Finishing up our Arctic Animals Research

Wow! I cannot believe how fast January is flying by! These last two weeks we have been finishing up our arctic animal units. This week was all about making and assembling the posters and books! I was so blown away by the work your children put into these projects!We were supposed to present them as well but we had so many kids absent that I decided to wait until this coming week to have them present to the class.

Creating their projects

When we last left off on the blog, see last post if you haven't, students had finished up their research about their arctic animals and were ready to start their final projects about their animal. Some groups chose to make a poster, while some groups chose to make a book. Either way I drew out a rubric of all the pieces that their project had to include. I drew out the rubric on the board and also printed out a version for kids to use like a checklist! That is when students set off to work! Some kids drew pictures, some wrote, some labeled but everyone chipped in to help their groups. I was so blown away by the work they did. 

The rubric that I drew on the board!

The orca group working on their poster.

The polar bear groups completed poster.

The front covers of the books from 3 groups!

Informative Writing

Once we finished their projects we were able to move on and have students write out their own informational writing page about their animal. I kid you not each student wrote anywhere from 3-5 sentences! It was amazing! They helped each other with sight words and I helped with the spelling. It was wonderful to see! Here is a students finished writing:

Arctic Animal Drawings

Finally to end our week of arctic animals we did a directed drawing of each of our animals. Then students colored them with colored pencils and water colored the background. They did such a great job!

A students drawing of a polar bear.

This next week I will have more pictures of how their work is hanging up and I will also have pictures of them presenting their work to each other! It is going to be so much fun!

Cheers,

Miss Adams

Arctic Animals Shared Research

This first full week back we launched our shared research project about Arctic Animals. The kids are having a great time and I am loving watching them learn from each other and teach each other! We also had some fun with a cardboard box during choice time this week! Love giving the kids opportunities to create their own fun and construct their own learning!

Arctic Animals Research

To start out arctic animals research I started by sharing with students a story of my neighbors dog who lives outside year round. I told them that seeing her outside in the cold made me think of other animals that live where it is snowy and cold all the time. Students then helped me come up with many animals that live where it's cold (a few said Santa so we drew Santa with his reindeer!) From there I made posters of 6 different animals for students to pick which animal they wanted to learn more about. Once they picked their groups they started sharing what they already knew about those animals and used books and videos to record new facts about their animal. Then we shared one or two facts they had learned with the class! It was so great to see students working together in their groups and being so eager to share with the whole class! This coming week we will be working on a writing component for students to write down what they have learned about their arctic animal. They will also be picking a final project to share everything they have learned with the class! It's a busy time in Kindergarten!

Students draw and write facts on their poster.

Students work together to draw a snowy owl.

The polar bear drew that their bear eats fish and has claws so it doesn't slip on the snow.

A student asked me for a post it note to help her write down a fact about Snowy Owls.

A group of students share using their poster and books with the class.

It's a bird, it's a plane, its a cardboard box!

The food pantry had extra large cardboard boxes left over and asked me if I had a use for it, and boy did I ever. Every week on Wednesday's we do a choice time where students from all 3 Kindergarten classes can choose to go to another classroom to play with a certain game. So I opened up the cardboard box and let students decide how to use it. At one point students said it was Santa's sleigh, then it became a hot tub and finally when they stood it up it was a magic portal! I loved seeing their imaginations coming out and them just having fun being kids!

That is all for this week! Next time I will have pictures from the final steps of our arctic animal research project as well as more about our math unit as we finish up addition! Have a wonderful week!

Smiles,

Miss Adams