We recently wrapped up our integrated
study on mammals, camouflage, and map-making (geography) in room 14.
From day one of this unit the students have shown genuine enthusiasm and
interest in learning about their favorite mammals and discovering new
mammals from all over the world.
Our unit began with the reading of Mammals by Adele Richardson.
From the read-alouds we learned what makes a mammal a mammal (as opposed
to reptiles, amphibians, etc.) and mapped out our acquired information
with a bubble map. I also took this opportunity to introduce features of
non-fiction texts. Throughout the rest of the week we continued to
participate in shared readings that introduced new vocabulary words,
which we illustrated on post-it notes as we were reading.
The historical figure that was integrated into the unit was Jane
Goodall. We had two read-alouds that the students had to narrate back at
the end of their reading on her life working with the chimps: Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell and The Watcher by Jeanette Winter.
The students were really excited when at the end of the week they were
partnered off and given a big zip-lock bag of plastics animals, which
they then had to sort out the mammals from the rest of the differing
creatures found within our huge animal kingdom. They then had the choice
to play some of the various mammal and camouflage file folder games I
had on hand, or they could participate in a challenge sort: sorting
their group of mammals into groups of carnivores, herbivores, and
omnivores.
Students were then divided into small groups to collaborate in designing
and building a 3-D zoo with exhibits for four mammals of their
choosing. The groups had to then look at all the materials provided to
them (which consisted mostly of construction paper, markers, and various
types of blocks that were pulled from our classroom tinker station),
their mammals, and then consider what their exhibits would have to have
in order to reflect the mammals given habitats. As the children were
building, I interviewed each group--asking them questions to explain and
support their decisions.
The final component of our unit integrated information writing. Each
student picked a mammal of their choice to research and write on. During
this latter half of the unit, students learned that researchers read
informational texts to gain knowledge on their topic, the difference
between writing information and narratives, and the structure of
paragraph writing. Student's were given a plan to help support them in
their writing.
