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 our animals.
If you're interested to learn more about Steve Jenkins and his artwork, click on the video below!
Many of you know that we have been hard at work these past few weeks designing and decorating benches for the silent auction which will be held at our Exploration Celebration on the evening of April 16th.
Room 408 has had two big curricular inquiries so far this year, so we decided to make a bench to represent each inquiry: Animals, and Space.
Thanks to our parent and student volunteers, the benches were all primed and ready to be painted.
We decided to paint the background of our animal inquiry bench a nice, fresh green.
We went with a black background for our space inquiry bench.
We started by adding our favorite animals and space objects.
We love the finished products!
We hope you'll help LEADS raise funds by putting in a silent auction bid for one of our benches!
Once Room 408 started focusing their research on specific animals they were interested in, I knew it was time for small inquiry groups. After they each ranked their top three animal choices, we formed our Research Clubs. Then it was time to gather resources in our research baskets.
Gathering photo cards that match our Research Club animals
Gathering and studying models to add to our research baskets
Finding and evaluating sources...which ones will help us and are "just right?"
After gathering our resources, all that was left to organize was making sure our baskets were clearly labeled.
Introducing...
The Lizard Research Club: Tela & Ellie
The Rain Forest Bird Research Club: Teagan & Anderson
After our earlier sorting and categorizing of animal models and materials during our immersion stage, we were ready to arrange our classroom library to make it easier to find the books that we need. Room 408 thought it would be easiest to organize the animal books in our classroom library by habitats, so we spent an intense afternoon sorting every animal book we could find.
Of course, by then we couldn't wait to dive into the books and see what we could find in our research. We spent quiet time researching individually...
We spent time researching and talking with partners...
And of course, we found lots of cool facts to write down...
For our sharing time, we used our ipads to create a class chatroom on the todaysmeet website.
This is a great site to put our reading and writing skills to work for an authentic purpose! We needed to use our literacy skills to read the prompt, to write so others could read it, and to read what others wrote.
Once we introduced ourselves in the closed chatroom, we shared some of the cool animal facts that we learned.
Below is a transcript of our class chatroom conversation. The prompt was:
Please tell us what stuck with you about your animal research today.
When two lions meet they make a friendly sound by Jacob
I want wita the yellow by Cooper
chameleon can eat fly by Rylee
Or a puffling by Grant
Sharks by Jorel
Hummingbirds can fly in eny dreshin. by Ellie
Elephants can weigh 11000 pounds by Dane
Sharks lose their fins to ster by Aaron
A baby puffin is called a chick by Grant
The Emerald tree boa almost never comes down to the ground! WOW! by Jill
Elephant weigh 11,000 by Drew
Crabs can have a cla bigger than the other. by Sophia
Sterols have tef by Breleigh
Can rabbit be camfash yes they can by Rylee
Sharks lose their fins to by Aaron
Monkeys can live in cities and towns. by Tela
Sea Terdels have teeth by Andrew
Some crabs eyes can be skinny by Anderson
crabs can have a cla bigger than the other by Sophia
We also read the book Actual Size by Steve Jenkins.
We started noticing numbers in the animal books we read, just like Steve Jenkins!
Researchers in Room 408 used our classroom rulers to measure out how long and tall some of these animals really are.
