Ending Your Year in Style with Student Presentations

Hi y'all!  My favorite thing to wrap up the school year with is research.  I LOVE having my kids research.  There is something so magical about kids sharing out facts that they read on their own.  It's so powerful y'all!

This is my second year to do a big bird research unit with my second graders and it's been a HUGE hit both years.  The first thing I do is stock up my library with different bird nonfiction books and the kids pick out a bird that they are interested in researching.  I also print out articles for them to read.  I was smarter this year and saved them, so it will save me a TON of time next year. 

Next, I teach them the steps of researching and then I gradually release them.  I teach them to ask questions first and then read to find the answer to their question.  We use sticky notes to collect all of our research.  We wrote the questions on the front of the sticky note and then when we found the answer, we wrote it under the sticky note.

 

After they have collected information about their bird, they start to draft out their own nonfiction book.  We worked on five headings for our books...

• Appearance
• Habitat
• Diet
• Adaptations
• Interesting Facts

Here are three of my kids first page for the diet heading...

We also tie in nonfiction features.  See lots of labels!!

After we finished publishing our nonfiction books, the kids created their cover by drawing the bird's habitat on a piece of white cardstock.  The kids decided that the best covers would be if we didn't leave any white areas on the front.  I agree!  They turned out a-MAY-zing!!

To make our research super fun to present, we also made some bird masks to wear during the presentations.  It was my first time to do some directed drawing and I think they turned out great!!  I showed them how to draw the head (we just drew a rainbow arch) and then I modeled how to draw some of the different bird beaks.  They decided to cut out the eyes on their own and my peacock decided to add feathers to her mask.

The bird masks are a scarlet macaw, red tailed hawk, peacock, and toucan.

Do you want your kids to write their own nonfiction research book to wrap up your year?  You can grab the free template in my store by clicking on the cover image below.

Thanks for reading all about our bird research!