Greetings Global Classrooms!
Hello from your project leader at Monster Central, Terry Smith. Here we go again. Just when we though we had Covid-19 beat, it comes back with new Variants. I'm hoping many schools will still take advantage of the Monster Project again this year! I'm an online instructor and Mentor/Group leader with the National Geographic Educator Certification Program, also Kidlink Project Leader, and a past teacher educator. Besides fun with monsters my background includes university teaching at Radford University, Western Illinois University, Antioch University, and the University of St. Francis. Before the college kids,  I was an elementary teacher for 14 years, concentrating on project-based learning, citizen science, technology, and global awareness. I even took my 4th graders to Taiwan, twice!  

What is this Project?  
Primary classes from the USA and around the world collaborate in this K-6 project. After requesting a Monster part (one part per school) from the list below, each school submits a 12-20 word description. When all descriptions are completed on the chart below, each class builds its own MONSTER using everyone's descriptions. Collaboration across grade levels: we often have cross-grade buddy teams, for example, K and 4 working together.

Students discover that designing and building a monster together is a challenging task. It is a major lesson in working together and learning to compromise in a group decision process. For example, the student responsible for the head has to plan with the students making the eyes, nose, neck, mouth, ears and hair. Students have deliberate practice in collaboration while constructing their class MONSTER. The result is satisfying proof that a community of global kids can accomplish anything!!  Additionally, students are asked to state how their monster would use STEM and the Sustainable Development Goals to make the world a better place.

Standards? We address many academic areas - please see the Learning & Technology link for examples. It's easy to see how this project is firmly rooted in collaborative worldwide learning.

How Do I Sign Up My Class? (Sign up early to make sure you get a part!)
Your Class has joined and reserved a place in the project when the teacher (1) Requests a Monster part AND (2) Sends the class photo and school/class information. This needs to be done when you join the project in order to get you on the Participants Page and to secure your Monster part. Email to join - smithterryk@gmail.com.
See the Step by Step Timeline of Directions.