Exciting News! Doodle Bugs Teaching shared my Free Tooth Fairy Craftivity on her blog this week! I love Kacey and her awesome blog and was thrilled when I saw that yesterday. Her pictures were too cute, she used the project for teaching the phonics skill "TH". Many people have asked for a writing page to accompany this project and you can find that here in my Totally Teeth Printable Unit. 

We have been working so hard on writing our ZooPals Animal Reports this week. Before I set the kids loose to write their report we write a whole-group research report on the desert tortoise. I have a pet tortoise so he came to visit our class last week. This is little Shelldon meeting my students. 

(For the record he has had that name long before the TV show The Big Bang started)

We wrote our tortoise report last week to read more about our desert tortoise report click here. This week, I put my kids in small groups and they wrote their own research reports. Because I was really bad at remembering to take pictures this week I am going to recycle a picture from last year. To read more about this fun project click here. 

We took our projects one step further this year and created a large diagram for each animal. Here is the diagram and report that the giraffe, cheetah and elephant groups created. LOVE!  

On Monday, each group is going to present their Zoo Pals Animal Report to the class. To be sure kids are engaged during their peers presentations, I have created a little Wild About Animal Reports Book that students complete while their peers are presenting. This just revised my ZooPals Packet on TpT to include this book. Please re-download if you already own this packet.  

Y'all know I live in Arizona, right? Well there was a GroupOn for horseback riding and I couldn't resist because my oldest is six and has never been riding so this morning at 8 a.m. we were horseback riding! She had a blast and asked the guide if we could come back tomorrow. :) 

Next week is all about EARTH DAY! Have you read this book?!

I LOVE Todd Parr! His books are incredible! This is one of my all time favorite books for Earth Day. In this book, Todd writes about some of the small things that we can do to make a big difference for our EARTH. His kid-friendly language and art is so engaging to first grade students. 

After reading the book, I challenge the kids to give the earth a helping hand and make their own Earth Day Pledge. 

Here are a few picture from last year, click here to download the Writing Template for FREE! 

It is official - I registered for the July TpT conference in VEGAS this week! I am looking forward to meeting some other sellers and thrilled that I am going with two of my favorite colleagues at my school. I am sure it is going to be an amazing weekend!   

ZooPals Animal Reports

We finished our ZooPals Animal Reports today! These are my favorite reports to write because my kids do ALL of the work and they are so proud when they are finished. 

 Let me tell you there was a lot of training involved. We spent a week writing an animal report together our the desert tortoise. Click here to read all about it.

Here is a outline of how our Animal Reports went:

DAY 1

I made groups with 2-3 kids per group, I tried to mix ability levels so the groups would be more successful. To determine which animal each group got, we used these "Grow Capsules" that I found in the dollar bins at Target! 

(I gave one capsule to each group)

 Simply place the capsule in hot water and watch as the magic begins! 

(We only have access to cold water in our classroom so it took slightly longer for the magic to begin, but they kids were mesmerized and SILENT as they were watching and waiting...AHHH quiet time) 

Then...

So cute right?!

Then we wrote our planning page for our animal report. We did this whole group and students just changed the animal name to fit their report.

Page 1: What a __ looks like

Page 2: What a ___ eats

Page 3: Where a ___ lives

Page 4: Cool facts about ____.

DAY 2

Let the research begin! We began whole-group by reviewing the topic we choose on our planning sheet.

Each group was given 2 non-fiction books about their animal. They had to work together to write 3 facts about what their animal looks like. They did an amazing job of working together! 

Here is a sample of what the lion group wrote for page 1 (What a lion looks like)

DAYS 3 - 5

Research and writing days. Each day we began by reviewing the topic on the planning sheet and the kids got to work scouring their books for facts that fit the topic. 

 

 DAY 6

We spent day 6 editing and revising our reports. I met with each group that day to read and help them revise their reports. 

Day 7

Publishing and Presenting! 

I am a techie teacher and I try to get my students really excited about using technology. We went to the computer lab and typed our reports. It took a little time but the kids were so proud of themselves!

(WARNING: THIS IS NOT OUR FIRST TIME TYPING and this may set you over the edge if you don't have helpers). Having students work in their groups to type is also a great way to publish these reports. 

To be sure kids are engaged during their peers presentations, I have created a little Wild About Animal Reports Book that students complete while their peers are presenting. This just revised my ZooPals Packet on TpT to include this book. Please re-download if you already own this packet.  

The kids were little animal experts reporting their information to the class. It was AWESOME! Click on the picture below to get this packet! 

2014 Update: We took our projects one step further this year and created a large diagram for each animal. Here is the diagram and report that the giraffe, cheetah and elephant groups created. LOVE!