Winter Holiday Investigation...with a twist!

Let me be clear from the start - this was NOT a normal investigation.  It didn't grow out of students' interests, and their curiosities and questions did not lead the way.  Rather, this investigation grew out of the (slightly unexpected) success of our continued Thankful Thursday tradition, the goal of guiding students to think beyond themselves by considering the variety of winter holidays celebrated in our community, and by my current interest in learning through process FOR a purpose. 

This experience was all about helping kiddos recognize that everyone else isn't just like me, and that they don't celebrate the same way I do.  But they are still important, and their traditions and holidays and beliefs are important too. And since appreciating our school community members is a regular part of what we do each week, this project provided yet another opportunity for the first graders to grow their understanding of our community and make an impact.

It all started with the challenge of making and delivering a holiday greeting card to every teacher and staff member who helps us in the lower school.  We quickly realized that different people celebrate different winter holidays, so we had a lot of information to gather before we could get to work.

Thinking about light was a perfect place to begin because it's one of those things that unites so many of us (and our holidays) this time of year. We borrowed a great book about light within different religions from our librarian, and then dove into some torn paper art.

The mapping (names and locations of teachers and staff) and gathering of information began. In addition to finding out which (if any) winter holiday(s) each person celebrates, the kiddos decided to collect information about favorite colors too. 

As they started searching all over the school for various teachers, the real excitement (and sense of ownership and urgency) started to kick in.  

 

The information we gathered, along with a variety of winter holiday read-alouds, helped us learn more about some of the holidays celebrated in our building.

Once all our information had been gathered, they were finally ready to get to work on the cards. This crew of first graders produced 42 cards filled with love and personalized holiday wishes (and favorite colors too) in just 2 work periods.  Now that tells you some about the power of motivation and purpose!  

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I knew whatever information we learned about each holiday would be soon forgotten, but the bigger idea of all of this would hopefully not.  And that's what's so easy to forget when teaching little ones.  The content comes and go, but the enduring understandings are here to stay.  And when those enduring understandings come through the process of making an impact, they're all the more powerful.  Just check out all the smiles (given and received) below...

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This investigation (probably more appropriately titled a learning project) was one of my favorite teaching experiences EVER.  The excitement, energy, great conversations, community building, focus, and joy that went into this whole process were something special.  

So where does this leave me in terms of investigations vs. project based learning?  Well, I'm thinking somewhere right in the middle.  If I had just given the process an extra week or two, as we discovered new holidays we could have wondered about each of them and invited community experts to come answer our questions and teach us more...thus blending inquiry with the project based learning process. Or, I could have used the opportunity to develop student agency by empowering small groups of students to go through the inquiry/learning/teaching cycle about a winter holiday of their choosing. 

All that being said, the sense of purpose and excitement that came from the goal/challenge part of all this is definitely worth recreating in the future.  

One of these days maybe, just maybe, I'll find the perfect balance of it all...