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Pre-k Grade  Project 9 weeks

Wacky Wednesday Adventure Quest

Brooke H
Updated
VA:Cn10.1.PKa
P-SCI.1a
P-SCI.5a
IT-ATL.7c
P-SCI.2a
+ 11 more
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Purpose

Children investigate new community places by using their eyes, ears, and bodies to notice, describe, and represent what they experience. The project begins with a Wonder Walk Kickoff and continues through short weekly field explorations where children practice observing, using new descriptive words, dramatic play, and simple recording through drawings, collected items, and photos in Community Passports. As they revisit the essential question, “How can we explore a new place with our eyes, ears, and bodies?”, they build belonging, communication, and early science-and-arts habits by sharing what they noticed and reflecting with a sticker on the class chart after each outing.

Learning goals

Children will use their eyes, ears, and bodies to explore new places and answer the question, “How can we explore a new place with our eyes, ears, and bodies?” They will practice noticing and naming what they see, hear, and touch, using new descriptive and science words with adult support. Children will document each field experience in Community Passports by drawing, gluing collected items, or adding photos, then reflect by marking whether they explored with eyes, ears, or body on a class chart. Through shared walks, scavenger hunts, dramatic retelling, and short conversations, they will build communication, collaboration, belonging, and confidence in trying new experiences.

Standards
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cn10.1.PKa - Explore the world using descriptive and expressive words and art-making.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.1a - (36 to 48 Months) Uses the five senses to observe objects, materials, organisms, and events. Provides simple verbal or signed descriptions. With adult support, represents observable phenomena, such as draws a picture.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.5a - (36 to 48 Months) With adult support, engages in simple investigations and experiments, such as building a "bridge" out of classroom materials and seeing how many dolls it will hold before it collapses. Records data with teacher assistance, mostly using pictures and marks on a page.
  • [Head Start] IT-ATL.7c - (16 to 36 Months) Participates in new experiences, asks questions, and experiments with new things or materials, such as collecting leaves and pinecones in the fall.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.2a - (36 to 48 Months) Begins to use scientific vocabulary words with modeling and support from an adult. Sometimes repeats new words offered by adults.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Pr6.PK.a - With prompting and support, engage in dramatic play or a guided drama experience (e.g., process drama, story drama, creative drama).
  • [Head Start] P-SE.11a - (36 to 48 Months) Communicates feeling a sense of belonging to family and an emerging sense of connections to other communities through words or other forms of expression, such as drawing a picture of their family or sharing a special object related to their cultural heritage.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.2b - (48 to 60 Months) Uses a greater number of scientific vocabulary words. Repeats new words offered by adults and may ask questions about unfamiliar words.
  • [Head Start] P-SE.11b - (48 to 60 Months) Has a sense of belonging to family and community and communicates details about these connections, such as sharing a story about a family gathering, both spontaneously and when prompted by an adult or other child.
  • [Head Start] P-LC.6a - (36 to 48 Months) Shows a rapid increase in acquisition of new vocabulary words that describe actions, emotions, things, or ideas that are meaningful within the everyday environment. Uses new vocabulary words to describe relations among things or ideas. Shows repetition of new words offered by adults.
Competencies
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.

Products

Children will create individual Community Passports that grow each week with a drawing, glued natural item, or photo from each field trip page. Each entry will include a simple mark or sticker to show whether they explored with their eyes, ears, or bodies, helping them answer the question, “How can we explore a new place with our eyes, ears, and bodies?” As a class, children will also build a shared exploration chart with stickers that tracks how they explored after each outing. By the end, the finished passports and class chart will serve as the main products children can share to show what they noticed, felt, and learned in different community places.

Launch

Start with a Wonder Walk Kickoff in a nearby outdoor space, where children use a simple picture-based scavenger hunt to find things they can see, hear, and touch. Pause often for children to name what they notice with descriptive words, act it out with their bodies, and join in brief dramatic play such as pretending to move like birds, splash like water, or sway like trees. Back in the classroom, each child begins a Community Passport page with a drawing, glued natural item, or photo from the walk. Close by revisiting the question, “How can we explore a new place with our eyes, ears, and bodies?” and inviting each child to place a sticker on the class chart to show how they explored that day.

Exhibition

Host a simple “Community Passport Museum” where children share their completed passports with families or another class, turning pages to show drawings, glued items, and photos from each outing. At each page, children point to or say how they explored that place with their eyes, ears, or bodies, using the class chart as a visual support. Add a dramatic-play piece by setting up a pretend bus stop or travel station so children can act out one favorite field trip stop and describe what they noticed there. Display the passports, class exploration chart, and a few collected artifacts or photos together to celebrate how children observed and recorded their community adventures.