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