Ohio's Wild Animal Project Work and Non-Fiction Writing

It was a busy week trying to get caught up from our 2 snow days.  Students have been researching different wild animals that can be found in Ohio.  Each group has made a plan as to how they are going to share the information, as well as whom they are going to share their information.  

As part of their plans, each student molded clay to form the shape of the animal they are studying.  They will be painting them this coming week.   

 

 

 Take a look at some of the student's sculptures.

skunks

blue jay's

coyotes

 

Squirrels

When students were asked how they wanted to share the information they've learned, one suggestion was to write a book about the animals of which they are studying.   Consequently, we started writing non-fiction books during "Writing Workshop."  We looked through several pieces of non-fiction texts and began jotting down some of the elements that help make up a non-fiction text.  Here are some of the elements we have touched on thus far.  We will continue to add to this list this coming week. 

 

Below you can see a few photos of some of the students work.  You can see that the students have taken their time trying to make their illustrations "realistic."  We continue to work on adding spaces between our words, punctuation at the end of their sentences, spelling sight words correctly and much more.  It's amazing to see how much the students' writing has grown in just 4 short months. 

Notice the headings.

 

Students have added a "map" of Ohio.

Students are writing "facts" about Ohio's wild animals. 

Students were also asked who they wanted to share their information with, and they created a list.  Among the list includes fellow classmates, other classes throughout the school, and most of all their families.  Students will be sharing their information this Friday morning at our open house.  Please visit our classrooms "Ohio's Wild Animal Museum" open house before school this coming Friday. 

This week we also had a visitor, Mr. Garrabrant, who talked to us about what it means to be an engineer.  The students had some great questions. 

Lastly, as a classroom we have been earning seashells.  We have two small baskets, the first basket started with 29 small seashells (one for each child) and the other starts with zero.  As the days go on, as a class we earn one seashell at a time for great behavior, compliments for walking respectfully in the hallways, working hard in the classroom, etc...  Last week students earned the last of their 29 seashells, so as a reward they chose to watch the film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (since we had just finished reading the book) with a popcorn snack.   You can see in the bottom photo the students enjoying their popcorn, as the movie is playing on the Promethean Board!

We hope to see you at our "Ohio's Wild Animal Museum" open house this Friday morning from 8:15-9:00am.  Take care and have a fantastic week!

Mrs. Julie Atkin