We Are Now Herpetologists!

In the past when I have done research projects with the Kiddoes, we have always concluded the project after we finish answering all of our questions. However, I realized this year we were missing a very important step in the process by doing so. Perhaps the most important part of learning is being able to share the new knowledge gleaned. With this in mind, the Kiddoes and I had a discussion about how they could share all the new information learned with the world. They suggested creating a video, website, book, newscast (I loved this idea lol!) and a poster. As a class we decided on making posters. In keeping with the structure of 'we do', 'they do', we completed a poster together to learn what it could look like. The only rules were... it had to have a title and two interesting facts.

I wanted to introduce the concepts of rough draft/final copy to the Kiddoes and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Each Kiddoes received a piece of paper to explore how they wanted to make their poster. I was floored by their engagement with this process. They were chatting, on topic, to each other, finding out what each person felt was the 'coolest' fact. They were using the garter snake books to help with their illustrations and walking back and forth between the chart and their paper to help with writing. 

Yesterday, I handed out poster paper to the Kiddoes. They were extremely excited. I challenged them to re-create their rough draft on the poster! Needless to say they did an excellent job! Watch for the finished creation in their e-portfolios. (They were down yesterday so hoping to get them up on Monday)

All in all this was an amazing process based project enabling the Kiddoes to learn a ton about research and garter snakes. 

a.m.

p.m.