifigs

Check out this post about the making of a LEGO minifig-scale papier-maché mountain:

The Evolution of a Mountain, Phase I

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Minecraft flowcharts by Samuel, age 12

The flowcharts are diagrams I make when I’m away from the machine of things I want to build. Drawing these diagrams helps me figure out my plans and cement the plans into my brain. I don’t really need to use the plan once I’ve drawn it out. The crafting recipes are ideas for items I’d like to add to the game and how I think they would be crafted.

Click on the flowcharts to read more.

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Dinosaur project by Sam, age 4

“Go to the doctor for a checkup. Upon leaving, tell the receptionist that you'd really prefer a dinosaur sticker to the cartoon character she is offering you. Receive a handful of dinosaur stickers from her … Immediately flip through the stack of stickers and discover one that you don’t know (called Herrerasaurus). Clap your hands in delight and drop all the stickers on the floor. Put Herrerasaurus on your shirt and struggle with the pronunciation by reading it upside down all the way home. (There are just so many ‘R’s’ in that word.)

Upon arriving home, demand to use the iPad to look up Herrerasaurus. Work through naptime and into dinnertime reading about this creature. Pull out the globe to find out where South America (specifically Argentina) is so you can draw a map of it. Draw a map of Argentina in your notebook and put a picture of Herrerasaurus next to it…then add two other dinosaur species that you know came from Argentina.

Move all your stuff from the living room floor to the laundry room because your little sisters are ‘distracting’ you. Jot down as many facts about the species as you can find in the margins of the picture. Pull your dad away from his dinner to show him your maps and facts.

Begin making plans to make a big map of Argentina with all its dinosaurs on it, ‘way bigger’ than your notebook...then decide you will make a similar map of China, then Africa, then the WHOLE WORLD with dinosaurs all over it occupying the modern-day countries where their fossils have been found.

Reluctantly agree to go to bed (late), then stay up way past bedtime reading a dinosaur reference book by the glow of a tiny nightlight at the head of your bed. Come running out of your room screaming and waving the book when you find an entry on Herrerasaurus hidden in the middle of its pages. As you are being tucked back in, tell your awestruck mother that your brain ‘is going to explode with happiness about Herrerasaurus because it is just…so…exciting.’”

Read more at Surviving Our Blessings: Project-based homeschooling: My conversion moment

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Bake sale project by Vivian, age 7

Vivian saw a neighbor girl selling homemade books and got the idea of having a bake sale at our house.

Together we wrote down what was needed to put on a bake sale. She decided the menu with considerations for practicality. During the week, we baked an item a day for the freezer so that it wouldn't be overwhelming.

On the day of the bake sale, she made signs and tacked them up and down the street. She set up the table, got her change ready, and waited.

It was slow at first. The first customer was a neighbor we hadn't met yet. The sale turned out to be a big hit in the neighborhood. Lots of sales and even some excitement with an exuberant golden retriever — no worries, his family paid for the cake and I managed to extract the plastic wrap from his throat!

She now wants to have a sale once a month and I think the neighbors would be amenable to this. She says that if she does this once a month, she'll be able to make a cake without any help by the time she is 8, which is in six months.

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WWII plane project by Theodore, age 10

I’ve been studying the P-40 Warhawk. It first flew in 1938 and was used a lot in the Pacific during WWII. They made over 13,000 of these planes between 1938 and 1944, all in Buffalo, New York.

During WWII, the P-40s shot down 1,000 Japanese planes and only 13 American pilots died. I like this plane because each wing has a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on it.

I decided to build a model of the P-40 because I liked it so much. Building a model isn’t easy but it isn’t hard either. I learned how to use just enough glue but not so much that the pieces melted. I learned how to paint it and my dad helped me blend paint colors to get just the colors we wanted. I wanted my model to look like a real plane that had been flown so I used paint to age the model. If you thin out white paint and apply it as a dry wash, it helps make the model look aged. You can also water down black paint and apply it to the wheels so it looks like oil and stuff.

It was a lot of fun to study the P-40, to research the different paint schemes, and choose one to make my model look exactly like I wanted.

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Plants and seeds project by Ned, age 6

I am planting lots of seeds. Here are the seeds I have planted so far: avocado, red bell pepper, tomato, lemon, basil, and flowers.

I am planting all these seeds to make the earth a better planet.

I like to cut up vegetables from my fridge and collect the seeds. Then, I watch a video on youtube to find out how to plant the seed. Sometimes I have to let the seeds dry and then I can germinate them.

Here is how you set up a germination station. First, get a plastic box with a clear lid. Then, get a wet paper towel and fold it. Then, put the seeds in the plastic box after you cover the bottom with the wet paper towel. Last, you fold the towel over the seeds. Put the lid on and put the box somewhere sunny. Wait for the seeds to get roots and then plant them in a plastic or Styrofoam cup with soil.

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Minecraft project by Garvey, age 10

I started off by thinking it was interesting to build a giant pencil in Minecraft. Then I started building more giant everyday objects like forks and spoons.

My mom told me there were artists out there that actually made sculptures like the ones I was doing in minecraft. I googled it and discovered that the artist Claes Oldenberg was a pop artist who made larger than life everyday objects.

