If you are looking for a guaranteed way to maintain meaningful instruction while still engaging all of your students this October, you should try a project-based learning activity. Project-Based Learning (PBL) activities have many inherent qualities that lend them to being excellent holiday activities.
When kids tackle a project-based learning task, it gives them an opportunity to work collaboratively, think critically, as well as fine tune their problem-solving skills. In addition, kids love being given choice. Allowing them to work with partners to on a PBL activity gives them many opportunities to make decisions and take control of their own learning. Lastly, PBL activities are easy to differentiate. Let’s face it, when things get crazy around Halloween, it becomes even harder to differentiate instruction for all students. PBL’s allow for quick and simple differentiation that does not take hours to prepare.
There are many great and amazing PBL learning units available that are ready to go with little or no-prep. This year, I decided to capitalize on my students love for the Hotel Transylvania movies and create a PBL unit where the kids are tasked with running a hotel for monsters. I am so excited about how it turned out! Within the unit, I included both a 5th and 6th grade version as well as a 3rd and 4th grade version.
If you want a guaranteed way to engage every one of your students this October, I would encourage you to give Project Based Learning a try. Feel free to grab my Monster Hotel unit or try out any of the other amazing PBL learning activities out there.
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