Project Approach Documentation

Parents and college students in Illinois State's Family and Consumer Sciences and Early Childhood Education programs keep up on children's project activities by viewing documentation panels created by teachers.

The panels reveal children's abilities and learning processes as they participate in activities. They also feature transcribed conversations that take place between children and teachers during key project activities.

Results of graphed surveys conducted by children are often displayed in hallway documentation. Such surveys relate to project topics. For instance, if studying pets, children would conduct a survey to determine the most frequent type of pet in their friends' families.

As part of Project Work, the teacher in the below photo records children's ideas so they can be referred back to later as their investigations expand.

Below left, campus carpenters serve as "expert visitors" for children doing Project Work on tree houses. . They two men were invited because they constructed our play yard's real tree house. Note tools displayed on the same table to help inform the children. The children prepared questions to ask the carpenters about tree house building prior to the visit.

The teacher on the right helps two children review questions they wanted to be answered.