Through their journey, the students would follow these steps to learn more about animals and their habitats:

• Establish background knowledge
• Narrow choices
• Choose animal and classification
• Researching
• Storyboard
• Diorama creation
• Create claymation

Establish background knowledge

This part of the journey took place within the classroom. As a class, the students would establish what they already know about animals, their habitats and their behaviors. KWL's were the most common form of organizational tools that were used. Some classes also used Inspiration or Kidspiration to organize their information.

 

Narrow choices

Teachers and students listed animal choices on the overhead to assist in their group choice.

 

Choose animal and classification

Students, within their groups, decided which animals they would research.

 

Researching

Once the students decided on their animals, they began the journey of researching. There were four components that needed to be included in their research. Textbooks, books, and websites were used to assist the students in their research. The components that were required in their research were:

• habitat
• behaviors
• diet

Storyboard

Within their groups, students needed to create a storyboard of the chosen animal and their habitat. For example, one group decided to focus on penguins and created a storyboard of them sliding down an iceberg into the water.

 

Diorama creation

With the assistance of the art teacher, students spent art class time creating their diorama's based on their storyboards. This took several weeks but the students took ownership and were completely engaged in their own projects.

 

Create claymation movie

Work in progress! Stay tuned for the final product, to be culminated for NECC in July!

 

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