This morning the kindergarten class was proud to present their ocean animals that they have been studying. This process began more than a month ago, when Mrs. Brace and I collaborated on a new idea I had. In past years, student have researched an ocean animal at home as part of a Family Project. This year I decided to teach students research skills. Mrs. Brace and I came up with eighteen ocean animals whose names I wrote on individual pieces of paper. I put the paper into a jar, and students picked an animal at random.

Once the animals were chosen, students were given a book and an iPad with information on their animal and a worksheet I had created. Students practiced reading for information and formulating their own thoughts on their topics. Here is an example of the written report:

 

The next step was for students to draw their ocean animal using the program KidPix.

Following the illustrations, students recorded their voices. I created the report to enable the students to easily read their research in complete sentences. Therefore, recording was a breeze. The final step was for the students to create a Blabberize using the website blabberize.com. This website takes pictures that you have uploaded and allows you to make a mouth that moves when you talk!

Here is a link to our final projects! Enjoy!

https://sites.google.com/a/lbsstudents.org/kindergarten-ocean-animals-2015/home

I am so proud of the kindergarteners hard work with this project! A special thanks goes out to Ms. Remick, our Technology instructor, and Ms. Horibe, for their help.