This week we have had one of those weeks where the afternoon FLIES by because we are packing in so much fun filled learning.
We planted marigolds back on Earth Day and have been keeping track of their progress in our seed observation logs!
We have also been working hard on research, non-fiction writing, and technology. Each student researched an animal of interest. After writing, students used keynote to create an eBook!
Students researched using World Book Online and then took their research notes and created sentences.
My teamie created a template in keynote on a series of slides with a title box, picture box, and text box. I saved 24 of the keynotes as each child’s name so as they worked on it each day they could just click SAVE and all would be safe and sound for the next day.
Students typed their research into each keynote slide and then inserted a picture of their animal that matched the text.
Finally they came to me and read through their eBook a few times before recording it.
As students finished their eBooks I was dealing with the juggling of some students being finished and others still on page one of the keynote. I decided to take the animal writing in a new direction! I had students brainstorm an animal that they felt they were similar to.
Once we wrote our final draft, we were ready to turn ourselves into the animal that we wrote about!
If you think you may be able to use this animal activity, you can grab the paper here!

I love what they wrote, there is some amazing deep thinking happening in some of those comparisons – a great lesson 🙂
I LOVE the technology integration! These kiddos seem truly engaged and look like they are having fun, while learning lots!
Jacqueline
I is for Inspire