I went to the library and found some books on pop art and Claes Oldenberg, too. Then I started thinking about building my own real life sculptures and since I like minecraft I decided to build Steve. That led to a wither, a zombie, a creeper, and a magma cube.  The sculptures are undergoing construction still, but I hope to finish them soon.

  Right now, I’m also working on building an entire city in minecraft.

I've been reading forums on city planning in minecraft and I've also been researching real life city planning.

I'm working on building a strong government and economy for my town. I am planning on having houses, apartments, shops (grocery, restaurants, malls), a town hall, schools (3 elementary, 1 middle, 1 high, and 1 college), roads, a power plant along with some renewable energy like wind turbines and solar panels. I will also have fire and police stations. I want to have open space like parks, too. Farms on the outskirts of town will sell community supported agriculture shares to the town citizens.

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Minecraft project by Justin, age 8

This was Justin’s first year homeschooling. He is 8 and has a passion for creating things — anything! Justin LOVES legos, but our puppy has made that a challenge over the last year so he has spent more time building on Minecraft.

In October, he created his own idea for a Steve costume and carried a box that looked like a Minecraft chest that he made for Halloween. His excitement, planning and creativity around this costume, led to an idea…

I decided to incorporate his love of Minecraft into school to see where he would take it. Justin first made a vocabulary list of words for Minecraft including biome, lava, mountains, skeleton, lapis lazuli, diamonds and learned about each word.

When he learned about biomes he did an experiment called “biome in a baggie”. He grew wheat grass in yogurt cup in a sealed bag on the windowsill. When the grass grew he then “dressed” the yogurt cups as Minecraft Steve and a Minecraft tree.

One of the Social Studies units this year was about the Alaskan Inuits. Justin created a Minecraft igloo using specifications he read about, and then a sugar cube igloo to match it.  He studied tundras and polar regions and climates. He did build his original Minecraft igloo on snow, but for this photo he used darker blocks as the backdrop so the igloo would be able to be seen better in his screen capture.

Justin then decided he wanted to learn a little about how Minecraft was programmed, so I set him up on Khan Academy and he started to learn some basic code. His first project was a Minecraft Creeper.

This then led to wanting to create his very own website to help other kids use Minecraft to create fun and unique things. He did an outline of what he wanted to include and we set him up to create his own site http://coolminecraftdude.weebly.com/. He then learned how to do screen capture videos of his Minecraft worlds and edit and them (he only has one on the site as he also learned that our computer was very slow!). His goal is to continue to add to the website as he learns new Minecraft information that he would like to share with other kids.

The website has really helped his typing and editing skills in a way that was much more fun for him than some of the typing programs he had been exposed to before. It was wonderful to watch him incorporate his love of Minecraft into different parts of his curriculum and dig a little deeper each time (no pun intended!).

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Minecraft project by O, age 6

O says that if you like building things and enjoy battling monsters, then Minecraft is for you.

O likes to play Minecraft with friends, family, on kid-safe servers with other super crafters, and even on the beach.

In January, O decided that he wanted to create his own version of Minecraft. He sketched pages of monsters, abilities, and costumes that he wanted to add to the current version of the game. He decided to learn about programming starting with Scratch, and a few iPad apps. 

He also made real-life replicas of his favorite objects from the game: an improvised TNT timers using string and a balloon (it worked!), a creeper plushie with a sound device, and Lego versions of his worlds.

O's Dad likes Minecraft too, and was O's first companion in the game. Later, he set up a server so that O and his friends could play together remotely using the chat function to communicate, or even FaceTime or Google+ when they want to talk. Friends in town stop in to play. It's awesome how many people know about Minecraft!

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Anatomy project, by Henry, age 5

This is my anatomy project! It’s inside my sister’s body. Anatomy is interesting. My favorite part of the human body is the brain. Your brain makes you talk and run! It makes you do everything, even your heart beating and your blood flowing around your body.

So far in my model I have a brain, eyes, an esophagus, a heart, a stomach, and intestines. I still need to add a bladder, liver, and lungs. I am going to make some blood out of red glitter glue.

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Give a Goat project by G, age 4

G is raising money to give a goat through Heifer International. She is doing chores around the house and now she is making and selling notecards!

Read more about her project here: {PBL} Give a Goat Project | amy hood arts

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NaNoWriMo experience, by Ella, age 9

NaNoWriMo is a month when 300,000 kids and adults write novels in November.  NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.

I did NaNoWriMo because I thought it would be fun. I like setting goals and breaking down goals into smaller ones.

I did NaNoWriMo the way I wanted to do it.  No word count goal; no time limit. I quit my story, but only for the sake of it. I quit because it was boring and the supposed-to-be-cool part was silly. You don’t have to finish your story if it gets boring or silly, but please try to finish it.

Here is what I didn’t like about my story. As i read my story, I found it copied the plot of my favorite series, Warriors.  It also had way too many characters. Next time I do NaNoWriMo (if there is a next tIme) I will make it up as i go, not copy other books, have one main character, and write about my favorite animal at the time.

If writing a novel sounds fun, try NaNoWriMo.  I suggest you make your own rules.

Happy Writing!