New Class Book On The Rainforest

New Class Book on the Rainforest

We have been working for weeks on our Non-fiction Informative book on a favorite rainforest animal.

Much reading, writing, revision and editing went into the creation of this book.

1. First we created a R.A.N. chart with our partners:  We wrote down facts on stickies that we thought we already knew about our rainforest animal and placed them under the heading "What I Think I Know."  After researching, we moved our stickies to either the heading "Yes!  I Was Right!"or "I Don't Think This Anymore."   We also had a heading entitled "New Learnings" in which we added facts that we learned through our research.  

2.  Then we used books, videos and websites to research information on our animal.  We recorded facts into our Rainforest Research Book, breaking our information into such categories as: What our animal looks like; What it eats; Where it lives; and Other Amazing Facts

3.  We wrote a rough draft, using paper and pencil.

4.  We revised and edited our writing with our teacher.

5.  We used the BookCreator app to illustrate and type our words.  We even added an Illustrated Table of Contents.

6.  We then shared our books with our classmates (see below).  We looked at and listened to every student's book and commented on the great writing and illustrations that they made.  We then took these positive comments home with us on a piece of paper.

Below you'll see the final class book.  Just scroll down until you find your child's book -- or enjoy all of the books.

View Our Class Book Created on BookCreator!

The Penguin Class Book!

We are working on non-fiction informative writing.  After many days of researching with our iPads, books and magazines, we made a class book using the Book Creator app.  Mr. Schersten helped me upload it to my blog (Thank You!!!)  The previous blog has photos and descriptions of the research and writing process leading up to this book.  Below is the class penguin fact book!  (Keep your eyes open for our "individual" non-fiction informative books on rainforest animals in the near future. Research has already begun and the class is working hard collecting interesting facts!)

Enjoy the Class Penguin Book!

Waddling Into March

Penguins, Penguins, Penguins!

We have been working hard on a non-fiction informative unit on penguins.  The children have been working hard on performing all of their own research (with a bit of guidance), using books, magazines, websites and videos.  They have their own research notebook and are adding more and more to it every day.  We have broken into groups and are beginning to compose our "Class Book."  We will write, revise and edit before putting it into a big-book format to be shared with other classrooms.  Here are some photos of the students hard at work:

First we made a chart about what we thought we knew about penguins before we began research on what is called a R.A.N. chart:

Next, we watched educational videos on our iPads, documenting important facts about where penguins live, what they eat and what they look like into our research notebooks:

We also looked closely at books and magazines for information about our favorite black and white bird:

We even listened as a big book on Penguins was read to us, making quick sketches on post-it notes to help us remember key facts:

We also drew penguins and painted them, labeling their body parts:

After gathering all of this information, we have broken into groups and begun to write our informative class book.  Stay tuned for the final product!!  It should be finished by the end of the week! 

In the meantime, enjoy viewing photos of our paper penguin races:

Math

Please continue to have your child do STMath at home.  Also, X-tramath.com is a great way to improve your child's fluency skills -- which means that they will know how to add and subtract to 20 without much time thinking.  The more automatic a child's math facts can become, the easier it will be for them to do more complex math problems.  If you need your child's password, please contact me.  Please click on the math link on the left for the STMath school ID and Password.