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Animal
Research
(Three times in the year)
In
Grade One we are starting to do research projects. At the
beginning of the year the children have to be guided through the
activity. In the middle of the year the children are more
independent and are able to organize and categorize the
information. At the end of the year many of the children can be
very independent. The following are three different strategies that
were very successful in my class.
Beginning of the Year
In
November the children do Animal Research projects on different
Canadian Animals. I let the children choose 4 different animals
that are distinctly Canadian. We share books and look on the
internet for information on the different animals. We share write
interesting facts about the animals.
The children they
realize that there are specific categories that these facts fit
into. The categories I use are Habitat, Appearance. Food, Babies,
Protection and Enemies, and Neat Notes. We put our sentences for
each animal into their specific category. We do this over a few
days. After we have all the information the children and I pick an
animal for each child. I assign a category to each child, some
categories have a lot of information and others have little. More
able students generally write the categories with a lot of
information. The page that the children write on has a picture
frame with lines on the bottom. After they make a life-like picture
using chalk pastels and permanent felt pens.
This activity was a teacher centered project, but gave them a great
introduction to reading for important information.
Middle
of the Year
In
January we did another animal research of Arctic Animals. I chose
the Arctic Fox, Musk Ox, Polar Bear, Seal, and Caribou, For homework
the children had to find two facts about each animal. Most of the
children used the internet to find the necessary information. They
wrote their sentences on sentence strips. We put all the sentences
together, and passed them out. The students had to decide what
animal the sentence was about and what category the information fit
into. Using the internet and books I found any information that was
missing using the internet, books, and magazines. This time the
children got their choice of animals. Surprisingly, there were 13
students who chose the Artic Fox. There was a great deal of
cooperation in sharing the information. The students had to read
the sentence, decide what category it belongs to, and write the
information. After the students draw a life-like picture using
chalk pastels on black construction paper.
The children enjoyed the activity and did a great job categorizing
the information. The activity was more open-ended and
child-centered.
End of the Year
At
the end of the year the children did an animal research on sea
animals. The children had their choice of what animal they wanted
to do. The children went on the internet, used books, and magazines
to find information according to the different categories. Most of
the children were independent and needed little help. The Art to go
with with the project was oil pastels and a wash on art paper.
This activity was more child-orientated. For children that still
needed assistance were given it. They had to read for information,
decide what information was important and categorize the
information.
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