What it means to stay healthy

First graders have been discovering and learning what it means to stay healthy in their first Project Based Learning unit entitled "Our Healthy Selves".  As part of this unit, students have had guest speakers who have lent their knowledge in a range of topics including healthy snacks, dealing with injuries, utilizing yoga for stretching and relaxing purposes, teamwork, sportsmanship, heart healthy exercises, plus more to come.  The activity spotlighted in this article shows students interviewing upper school students.  First graders were trained to use iPads with an interviewer's perspective.  Student groups took turns sharing jobs within their groups:  videographer/interviewer, recorder of responses, and assistant.  Each class was researching a different question:

• Ms. Harpole's class:  How many days do you exercise?
• Mrs. Vey's class:  What is your favorite healthy snack?
• Mr. Lemoine's class:  How do you stay healthy?

Students prepared for this activity in the classroom by brainstorming all possible responses, generating a tally sheet with those potential responses, and practicing each role so they would be fully prepared.  From this activity, students learned cooperative learning skills by sharing roles and making decisions together, utilization of technology for research purposes (especially the video functions of iPads), and analysis of results to better understand how others stay healthy.
 
During the actual interviewing session, students were excitedly engaged in getting responses from upper school students.  They were genuinely energetic and focused on what they could learn.  It was exciting to see the students grow in confidence the more they practiced each role in their group.  When a problem occurred, they worked as teams to problem solve and continue the group's mission.  

For teachers, this allowed the integration of technology, speaking, and listening skills.  It was a fantastic opportunity to observe each child in action and see them from a different perspective out in the open rather than in the classroom.  Students were courageous and took chances to ensure they were able to get respondents.  Teachers gained a greater knowledge of their students from this activity, and this knowledge will be used to guide decision making for future activities.
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Students created bar graphs after compiling data from upper school interviews.  Moving forward, students will be analyzing their results and drawing conclusions about upper school students in regard to how they stay healthy.  First graders will be analyzing their videos with the help of Mr. McCrary to choose their best for uploading to the classroom Seesaw blog.  This will allow parents to view their child's best interview and see their progress in the areas of technology use as well as speaking skills. A culminating activity to go along with the project will be a video showcase with Mr. MrCrary where students will present their videos and findings to the class.