Spread Kindness Like Confetti
                                                             By:  Casey Wollenzier  

Project at a Glance :
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This project focuses on spreading joy and kindness in the community. 
        
Driving Question:

​How can you spread joy and kindness in our community?            

Standards:

• Informational Reading standards 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, & 5.10 
• Speaking & Listening standards 5.1 B, C, & D, 5.4, & 5.5

Team / Culture Building: 

• Creative DNA protocol​​

Entry Event:

• Lock box activity

• Students will split into walking tours to view other cafeteria spaces. Have other buildings share their space using video clips. They could write a note to past principals? Ask other teachers, family, friends, and parents to send in short video clips of their work space eating areas so students can compare and do I wish, I like, I wonder on each space they view.

Stakeholders:

• Staff at Lakewood Elementary
• SAIL students at Lakewood

Empathy Building:

• Students will research organizations in Holland that sprinkle kindness . . . and Why we need more kindness and How could students make a difference in our community
• Create Empathy Maps for various stakeholders.
• Visualize what is like to be without a home or basic needs.  What is it like to be homeless. Are people who are struggling treated with kindness?

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• ​Create a list of places students have found that spread kindness.
• Develop a KWL Chart 
• Put parking lot posters up so students can add to them. 
• Invite speakers from organizations students found in their searches for students to interview. ​​

Incubation:

• Idea Quota protocol ​

• Brain Dump protocol-  to get an idea of what students are thinking.
• Complete a mini Critical Friends activity with another group.
• Encourage students to think big and without barriers.
• Dot Voting Protocol - This can be done on google drive. Students can come up with 50 solutions each. Then narrow and combine together. Leave with 15 top ideas. Then each students will be given t 5 dots to select  top 5 solutions. 

Checking in:

•  Check in twice a week and  when time permits.
• Students can share their ideas in groups and complete the protocol - I Wish, I Wonder for feedback.
• Create storyboards in teams of two of what they have learned so far and share these with the group.
• Chalk Talk - One large poster for each organization that visited us and students can list what they learned and add to it as we go and learn more.

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Solution Building:

• Idea Quota protocol
  
• Dot Voting

Critique and Revision: 

• ​Invite parents in to hear pitches and give feedback.
• Fireside Chat with top 3 ideas

Authentic Audience:

• Students will pick an organization who visited us the classroom to fundraise and pitch their idea.
• Potential stakeholders:  ​​Katie Taylor - Gateway Mission, Carol Rabineau- Red Cross, Kyle Szucs - Kids Food Basket, Shanna Vankempen - Community Action House, Ashton Vankoevering - Harbor Humane Society

Final Presentation:

• Students will take a field trip to the location they selected to use the money they raised and will pitch out how they chose to use that money in the selected organization to spread kindness.
• Teachers will serve more as coaches throughout the creative sequence so students are making the decisions and driving the solution.
• Use the NUF test to analyze final solutions.

Click here​ for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• ​Single Point Rubric -students reflect on the project
• Single Point Explanation
• Pitch template
  
• Students will reflect together using their own thoughts and the rubrics completed by the authentic audience. They can share what they felt they did well or what they think they would do differently in the future.​ ​

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:
Casey Wollenzier teaches 3rd - 5th grade Advanced Language Arts at Lakewood Elementary, West Ottawa Public Schools. 

     ¨You learn the work by doing the work.¨