This week we have been working on nonfiction research. After we did our whole group study on whales, I wanted to take it a little further and do cooperative research where my students were the teachers and leaders and I was just facilitating. I decided that we would stick with animals because every 2nd grader is just absolutely enthralled with animals of all kinds!
I went to the library and checked out a TON of nonfiction books about animals. I wanted each animal to have at least 2-3 books so that my students would have plenty of research material. I got a wide variety of animals, and too many so that there would even be some left over!
After introducing what we were learning and doing, I had pairs of students come up and choose the animal they wanted to research. They worked together to read and research, but when it came to writing, each student was responsible for their own report. It was important that they were able to choose their animal, work together, and produce a final project on their own.
We spent a whole week on these animal reports. The students really worked at their own pace to get everything accomplished.
I got the idea of the foldable from a project that our 3rd grade teachers had hanging in the hallway. You can get the templates for mine HERE! I just simply folded a piece of construction paper to make two doors.
My students did work together to create a drawing of their animal. We didn’t have much time for this part, but they still turned out cute!
Before there were final products, there was a lot that went into the researching. Students asked questions and located answers. They found things they thought to be true were not! And, they could barely hold in all of the new information they were learning! I know tons of animal facts just because they couldn’t keep it to themselves, ha!
I still have a few friends that need to finish, but as soon as they are all complete we will share our reports with the class! I don’t teach Science, but I do still love incorporating this kind of thing into my language arts activities. We learned a lot about text features, charts and diagrams, and gathering information about our topic!
20 Responses
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Amy, your reports look great. My firsties are finishing their animal shared writing and research projects right now too. We have a “Writer's Showcase” Tuesday night for all the parents so they can come in and see their projects. They also make an art project at home to go with it. We've worked on them for about a month. They've had a blast! I love the foldable – great idea!
Karen Rowland
Adventures With Firsties
[email protected]
Thank you for the freebie! I was searching for a culminating project to finish off our non-fiction animal study in Reader's Workshop. This is perfect!
Projects & Polkadots
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Amy Lemons! You. Are. Thee. Best! Thank you for this freebie! We are using Hope's Animal Unit week after next. It's a little too challenging for some of my sweeties this year. I've got it on my list of things to do to differentiate that unit. You just did it for me! Thank you! Totally made my day! Cross that off my list!
We do a research project on ocean animals in 1st grade and it is seriously my students favorite project!! Love the idea of the foldable!
Ashley
Love this! Can't wait to share it with the kiddos. Thank you 🙂
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Love it! My first graders worked on nonfiction writing earlier this year, but I really like the idea of creating a trifold! We'll definitely try this next year. Thanks for sharing!
-Christa
learninbooks.blogspot.com
Thanks for the freebie! We do end of year animal reports too and this is perfect!
-Ashlee
TeacherWillRunforBooks
We did very similar reports on Amazon Rainforest animals! Love your reports!
We did a bat report in a nonfiction text format but I love the brochures.
Hi there,
This new Canadian website might be of interest to you:
http://www.resources4teaching.com
We offer some features that are not offered on any other similar website.
Love this idea to use when presenting non-fiction reports. Will definitely use this one, thanks!
Zoe
Oh-the-Little-Wonders
Great blog! Please feel free to check out my blog I just started. http://www.journeyto5thgrade.blogspot.com
I like this project and have been looking for something to use for a group research/writing project. Am I missing how to get a copy of this freebie? I don't see it but would love to have it. Thanks.
Where is a link to buy this project? I think my ELLs will love doing this for writing next week!
I did reports just like these two years ago when teaching the Animals unit to grade 2. They turned out great, and the students loved it!
Hi Amy, I love this project and I plan to do it with my second graders in the next couple weeks! My question is, how did you grade them on this? Did you have a rubric to follow or was it just for fun? Thanks in advance! Can’t wait to see how they turn out in my class!
Thank you for sharing this template, it will be so helpful for my grade 1/2 animal inquiry project! I appreciate it <3