We got into our animal research groups today. We were so excited!
First we had to get organized by getting our posters ready and our research tub labels ready. We labeled our notes poster with the animal name and wrote our name in our special research color. That way, we can tell which notes are ours.
Next, we labeled our research tub basket. Here are the animals we're studying:
We also gathered books, magazines, and animal models to get ready for our reserach. We were chomping at the bit to get to work!
Room 408 is learning about animal teachers. We learned that sometimes animals are born knowing what to do (instincts). Sometimes animals need to be taught how to survive.
We read a few books to get some insight:
Of course, Steve Jenkins has a book about this topic, too!
Here are some videos that we watched to see how animals are teachers to their young:
We have been focusing our efforts during Work Activity Time to make sure that we are growing our brains.
We are working on projects that inspire us.
Some of us created Leprechaun Traps after we saw the 2nd graders cool projects.
Some of us worked to make Lego creations such as football fields and train depots:
Some of us made our own version of toys we can find in stores, like "squishies."
Others made animals like we researched in our animal inquiry:
Some worked on projects in response to a book we read called Galimoto, and made their own galimoto.
Sophia made her own version of a galimoto:
Some worked over a period of days to complete their galimoto. It started like this...
We have been doing a Steve Jenkins author study while we are doing our animal inquiry. Steve Jenkins is such a great author and illustrator (and often works with Robin Page on his books), and we have really enjoyed his books.
These are just a few of our favorites:
By studying his books, Steve Jenkins has taught us to to think in different ways about animals.
Steve Jenkins calls them "Creature Features" and Wild Kratts call them "Creature Powers." Any way you describe it, animals have cool functional parts!
What parts do you see on these animals that help them survive?
We watched a special video about an owl and the special features it has for hunting.
You might also enjoy this video:
After watching the owl hunting video, we labeled as many functional parts as we could.
This is how our work turned out:
We went our to do our research and noticed functional parts of animals. We drew lots of diagrams and labeled their functional parts.
Watch the video below to see our finished diagrams:
We have even been inspired to measure out the actual sizes of animals! We learned from Steve Jenkins that the tallest animal is a giraffe, measuring up to 19 feet tall. We laid out rulers on the floor and then lined up. We realized that a giraffe is even taller than our line is long!
If you're interested to learn more about Steve Jenkins and his artwork, click on the video below!
