Thematic Unit and THE CORE

The happiness continues in my classroom as the kiddos explore the world of animals.  They LOVE the topic and are pouring through books about every type of animal you can imagine.  We are in the process of narrowing our focus and choosing essential questions.

Partners had a chance to explore the bones.  It was amazing to hear their discussions.  They wondered about so many aspects of the animal as they looked at the bones.  There were guesses about the use and placement of the bones.  Wonderings based on the teeth and how they match up.  Kids wanted to get some books about deer and see if they could look at a skeleton to figure out which bone went with what part of the body.  The science paired with reading was inspiring.

Not sure if you've ever done this with 3rd graders before, but it's an intriguing process (to put it MILDLY).  I created a little Powerpoint to guide them through what is and is NOT an essential question.  Ended the BIG show some examples that might fit closely with their research.

At this point I send them off to work on writing their essential question.  After five minutes they get together with their collaborative study group - basically the kids with similar research topics - to share and question.  Finally they write out their essential question and hand it directly into my hands.

Guess what?  I know you're thinking that everybody had a great question since I'm such a fabulous teacher...but alas it was only four.  Please don't feel too sorry for me because great things came of this disappointing start to the day.  I spent time talking with each of the kids about their research, what they're thinking and if they thought they could write a BOOK about the question they came up with?!?

The mini conferences were AMAZING.  The kids all had real direction and purpose in their thoughts and questions.  Here's just a few of the gems:

• How do birds who don't fly south survive the winter?
• How can we save the tigers?
• Why aren't coyotes endangered?
• How do shark's bodies help them survive?
• How do whales eat?

I'll get back to you soon to share more about notes and focusing in on a topic.