Garter Snake Research

Every year around this time I begin a research project with the Kiddoes. Last year the K's and I were talking about snakes and ended up in a garter snake research project. I wasn't sure what kind of project to enter into this year, so a few days ago I showed the Kiddoes a video about different 'creepy crawlies' we have begun to see as spring has arrived. My hope was some wonder questions would arise from the video. Lo and behold, in both classes, the Kiddoes were all most intrigued by the snake portion of the video.....

Yesterday and today when the Kiddoes came to school, I had a picture of a garter snake projected on the screen. The Kiddoes independently got their pencil boxes and wonder journals, sat down and began to 'wonder' about the picture. After about 20 minutes, they uploaded their wonders to their e-portfolios (check it out) and then shared them with their friends.

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I then introduced the Kiddoes to a 'K-W-L' chart. This chart allows us to write what we Know, what we Want to know, and later what we Learned. We quickly realized we didn't know many 100% facts about garter snakes. However, we were able to fill up the 'want to know' section quite quickly. When we were finished 'wondering', I asked the Kiddoes how we were going to find answers. The following was their reply.

                                                   

Right away one of the Kiddoes asked if we could go see Mrs. Wills in the library. They figured she would be able to help us with finding information books. They were right!

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It will be an exciting few weeks in our K room as we turn in researchers! Keep tuned to see what we learn!

PLEASE NOTE

When you are looking at your child's wonder work in his/her e-portfolio, please do not be surprised if you notice his/her words may not match what he/she is saying. The purpose of this activity is not to have everything spelled 100% correctly, rather, teaching the Kiddoes how to get their ideas down on paper and to use their emerging strategies to do so!