April 17, 2024

Researching in Kindergarten | Part 2

Welcome to part two! In this post I'm going to share with you how the researching stage of this unit looks like in my classroom. If you haven't already, be sure to check out my last post where I discuss how I introduce the research unit to my class.

For this part of our unit my class will begin their research to answer the following questions:

what does my animal look like (diagram)
where does my animal live?
what does my animal eat?
what is an interesting fact about my animal?

They will utilize the various sources that we've introduced and explored. These sources include NF books from the library, Epic Books, and an online database called Pebble Go. I typically have students spend one day for each of the questions they must answer. This allows them to have ample time to locate the information and copy it onto their planning sheet.

Once their planning sheets are complete, students are now ready to begin creating their published non-fiction books. This stage is completed during our reading and writing blocks because we focus on both reading and writing TEKs.

Diagrams

For this lesson, students have the opportunity to review key text features of non-fiction/informational texts. The one feature we focused on was diagrams. We explored different texts and reviewed how diagrams help the reader understand the parts of something.

I found this awesome video that explores diagrams, too (although, we didn't watch the whole video). It was a great supplement to my lesson. I loved how it included various examples of diagrams and made planning this lesson easier.

Student-Made Diagrams

Now, students were ready to explore Epic Books or the books they checked out from the library to hunt for diagrams of their animals. I provided them their publishing paper where they were to copy the diagram from their source and include at least three labels. I was so proud to see them navigating their sources with such ease.

Preparing for misconceptions or confusion...

One aspect of this lesson that I had to make sure students understood was that they were not so much reading to find information, but rather perusing the pictures to find a diagram. I also wanted them to know that not ALL non-fiction books include diagrams. This meant they would have to look through a variety of books to find this text feature. Luckily, they were pros and were able to find some pretty great examples of diagrams to use for their books.

In part three of our research unit, I'll share how students transfer their information from their planning page to their final non-fiction books. This will be a 2-3 day process where students complete a page that answers the questions: what my animal eats, where they live, and their interesting fact.

Feel free to get my full research unit on TpT!

See you then and happy teaching!

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April 16, 2024

Introducing Research in Kindergarten | Part 1

One of my all-time favorite units in reading/writing to teach is research. Year after year, my students find it to be highly engaging and I see them gaining so much confidence through each of the components. By the end of this unit, my students have truly become experts in their chosen animal and the best part is they've equipped themselves with a multitude of research skills. These skills include:

identifying what sources are/their use and logging into those sources
guiding their research through questions
recording their findings with a graphic organizer
sharing their findings with a culminating writing project and poster

It is always a joy to see the benefit of this research unit and just how engaged students are. Here's what our research unit looks like in my classroom!

Introducing Research

The first week of this new unit our class spends a lot of time building up their schema around the foundations of research. We discuss things such as:

The purpose of research
Steps to research
Facts vs opinions
Sharing our research with others

This helps students begin to conceptualize what research is and how they'll be moving through this process throughout the unit.

Exploring Sources

This year I changed up my introduction to research to include a day where students get to explore different sources. We discuss what sources are and how we plan to use them throughout the unit. The sources we use in our class include:

Non-Fiction books (checked out from our school library)
Pebble Go
Epic Books

I spend a day or two for students to engage with and explore these different sources. At this point we haven't jumped into research just yet, but rather giving students the chance to explore and get excited about the work that's coming ahead.

We discuss the features of each source and students get a feel for the source they prefer and discuss why.

Pebble Go

PRO: In kindergarten, we love using Pebble Go (our district has a subscription) because it's an online source that's easy to navigate and the site reads to the students.

CON: One of the downsides to Pebble Go is that there is a username and password. For my kinders, this is tricky because they're only beginning to read/write. To help with this, I print our username and password for each student and tape it into their supply boxes. This helps me a lot because my more capable students get really good at logging in themselves and that frees me up to help my other students to log in.

So, after I model and they practice logging in, students have time to explore around the Animals section to decide on the animal they're most interested and excited to research about. By the end of this lesson, my students have chosen their animal and have experience logging in to the source they'll be using most often during this unit!

Asking Questions to Guide Research

Building upon their understanding, students then learn all about the steps to research: planning, researching, recording, and sharing. I simplify it into these steps to provide an easy-to-follow outline for my students. Furthermore, I explain that as they become experts they will be researching to answer four main questions:

What does my animal look like?
Where does my animal live?
What does my animal eat?
What is a fun fact about my animal?

First, we discuss how we already come to our research already knowing a little bit about our animals. We take a moment to share out one thing they already know. After this, students then begin to think about the questions that will guide their research in the four areas outlined above (a diagram of their animal, its habitat, its diet, and a fun fact).

I love sharing this video with my students which covers this exact topic:

Now that students have a strong understanding of the purpose behind their research and have guiding questions, they're ready to begin!

I use a simple graphic organizer that helps students track their research. This organizer is already broken into sections for each question students will answer. I collect this organizer after each lesson and pass them back out the next day for the next lesson.

Check out my next post to see what the researching stage looks like in my classroom! And feel free to get my full research unit on TpT!