Early learners learn best through hands-on, self-directed experiences. Try our Project-Learning Bingo – 24 project-based learning ideas to fuel your child’s critical thinking and creativity. Plenty of inspiration to keep any child busy for at least a month!
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Each summer or school holiday season, parents are faced with the ominous problem of wondering how to foster their child’s autonomous and independent learning on days with less structure. But even during these seemingly quieter times, children thrive when there is a sensible plan to break up the day and there are tasks and activities in that plan to solve problems they care about.
Project-based learning is based on a pedagogy that asserts that children learn best by experiencing and solving real-world problems. Research shows that when a child’s learning is self-directed and there is support from inquiry-based teaching, there is an increase in long-term retention of content, improved problem-solving skills and a more positive attitude towards learning. Specifically, evidence confirms how project-based learning positively impacts learning science and math.
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Project-Learning Bingo
Uniquely created by a collaborative effort of experienced teachers who deeply understand and appreciate the wide array of skills and interests of early learners, our Project-Learning Bingo ideas are self-directed with multiple learning outcomes that require interdependent decisions – and fun! (Bonus: the prompts strengthen decision-making, reasoning and creative thinking skills.)
For easier 15-minute activities, try our No-Prep Activity Cards.
Project-Learning Bingo: 24 Creative + Clever Ideas
- Come up with a plan to survive on a deserted island.
- How did you arrive there? What do you eat? What do you do about shelter? How do you pass your time?
- Write a play featuring a problem and a solution.
- Create characters, a setting, recruit family members to act it out when finished.
- Create a restaurant.
- Choose one type of cuisine, create a shopping list and menu. Name your restaurant and create a logo. How will you decide what to call it? What would the setting look like? Prepare the food, invite others to dine while you serve them.
- Create an at-home store.
- Choose items you can part with and price them. How will you decide the prices? Where in your home will you open the store? Why that location? Design a flyer advertising your sale. Set up your store and invite others to shop. Bonus scenario: what happens if a store selling similar items opens near you? How will your prices change? How will your marketing change?
- Research an endangered species.
- Learn about that animal, why it is endangered, and create a plan for saving the species. What needs to change? What can you convince others to do about it?
- Create a backyard obstacle course using household items.
- Create a blueprint on paper first, then follow your steps to build your course. See if you can create obstacles requiring people to use different parts of their bodies in different positions (i.e. feet, hands, head). Time participants as they complete the course.
- Spread some cheer to give away!
- Paint rocks, make cards, or create some inspirational quotes with drawings to deliver to friends and neighbors. Write and draw messages of cheer with chalk on the sidewalk that will inspire passerbys. Create poems to give away. More creative writing options here.
- Create a new type of cookie.
- What is it called? What are the ingredients? What are the cooking directions? Gather ingredients and bake your cookie, then let others be taste testers. Next-level: write the recipes of your favorite foods and treats, draw out the steps to prepare them and publish your very own cookbook. (Inspired and taking a page from this child chef and author in The Simple Art of Cooking.)
- Write a book review.
- Read a book and then prepare a script for why others should read this book. Record yourself delivering your speech and send it to a friend.
- Create an art gallery.
- Choose one medium (watercolor, sculpture, sketching) and create multiple works of art. Write a description of each piece, including the date created, materials used, and title on a small piece of paper and hang up your art and the descriptions. Invite others to your gallery – don’t forget to write an ‘About the Artist’ statement!
- Organize a talent show.
- Encourage each family member to develop something to perform – a poem, dance, jokes or a musical performance – and make it a big production. Schedule the event, create promotional flyers and include all relevant information. How will you decide the price of tickets? Will there be different prices for different seats? How will you decide? Create a snack bar with snacks for purchase, and don’t forget to price them. Bonus: write your own song for the show!
- Make a home library.
- Create library cards for books, create your own system for organizing your books, issue library cards to people or stuffies, host storytime, help with check-out and returns, and deal with any pesky overdue books.
- Make a tiny city out of paper, like Paris or Sydney.
- Research the city and create a four-day itinerary. Don’t forget to create some transportation options for your travels.
- Create a puppet show and make sock puppets.
- Plan out the storyline and characters. Act out a tale you know, your favorite book, a problem you are trying to solve or make up something whimsical and fantastical. What’s your mood today? Go the extra mile of designing and creating the background setting. Ask a grown-up or sibling to film the spectacular show. Don’t forget to add whacky character voices!
- Create your own sport.
- Draw it out in a playbook. Or go outside and experiment how it would work. How many players can play your sport? What kind of terrain is it played on? What kind of equipment is needed? Do players wear a special uniform or equipment? How could you score points? What is the name of your sport? You decide!
- Build a playhouse for your favorite animal.
- What would be inside it? Outside of it? How will it get inside and outside of the house? How will your favorite animal friend eat, sleep and play?
- Create your own treasure hunt for someone in your family.
- Draw a map that will guide someone to find the treasure. Write tricky clues or riddles along points on the map. What is the ‘treasure’ surprise at the end?
- Create your own magic show.
- Read about famous magicians and their magic tricks. Create your own tricks and make a How-to book about them. Then, show them off – invite your family to come to your magical performance!
- Plan a Take-It-Apart Day.
- Find old toys or electronic devices or items from nature. First draw them whole and then draw the inside. Can you make something else with the parts? Be an inventor! (Find inspiration from Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions and learn how an inventor works.)
- Create a pet camp.
- If you had a pet or could look after other people’s pets, what would you do with the animals all day? What would the daily schedule with the animals look like? When would they eat, sleep, exercise and play? What games would you play with animals and how would you teach them? What tools do you need to do that? How would you market your pet camp? What makes it spectacularly special and unique? Create a sign and name for your pet camp.
- Be a (stuffed animal) veterinarian.
- It looks like some of your furry friends are unwell. Oh no! Gather them and schedule appointments to help them get better. How will you find out who is hurt? What illnesses are going around? How will you treat them? How will you decide who gets seen first? What will you do when multiple patients need to be seen at the same time? Use this playful veterinarian’s checklist to practice basic sight words.
- Travel to space.
- Choose a planet to visit, conduct some research to learn more about that planet. How will you get there? Sketch out your spacecraft. What will you need to bring to survive? Make a packing list. Keep a journal of your travels and document each day in space. What will you do once you arrive? What will you do on your last day of your mission? Would you leave behind a special memento of yourself? What would it be?
- Learn about your body.
- Outline a life-size version of your body profile. Draw and label all of your outside body parts. Draw and label what you think is in the inside of your body. After that, learn how to draw human internal organs. (Try this human body activity book for more interactive fun.)
- Explore what adults do.
- Draw an adult working in your home. Use your field research skills. What tools are they using? What body parts are they using? What do you think they are thinking? How do you know? How and when do they move from one activity to the next? Why? Could they do things in a different way? Write a speech bubble for them.
*Written in collaboration with Doug Zesiger, Jan Bird and Karin Soriano-Bilal.