The Horse Project included in the “Projects” section of this site is a vivid example of how teachers can pick up on the spontaneous interests of preschool-age children and involve them in finding answers to their questions about something in their own environment worth learning about. The children are given ample opportunities to take initiative in the investigation and to deepen their knowledge and understanding of various aspects of the nature and care of horses.
The topic of this project helped to make possible the involvement of many parents in the work of the children. Their involvement also enabled the teachers to get to know the parents better. Because of this connection, the families were able to appreciate how much their children were learning.
This report also gives us a clear example of how good project work can address most of the goals and many of the benchmarks outlined in the Illinois Early Learning Standards.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign