Mrs. Mancuso and Mrs. Crudale’s fourth-grade classrooms at Oaklawn Elementary School spent the past several months working on a Project Based Learning Task (PBL).

“The students identified a problem that a fourth grader could have and worked to find some helpful solutions,” said Crudale. “The big topic was about persevering through a problem and putting worries and frustrations aside.”

The project centered around social emotional learning, but integrated all subject areas including their itinerant classes.

“The students even interviewed community members on how they persevere to solve problems,” said Crudale. “In their groups they emailed local community members, wrote up interview questions and conducted an interview while taking notes.”

Special guests included Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse, Principal Mr. Zanfini, Mrs. Collette, and NY Times Bestselling Author of "When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left,” Marc Colagiovanni.  His book centers around how to manage your worries and move forward.

“Every classroom was able to read the story prior to the meeting to help them build a connection with the message and our project,” Crudale said.

In addition, the students not only wanted to help by coming up with possible solutions but wanted to give back to the community.

“They used their math skills to make worry bracelets to donate to our school social worker, in order to help students who visit her ease their worries,” Crudale said.

On Friday, Feb. 3, they compiled all of their information and presented their project to the whole school.  Their presentation included all of the project's components.

The fourth graders led the entire presentation including a song. The whole school worked on a song called; “Don't Give Up” by Bruno Mars.  The fourth grade led the song while performing a little dance with it.

They taught the school sign language to “never give up.”

“We will now use this as our universal symbol when they see a friend in need of support to push forward, to never give up,” Crudale said.

The students provided interesting feedback and comments about the whole process.

“I felt like our PBL project was very enjoyable and you were having fun while learning,” said Victoria, a student. “I learned that it is normal to struggle sometimes and you are not alone. All of the community members that we interviewed showed me that their struggles are just like mine and my classmates. PBL was probably the best project and I really enjoyed it.”

Also sharing their views was another student, Nagelis.

“I loved the PBL project and I hope we do another one again,” Nagelis said. “My favorite parts were making the bracelet and the dance process. I felt so happy and confident after. It was amazing.”

While Principal Zanfini was a part of the community interviews, he was not there for the final presentation. Acting Principal Jay  DeCristofaro attended the presentation and spoke very highly of what he observed.

“For those who do not know, Project-Based learning (PBL) involves students designing, developing, and constructing hands-on solutions to a problem,” he said. “Our fourth grade students, under the direction of their teachers, Mrs. Crudale and Mrs. Mancuso, did a phenomenal job in preparing and presenting their project to the entire school. What I loved about it was that they based their theme on a book entitled, ‘When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left’ by Marc Cologiavanni. But they didn’t stop there; wearing their ‘Go Left’ T-Shirts, teaching us a song, and showing us how to sign, ‘Never Give Up’ was an inspiration to us all.”

While not all the community members who assisted with the project came to the presentation, Colagiovanni was in attendance.

"I loved being here today, your questions were absolutely incredible, they really made me think,” he said.

Crudale also wanted to give a shout out to Peter Reynolds, the illustrator of “When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left.”