Animals! Animals! Animals!

The students are very excited about our Animal Unit.  This unit integrates language arts with science and culminates with each student completing an in-class research report on a selected animal.  In this unit, your students will...

• Participate in shared research and writing projects CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.7  
• Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.1 
• Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.2 
• Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.5 
• Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.7 
• With prompting and support, read informational texts appropriately complex for grade 1. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.10 

In week one of our unit, students selected an animal to research.  They were then given a non-fiction library book on their animal.  We discussed non-fiction conventions (table of contents, glossaries, etc), and students were asked to go on a scavenger hunt for those conventions in their library books.  

We also read Amazing Bats by Seymour Simon in our small reading groups.  Together we practiced using a graphic organizer to ask and answer questions about key details in a text.  This practice come in handy when they were asked to fill out graphic organizers for their animal report.  

Here is an example of the graphic organizer and rough draft of the body page of their animal report.

We also practiced describing animals in a "What am I?" center.  Students were given a selection of books on animals.  They choose one to read and then used what they learned to describe the selected animal.  Can you guess their animals?

Its a butterfly!

Its a lion!

Our final activity for week one of our Animal Unit was to share discoveries and wonderings we made while reading some of the non-fiction books about animals.  Students were asked to complete the following bookmarks and share their findings in small groups or pairs.

Look back here to see updates on students' progress in the Animal Unit and their animal reports!

* Many of the lessons listed in this post are adapted from Maureen McLaughlin's Guided Reading Comprehension in the Primary Grades.