Animal Research Books ~A Long but Rewarding Learning Process!

Over the past few weeks we have been working on animal research.  We started with a class project learning about Giraffes.  We examined the layout of non-fiction books and discovered that many animal books had the same characteristics.  The information was organized under certain headings: appearance, habitat, diet, life cycle, etc. and that many (but not all) of the books also had a table of contents, a glossary and an index.  Using this information we developed criteria for what our non-fiction books should have.  Here is a chart of the criteria we developed for our books.

 Next, Mrs. Betts introduced us to a graphic organizer that we could use to record information.  She showed us how to take notes and record them under the proper headings using the information we had learned about the giraffe.

Here is a sample of our notes using the graphic organizer Shower of Stars from Developing Readers (an SD 36 resource)

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Then we were given the choice as to what Canadian animal we wanted to learn more about.  We were encouraged to visit the public library as well as the school library to find books on our animal of choice.  We also used our iPads to find videos, photos and information about our animal.  Once we  had 3-4 facts under each heading we met again as a class to learn how to put our notes into sentences.  We used our notes on the giraffe that we had taken as a class.  After a mini lesson about writing interesting sentences we met in small groups and were given one category to write a paragraph about.  Here are some of our paragraphs that we wrote.  The pictures were drawn by some of us using Draw and Tell.

Illustration by Jessica

Illustration by Melody

Once we had a clear idea of what our book should contain we began to create how we wanted our book to look.  We used the app Book Creator as well as the Draw and Tell and Skitch app.  We were given free choice as to how we wanted our book to look and how we wanted to represent our knowledge.  To illustrate our books, some of us chose to draw a picture, label it and then take a picture and import it to our book, some of us chose to draw a picture in Draw and Tell and import it to our book and some chose to take a screen shot of a picture that was in a book.  We learned that if we use a picture that someone else has taken we need to give credit to them.    Here are some screen shots of some of our pages.

As we finish our books we are hoping to put them into our blogs for all to see! Keep checking our blogs.