All About Animals

This week we finished up our All About Animals unit of study.  We spent about 6 weeks researching and writing about animals.  I love this unit of study each year because it engages kids while covering nonfiction reading, writing, and science standards.  The end result is a chapter book full of nonfiction text features showcasing their learning.

I give my students a choice between 8 different animals to learn about: snakes, elephants, dolphins, sharks, penguins, butterflies, orangutans, and bears.  I have chosen these animals strategically.  They cover a variety of animal groups (reptiles, mammals, insects, etc.) and habitats (ocean, dessert, polar, etc.).  For my lessons I use frogs (amphibians) as my animal for research together as a class.

A benefit to using just these 8 animals to choose from is that I have collected lots of books to be used for research.  Also, we visit the Indianapolis Zoo as a culmination of our learning and I know all of these animals can be found there, which is very exciting for the kids and extends their learning.

Okay, enough about animal selection... on to the writing!

One of the areas I hit hard during this unit is nonfiction text features.  Here is just one student's book (not all of it... just a taste)…

Front Cover

Title Page

Dedication Page

Table of Contents

Chapter with Headings and Sub-Headings

Diagram

Glossary

(We bolded words throughout the book and then included those words in a glossary.)

Meet the Author

Back Cover

(Note:  This kid added the reading level info all on his own.  Hahaha!)

These books will be on display this spring for an open house with parents.  My students are very excited to show off all their hard work.  Hope you enjoyed taking a peek into our All About Animals unit of study!