Monkey Reports

We are having the best time finding research about monkeys.  I usually like to use the K-W-L chart as a starting point but I have found the above chart to be a nice change.  First I asked the students what they thought they knew.  Then as we found the information in books we put a checkmark to confirm that it was true.  We also recorded new learning in the last column.

I still LOVE to have the students organize information that we have found using the above chart organization.  We call these our notes!  Students keep a copy of their own notes in their research folders.

I also love having the students draw a visual for new vocabulary learned.  These terms will go in our glossary that will be put at the end of our monkey reports.

These are the pages that were included in our monkey reports.  A table of contents came first, our research report next, then our glossary which included new vocabulary learned, and finally our notes.  This report really helped us stay organized and focused and we had a wild time learning all that we could about monkeys!
Have a great week!

Student Writing Checklist

We have been working very hard on our writing these past few weeks in first grade.  One chart that has been really helpful is our Student Writing Checklist which we keep in our Writing Folders.  After writing a piece of work, each student goes through the five part checklist to make sure they remembered all of the important stuff. This checklist has really cut down on my reminders and it has helped our writing time run smoother.