A new non-fiction book about baby animals in our classroom library sparked an exciting conversation about pets, which ultimately led to the beginning of our new investigation. I knew the kindergarteners were ready for an investigation that would still be hands-on but could also incorporate a bit more of a traditional research element as well. Plus, talking about our pets would be another great way for us all to get to know each other a little bit better and learn about responsibility and caring for animals in the process.
We started by thinking about all the pets we know,
which very quickly turned into an interesting and animated conversation about which animals are pets, which ones aren't pets, and more importantly...why?
Our play center had been neglected for a while because we were so busy with simple machines, so our switch to pets seemed like the perfect opportunity to spice it up. We opened a vet area and a puppy salon, both of which were huge hits and inspired new friendships and new types of play.
We filled our classroom with pet books and immediately began checking them out...
Strudel (my guinea pig) came to join our kindergarten family. Having a real live pet would undoubtedly provide us with numerous opportunities for hands on learning - wondering, observing, hypothesizing, caring, and more.
The kiddos loved getting to know our new pet.
Strudel had only been in our classroom for a few days when the kids decided he needed a play area.
They quickly discovered he could jump out of his play area, so they immediately troubleshooted by making it taller.
Of course Strudel needed a cute Valentine's Day outfit too!
The more we watched Strudel, the more we wondered.
We began recording the things we noticed and wondered about him.
We could find the answers to some of our wonders simply by observing Strudel,
and the other answers we figured out using guinea pig books. The kiddos were SO excited to realize they could learn by looking closely at the pictures in non-fiction books. Recording a key word on a sticky note was a very manageable strategy for reflecting on what they learned from each picture.
Then we used our information to write our own non-fiction book about guinea pigs.
One of the things we discovered was that guinea pigs come in all different shapes, breeds, and sizes. Each of the kiddos painted their favorite type.
As we prepared to expand our investigation to additional types of pets, I added a "how to draw pets" book to our classroom. The book was a huge hit, and it was especially exciting to see some of the kiddos who don't color as often trying it out.
Each kindergartener was invited to bring in a stuffed pet that they wanted to learn more about (and also play with of course). The stuffed pets made our research component a bit more hands-on and also encouraged new types of play in our block area.
We activated our schemes by writing something we already knew about our pets, and then we reviewed our chart from earlier in the year of ways we could learn more.
Then we got to work researching with books
and sharing our favorite things we learned.
so we learned even more about them by watching related videos.
We also learned how to research on the Ipad using PebbleGo.
Then we created projects to showcase and share all the things we had learned.
Discovering that they could learn about whatever they want simply by looking closely and thinking deeply about the pictures in non-fiction books was such an exciting realization for many of the kids. Several of them even begged to be allowed to work more on their pet "research" during recess!
Several pet songs and finger plays added an important musical component to our investigation.
Books and iPads are very useful tools for learning, but nothing beats learning from experts and the real thing. We wondered, looked, listened, and learned all about service dogs,
about the 4th graders' class chinchilla,
(several of the kids couldn't wait to create their own chinchilla cage!)
about Eleanor's bunny,
about Ms. Carter's bearded dragon,
about the Jennings' cat,
and even about Franklin the tortoise.
But don't worry...amidst all the pet excitement we didn't forget to love on our Strudel.
In addition to learning how to write All About books, we tried out a few other animal related writing techniques as well. The kindergarteners loved using the information they had learned about their pets to write riddles for their classmates to solve.
Pretend stories starring pet characters were big hits as well.
I'd also been hearing a lot recently about opinion and persuasive writing. I was interested in these genres because of the deep thinking they would seemingly encourage, so I decided to give it a try (on a kindergarten level, of course!).
Each kid chose a pet to represent, they wrote 3 reasons why that type of pet is the best,
they dressed up as their pet,
and then they tried to persuade their classmates that they really are the BEST pet.
The following morning we thought about everything we had learned from each other the day before and made a graph representing which pet we truly think is best. Upon analyzing our graph we realized there is no such thing as a best pet. We all have different opinions because we're all looking for different things in a pet.
There continued to be a lot of interest in our step-by-step pet book, so I set out all the pages and let each kiddo pick one to try out and ultimately turn into a colorful piece of art.
It's always amazing to see how focused and determined they are when working on their art projects.
There continued to be so much excitement in our classroom about pets, so I decided to keep our investigation going even after our week off for spring break. I could tell the kids had learned a lot about different types of pets (and of course all wanted to get more pets...sorry parents!), but I didn't get the sense that they understood the responsibility aspect of caring for pets. I decided to design activities that would encourage them to think a little more deeply about the topic.
One day we thought of all the ways people take care of pets, and the following day the kids put their name next to the way that seemed the hardest. During our morning meeting we shared our opinions and explained why. It's such a fun challenge as a teacher to find as many moments as possible to get the kiddos to think deeply...especially about topics with no right or wrong answer.
Then we tried out the how-to writing genre by writing about how to take care of various pets. "Give them love" was definitely one of my favorite steps :)
As they started thinking more and more about taking care of others (pets) and not just themselves, I seized the opportunity to continue to push the kindergarteners to think beyond themselves by preparing them for a trip to the ASPCA. A sweet story about a little blue dog helped them begin to understand about the ASPCA's important role in our community.
Since the ASPCA works so hard to take care of the homeless animals, we wanted to help the ASPCA. With very little prompting the kiddos started thinking of things they could do. We made a collection box and decorated it with items they thought of bringing in to donate,
they wrote down some of their donation ideas on reminder cards,
we worked together to bake dog bones (and in the process learned how a recipe is similar to how-to writing),
and then followed even more how-to's to make dog beds (learning to tie knots was a big challenge!)
cat toys,
and kitty hideouts.
Some of the kids started wondering what animals we might see on our visit. We decided that if we could figure out which pets are the most common that would help us know what pets would be the most likely to end up at the ASPCA. This seemed like a perfect moment to revisit bar graphs because I really wanted the kids to understand that bar graphs are about information...not winning. We split up into groups and walked all around STAB asking folks what kinds of pets they have.
Each kid collected their information on their own bar graph,
and then we added our information together into a master graph. The dog column was as tall as some of the kiddos! We concluded that we would be most likely to see dogs and cats on our visit...although there were a surprisingly large amount of "other pets" represented in our school community (mostly because people included their chickens in our count!)
The kindergarteners were SO proud of how much they had collected and made to donate!!
Off we went. You can't even imagine how excited they were for our visit!!
I was curious to find out what stood out the most from our visit, so the following morning each kid reflected on something interesting they noticed and/or learned.
We thought about how kind Ms.Chelsea was to take time to show us around and introduce us to some animals, so we decided to thank her by writing a note. Even though we had focused on letter writing several months ago, it was exciting to discover how many kiddos remembered the important elements we needed to include.
Off we went to the mailroom so we could learn about how Ms. Thomas weighs and stamps the STAB mail.
The same week we were busy preparing for our visit to the ASPCA, the author Suzanne Chitwood visited kindergarten to teach us about her writing and illustration techniques. Several of the kiddos were eager to try out her torn paper technique, so we ended our pet investigation with torn paper pets. Turns out torn paper pictures give our fine motor skills quite a workout, but as always, the kindergarteners persevered.
Now we're officially headed off to explore space in preparation for our moon party...
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