At St Joseph’s Lower Primary School, the last day of the school term saw a culmination of many weeks of hard work being celebrated in a family fun day. For the past few weeks the year 2 children have been working on their Project Based Learning ‘Playgrounds’ theme.
The children were presented with a challenge – to see how they could improve their playground. After many discussions and much research, including visits to parks and other playgrounds, they came up with the idea of buying new equipment for their playground. However, there was an obstacle to cross … equipment costs money.
The idea was then formed to hold a school fete with a twist. The children would design and create all the games for their fete by reusing and recycling old furniture, cardboard, plastic pots and bottles and even an old school fence! The children had so much fun designing and creating these games. They made their own posters to advertise the fete too.
Finally, the end of term came and all their hard work paid off. Family members all came to support the children’s fundraising efforts (and have some fun and cake too!).
The fete was an amazing success thanks to all the children and their family members, staff who baked cakes for the cake stall, volunteers who helped out on the day and many local businesses that donated amazing prizes for the raffle. The year 2 children now have a new challenge for term 3 – using their funds to budget and analyse costs, and to discuss and agree on what playground equipment should be purchased.
This term’s project enabled the children to cover a plethora of activities, investigations and experiments in a very meaningful way, developing their critical thinking, teamwork and problem solving skills and self-confidence. These real world engagements promote key 21st Century Skills whilst also having lots of fun.
ENDS
