Compras para kinder: a PBL/TCI story

I needed a school supply story to provide some context for vocabulary we’ll need as we collect school supplies to ship to a rural school in Colombia through Ayudando Ando, and so I thought I’d walk you through my Alphabet Soup steps for writing a unit story as I made one.

1. Pick the vocabulary
We’ll already have hit tiene and puede with the Genius Hour unit, so they’ll be built into the story but won’t be the main focus like my first story last year. What we’ll need now is words to work through the planning process for the project:

• QUIERE- because groups need to discuss their preferences and goals
• NECESITA – because groups need to discuss materials
• VA – because groups need to flesh out their plans, what they’re actually going to do

2. Make it weird
I brainstormed a few school/school supply related scenarios before settling on one:

• Collecting supplies for a school–actually obedience school for dogs?
• Weird supplies–writing with fish? 
• Weird class activities–eating with pencils? dancing with computers? soccer with notebooks? 

3. Squeeze in some choice
There are a few basic things that the kiddos can pick to make the story theirs:

1. Name of the student
2. Name of store
3. Amount of money and
4.  Supplies needed (4, 6, 8, 9)  

But it’s the activities (5, 7, 10, 11) they pick from their interests page that’ll make the story fun!

4. Write the story
Here’s what I came up with:

5. Set up the materials
Since I’m shifting away from the SMART Notebook software, I’ll set up a Nearpod with open-ended questions (which provides similar opportunities that the storyasking Google Form has in the past):

• ¿Cómo se llama la niña?
• ¿Adónde va con la abuela?
• ¿Cuántos dólares tiene?
• ¿Qué quiere comprar?
• ¿Qué necesita primero?
• ¿Qué va a hacer con esto?
• ¿De qué necesita dos?
• ¿Qué va a hacer con ellos?
• ¿Qué más necesita la niña?
• ¿Cuántos dólares son ellos?
• ¿Qué va a hacer con ellos?

Then I’ll need to remove the focus words in caps from the story for the notebook printouts, and I’ll be set!

And of course, finding or creating a visual always helps!