Using Nonfiction Research as Enrichment

This weekend I am writing about something that I am really loving this year-

I have a guided reading group that is already several reading levels into second grade territory, so I wanted a way for them to have something to work on that is above and beyond what we would typically be doing at this point in first grade.

I started working on some animal research units that we could use that would all follow the same format. This was particularly important because I wanted it to be something that we could work on together once, but then be more of an independent activity for home or school.

For our first foray into nonfiction research, I had my kids work with a partner and pick an animal that they wanted to learn more about. The two boys picked giraffes and the two girls picked flamingos. I put together a pack with some challenging text, questions that would require text-based evidence, and additional comprehension activities.

On day one, we read the text and came up with some details to describe our animals in a web.

On day two, we re-read the text and worked on some of the short-answer questions. I had them use a highlighter to show where they found their answer in the text.

 

One of my favorite parts of this pack is the animal adaptations writing. Students are asked to describe why an animal's features are helpful to their survival. For flamingos, we wrote about the hair-like combs in the flamingo's bill and the webbed feet.

  

 On day three, they all came in with their packs finished (or close to finished)! I got a note from one of the parents saying how excited their child was to be working on this project that she hadn't been able to wait for us to do it together! 

They really enjoyed labeling and coloring a flamingo.

The true/false statements allowed me to see what they understood from their reading of the passage.

The flamingo pack includes a short writing on whether a flamingo would make a good pet. As much as I would want one, both girls agreed that a flamingo would NOT make a good pet!

 

I added a word search that included some key vocabulary related to their chosen animal. This group is obsessed with word searches!

One of the little girls even made a poster of a labeled flamingo for me to display in the classroom!

 

Since the kids were so excited and so engaged with the material, I had them pick another animal and made them some packs to work on independently.

The two girls are already working hard on the polar bear pack.

Since they blew through their first pack so fast, I added a project option to this new pack. We are going to be doing additional research online and at the library with our final goal to be some kind of project that can be shared with the class. I gave them these options: PowerPoint, poster, informational writing, or a diorama. Although they are working with a partner for the research aspect of the project, they will be completing their own project. 

I picked several options for the projects so that they could choose the one that appealed to their strengths the best. I already know that one of them is choosing the PowerPoint presentation and another loves to build, so he is leaning towards the diorama.

You can find my differentiated nonfiction units here. They are also bundled in a growing bundle.

Check out my facebook page for a giveaway of your choice of nonfiction unit!

(giveaway ends Wednesday,  February 10)

Classroom Elf Adventures- Part 3 of 3

We have reached the final week of our classroom elf adventures!

Dot was a very busy elf this week!

I had planned to switch my table groups for the last week of December, but then I had an idea...

The kids were so surprised when they came in and saw that Dot had wrapped our desks (and even more surprised when they unwrapped their desk to find that it wasn't theirs anymore!)

Monday was also the day that we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We got to write about how we would make the Grinch grin, which resulted in answers like: I would invite him to dinner at my house.

Unfortunately, we were also quite loud/chatty (which may have had something to do with the excitement of unwrapping desks this morning... oops!) When we came in the next morning, we found that the Grinch had shown up and captured Dot!

He had also started everyone on red! Oh dear!

We opened up Dot's mailbox to find that there was no letter from Dot, but there was a letter from the Grinch! He told us that he was able to catch Dot because we were so loud yesterday and the only way to free her from his trap was to work quietly today. He also bet us that we couldn't do it! Well, we were ready for the challenge!

The kids did their very best to work quietly and stay on task (which was still not quite as good as they usually are, but I took into account the excitement of the upcoming winter break). When we came back from lunch we found...

that not only had Dot freed herself, but she had caught the Grinch!

At the end of the day, we always pick a few compliments from our compliment jar to read before we line up to leave. I just happened to pull a compliment for Dot this afternoon- "Dot, you're funny and nice!" so I thought I would use that for the next day.

The little boy who wrote the compliment was thrilled to see that Dot was reading it to Sylvie the flamingo the next day! The rest of the kids LOVED Dot's new dress and were talking about it all day!

Thursday was field day, and in all of the excitement I forgot to get a picture of Dot wrapped up in the Christmas lights that hang around the board. Oops!

On Friday, Dot decided to go out with a bang... she toilet papered our classroom! I had hung a strip down the window in the front door so that the kids wouldn't see in, and I made sure to warn them that Dot had made a huge mess before they came in. They could not believe their eyes!

They were quick to find the culprit!

Dot was kind enough to send all of the kids off to winter break with a little stuffed elf of their very own. We ended up borrowing the elf on a shelf movie from my pod-mate and watching it at the end of the day, all of the kids brought their little elf to the rug to watch with them. It was adorable!

And so ends our elf adventures for this year!

Click here for Part 1 or Part 2!

Classroom Elf Adventures- Part 2 of 3

Welcome to the second week of our classroom elf adventures!

Last week we planted these magic seeds from the North Pole (see the full blog post here).

When the kids came in on Monday, they were so excited so see that our seeds had grown into candy canes!

Dot had decided to get in on the candy cane fun with a trip across the room on a candy cane zip line!

On Tuesday, we found Dot relaxing in her robe and slippers. We also discovered that she had sent us some pictures of her weekend hanging out with my pot-mate's elf, Tinsel!

I had come to school over the weekend and taken pictures of the two all around the school and put them into a photo album. It is the current favorite book in our classroom library! The kids have pointed out that there are a lot of blank pages, they are hoping that Dot will send us some more!

On Wednesday, Dot was hanging out in our READ sign in the library. The kids were more excited about her new boots though, they couldn't stop talking about them!

She also left us some special brag tags in her mailbox, the kids were so thrilled with the new brag tags that a lot of them brought their brag tags to show their 5th grade reading buddy on Friday!

Unfortunately, we were pretty loud and crazy on Wednesday. In fact, we were so wild that I found myself checking the calendar to see if it was a full moon! Poor Dot doesn't like a lot of noise, so she was in bed with a headache when we came in on Thursday. She told us in her letter that she stopped by the clinic on the way back from the North Pole to pick up an ice pack!

Our technology teacher is a good friend of mine and she agreed to help me out with our elf adventures this week. I took this picture of Dot-

and sent it to her. While the kids were working on their technology assignment on Thursday, she sent the picture out to their computers! They were so surprised and had to tell me all about it when I came to pick them up! Needless to say, Thursday was a much better day than Wednesday! :)

On Friday, Dot told us that she was practicing her ballet because she was going to be a sugarplum fairy in the North Pole's production of the Nutcracker. I have a little girl who is going to be in the Nutcracker, so she was very excited to see that she and Dot had something in common!

That was it for our adventures this week. Stay tuned for the final installment in my elf adventures series, coming next weekend! Dot and I have some serious elf mischief planned!

Click here for Part 1 or Part 3!