Our Nonfiction Adventure

As you probably know, we have been working on nonfiction for quite some time now.  First, we learned about the text features in nonfiction books.  We spent a lot of time reading and thinking about how this type of book worked.  Here is the chart that we created together and referred to often:

Next, we decided on an animal to study.  Some kids picked animals they already knew something about and were comfortable with and others chose animals they wanted to learn more about.  The kids spent several days reading books about the animal the picked and learned many facts about their animal.

The next step was to use a planning sheet to draw a diagram and record three facts they found out about the animal they studied.  Here is an example:

Once the planning was finish, the kids began to write their own nonfiction books about the animal that they chose.  The really enjoyed writing their nonfiction books and produced some fabulous writing!

Finally, we worked together to paint murals for our animals.  We created an ocean mural and a land mural.  Each child painted a portion of the background of one of the murals and then painted his/her animal on the appropriate background.  We really enjoyed this creative adventure!  Check it out:

Painting the ocean background

And the forest/rainforest background

Adding the animals

 The finished murals

 

The proud artists!