Like I have mentioned before, we use the project based inquiry teaching style in our classroom. This was our first big study and project of the year and the children did such a great job! What I love about project based learning is the important skills that the children gain from it. It starts with driving questions (in this case, what we wanted to learn about different animals) which leads the study. In finding the answers to these questions, the children learn about inquiry, questioning, researching, making predictions, documenting, writing, and creating projects that show their learning. After they finish the project they get the opportunity to demonstrate their speaking and listening skills by sharing and presenting their projects to others. With this project the students got the opportunity to share with their peers throughout their research process. After a couple days of researching, we came together and each group shared facts they had learned about the animals they were focusing on with their class. Then like you will see below, the children got the opportunity to share with their families at our open house. Then throughout the day Friday we had many classes visit to hear about our study as well.
The children worked really hard to get ready for our open house and it turned out great! We studied snakes, rabbits, foxes, and deer and we laid out each animal group's project on the tables. Each table included their clay animals, habitats, group projects, non-fiction books, that animal's pelt, and library books about that animal. Our open house turned out great and we had many families come to see our hard work. Thank you to everyone who came to support our children and their hard work!
Fox Group
Deer Group
Snake Group
Rabbit Group
At the open house, families walked around the room as students shared their work and projects on the animal they studied. They also shared the other groups work and projects. Families also enjoyed donuts and orange juice for breakfast.
Throughout the day, many different classes came to our classroom to hear our children present their learning about the animals to them. Each group presented their project to the classes and then they walked around to observe all of the animals, habitats, books, and pelts on the table as they asked questions to our 'experts' who answered their questions and shared their non-fiction books with them. Below are pictures of each group presenting.
Fox Group
Deer Group
Snake Group
Rabbit Group
Below are pictures of different classes observing and our children sharing their hard work with them.
Mrs. Atkin's friends also studied Ohio wild animals and we got to go to their room and see their hard work and projects as well. It was awesome to see and learn about four different animals (coyotes, blue jays, skunks, and squirrels) as well as to see the different ways they demonstrated their learning.
We all learned a lot about Ohio animals and had a lot of fun during this study! They all did such a great job and we can't wait to see what they come up with next! The children are still very interested in animals and have expressed an interest in arctic animals and now that we have learned how Ohio animals prepare for cold weather, they want to learn about animals that live in cold weather all of the time! It has been a great year so far and I can't wait to see where 2014 takes us with this study. Thank you for a great year and we hope for your continued support and encouragement for the continuation of the year!
Have a great rest of your break!
Mrs. Brittany Garrabrant
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