Animal Projects: Posters & Dioramas!

So, as seems to almost always be the case in a split class, I was struggling to find independent science work for my third-graders. After we finished our unit on animals, I needed to go over the states of matter with the second graders. This gave my third graders a chance to dig deeper on an animal! We had already done a l-o-t of work on classification, adaptation, and habitat, so they could apply all those good ideas to an animal of their choice!

We started out by doing some background research on animals in Michigan, North America, and biomes around the world by using technology and other readings in this packet.

After they had done some research, they picked an animal! And did a L-O-T of research! Our school librarian got tired of us. They recorded all their findings on these sheets.

When we were allllll finished, we had to present our findings! I found this way too cute tutorial on how to make a file folder diorama, and they turned out just as amazing as I hoped! A super-cute representation of the animal's habitats. The googly eyes were a big hit :)

 

I can't find the tutorial now- but it was super easy! All we did was make cuts in the folder so they could bend out and be the "3D" part of the diorama.

We also made posters to hang in the hallway showing the school what we learned! (For the life of me, I could not think of a single way to put the dioramas in the hall... It just didn't work.)

Thanks for sticking with us through our animal project! The kids had an AWESOME time!