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.
