Research Fun!

Hi friends!

This week has been all about RESEARCH!

We have been learning about habitats in science, informational writing in writers workshop, & in reading workshop we have been practicing "reading to learn" instead of "learning to read". So, it just made sense to tie this all in together & celebrate the ends of all these units with a group research presentation project.

I have 5 groups in my classroom & I assigned each group a different habitat.

The instructions to them was that they had to work as a team to figure out what each person would be responsible for. Each poster had to be illustrated to include animals, plants, weather, & setting that were true to their habitat. Each poster also had to have facts that included all of those things as well.

Here's how the week looked...

Day 1~ They had to assign roles & responsibilities to each member. Then, they had to decide what would be important to include about the habitat. For example, I told them not to give penguin facts on the tundra team because I wanted to learn about the tundra...not necessarily about the penguins.

 On Day 2 they were illustrating. They were told that they had to be sure to be true to the habitat. So- no purple monkeys, no cactus in the tundra, etc...

 On Day 3 the teams had to add facts to their posters. Like I said before, the facts were to be specific to teach about the habitat.

The arrows are pointing to the fact cards that they attached to the posters.

 Day 4~ We are putting the finishing touches on the posters & rehearsing for the presentations. They had to assign who would talk & when. EVERYONE had to have a talking time!

 Day 5~ PRESENTATION DAY! They were very excited & nervous, but ALL did a Fabulous job!!

All in all, I was super impressed with the teamwork that went on the entire week. I stepped out of the picture & acted only as a facilitator. When they came to me with problems, I told them that they would have to work it out with their team. They were frustrated by this response at first, but they quickly figured out that I would not referee for them & they worked everything out.

How are things going in your classroom this week??