Space Research

Teaching first graders to do "research" can be challenging! This year to complete our space research I divided my students into table groups. Each group brainstormed and wrote down a few questions on chart paper. The next day, the groups looked through books on their topic and wrote the answers to the question on the same chart paper. It was helpful to have at least one really strong reader in the group. The other group members took turns writing and all flipped through books looking for information. As a final product, each student made a "Did You Know" poster using the answers to the questions and any other interesting information they found out. Each group shared their findings aloud.

Dive in to Ocean Research

A couple of years ago, my first grade team along with our librarian began a tradition of putting up this display for Open House each year, and we still love it! After completing research on specific ocean animals, the students use a planning sheet to compose a research paper. Our librarian designed these wonderful divers to display them with. Each student creates a face, we place them on a diver's body, add a mask and voila! This year I added rainbow fish using glittery scales, but other years (depending on time) we've created all kinds of ocean plants and animals. Since we also do a kelp unit, sometimes we've added kelp. So beautiful and eye catching!