First Graders Conduct Research and Present their Oceans Studies
February 25, 2015 by
We came up with “big ideas” that we wanted to learn about: the human body, technology, recycling and the ocean. We took a vote to see what we should focus on, and the ocean won. We read books and decided to research ocean animals. We chose to focus on sharks, dolphins, fish, jellyfish, silver gulls, penguins and sea otters. We wrote down questions to research like: Why do sharks have to keep swimming? What happens when they stop? How do sea otters eat? Where do Silver Gulls live? How fast can a great white shark swim? Why don’t penguins fly? How do dolphins sleep? And many more. We looked through books to find the answers and found out that sea otters float on their backs and crack open shellfish with a rock and carry their babies on their tummies, silver gulls live in Australia, short fin sharks swim 239 feet in 5 seconds, and dolphins sleep with one eye open.
Then we decided to make dioramas to show the animals in their habitats. We worked in small groups which was hard because we all have different minds and ideas. But working together was fun because we worked with our friends and we liked hearing other people’s ideas. We learned how to listen and to use a little bit of everyone’s ideas so everyone can make what they wanted. We invited our families to come see our dioramas and hear about our research. Everyone was so happy and excited!
