Research in Kindergarten!

This week I have been in a kindergarten classroom working with the students on their literacy skills and RESEARCHING!  It has been an awesome week and I have to say that I was very nervous going into this week that my plan would be successful!  The kindergarten teacher contacted me and wanted me to come in and work with her class.  I researched on the internet and found some amazing posts about kindergarten students making movies and I immediately decided this is what I wanted to do with the little ones.  The class was focusing on the rainforest and grasslands so, I decided we would focus on researching and making a movie!

When I went in the classroom the first day I used an anchor chart to discuss with the kindergarteners the characteristics of non-fiction texts.  I found this awesome anchor chart on pinterest.  I love this anchor chart because it has wonderful pictures!  Not being an artist myself, there was no way I could recreate this anchor chart so I just saved the picture and put it in my flipchart.  I pulled this anchor chart up on Monday and the students and I talked through each part of the anchor chart.  I had a non-fiction book with me and as we discussed each characteristic I pointed out an example in the book I had.

After we talked through non-fiction text I showed the students the book that I had with me.  It was a book about hyenas (going along with the grasslands theme).  I showed the students my book and had the students ask questions about the book.  The students came up with the best questions!  I wanted to set a premise for reading the book and the questions were the perfect introductory activity!  As we read through the book we found all the answers to our questions!  The students were so excited!  After we read the book, we assigned all of the students an animal that they would be researching!  Their animal would either be from the rain forest or the grasslands.  I sent the students back to their tables to write their own questions about the animal they were assigned!  It was wonderful to see the types of questions the students asked!

The students all asked great questions!  The next day when I went into the room, I asked the students what they remembered about the characteristics of non-fiction next.  One student said, “They have a gallery!”  I was so excited, because I knew she meant glossary!  The fact that she was nearly able to recall the word made me so happy!  So we reviewed what they remembered and then we went over the anchor chart again.  Then, we looked at the questions the the students had asked about hyena’s the day before and I asked the students if we had found out any answers in our reading!  The students, of course, remembered everything we had read!  We wrote two facts from our book about hyenas.  Then I gave the students books about their animals and had them go and read their own books (some of them needed help reading, some did picture walks to determine facts, and some read on their own).  Then after they had read their books they had to write two facts about their animal.  Some of the kids wrote 4 or 5 sentences about their animals!  Another teacher walked in the room while the students were completely absorbed in reading and writing and asked the students what they were doing.  All of the students popped up and said, “We are researching!”.  They were so excited and the teacher was so impressed!

So today when I went into the room we had the kids draw pictures of their animals (for the movie) and then we put the students into groups so they could work with their group on facts about the rainforest.  The group had to work together and decide on which facts they should write about the layers of the rainforest.  I don’t have pictures of those because we put them up on the bulletin board outside the classroom.  The collaboration part was a little hairy as the students hadn’t ever done something like that before and were a little unsure of what I wanted them to do.  I am confident that if I continue to work with them, they will improve in their group work skills!

Tomorrow we will put our movie together!  I am going to record the students with masks on as their animals!  They are going to present their facts and their pictures.  After I get this activity under my belt I will continue to branch out into other movies with the kindergarteners!