Have we hooked you on Shark Week yet? We hope you have gotten a little bit of inspiration to try some new sharky things in your classroom. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I have a list of shark blog posts that will be helpful! You’ll find shark books, shark classroom decor, shark freebies, shark poetry, shark stem projects, shark math activities, and more through the links below! But today, we’re talking Shark research…
First, here are those links:
To finish this SHARK WEEK strong, I have a FREE activity for your students that would pair PERFECTLY with our Shark Week activities from Rooted in Reading. I don’t know about your kids, but my students always begged to do animal research towards the end of the school year. I think they just loved researching frogs, penguins, bats, etc throughout the year so much that they wanted more of it! So, it only seemed fitting to research ocean animals in May when we are gearing up for summer break AND you can just never go wrong with sharks.
Students research sharks using nonfiction books from the classroom or the library, or they can use educational websites and videos (I’ll share more of that in a bit). Students gather as much information as they can about the animal.
As students are learning information about sharks, they jot down important notes about the sharks, appearance, appetite, habitat, life cycle, etc.
After students have researched and taken notes about sharks, students put that information into a Shark Research Booklet (Don’t worry, this is a FREEBIE for you!). Now they can share their shark information with other classmates or their families. You may even want to have students research a specific type of shark so that they can discuss and compare. We have a great nonfiction reader in our Rooted in Reading Shark Week that shows all types of different sharks!
One way our students can learn information about animals is by watching quality educational videos. My go-to channels for this are definitely SciShow Kids and Nat Geo Kids. The videos are short, to the point, and highly entertaining! Here are a few of my favorite videos to utilize when conducting shark research in the classroom.
You know I can’t end Shark Week without giving you a little something to take home! Enter your information below to get this SHARK RESEARCH activity delivered straight to your inbox!
Pin the image below to remember this FREE Shark classroom activity!
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Sample a day of Rooted in Reading with these lesson plans and activities for Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Grammar!
2 Responses
Love this mini unit on research!
So glad you love it!