Studying our State

We have begun a social studies unit on our state, New Mexico. The students get some information in first grade about the state flower, bird, and other symbols, so I need to take it a step further. I usually have the students do a research project such as a NM game, poster, book, or puzzle. This year, I decided to do something a little different as their project. I'm going to *attempt* to have the kids make eposters using Glogster. More about that later!

First, we started with a KWL chart and some videos. Today we worked on asking some questions about NM that we want to find the answers to. The students could use questions from their KWL chart or think of new ones. They needed to have at least two Who? What? Where? and When? questions.

As you can see, I typed in some of the questions they shared with the class. They are quite interesting! Then, I paired them up (strategically of course) to do a little research. They were each given 4 sticky notes, a page to organize them, and a book to read. They were pretty excited about the sticky notes. One kid asked why they got to use sticky notes. His partner told him that sticky notes are more fun to write on. My point exactly!

 

 

We'll keep doing this for at least two more days. I want to give them the chance to read different books and have different partners. The next part of the research will involve having the students answer specific questions. Finally, we'll take our research to the computer lab and work on our eposters. I have to admit that even though I love technology, I am a little nervous about being able to help all 24 of them with something they've never done before on the computer. I might just do a demo for them on a separate topic during our lab time in a couple of weeks so they are more familiar with it. I'll keep you posted on our progress! If you live in NM and would like a copy of my research organizers, leave your email in a comment and I'll send them to you.