We Are Bat Experts!

The students enjoyed learning about bats during our science lessons and reader's workshop.  We used bats to practice identifying main idea and detail and to learn about nonfiction text features.  I am impressed that the children learned so many interesting facts about this intriguing mammal!    The children have learned how to use many ipad apps this year to share their knowledge and to express their thinking.  These apps include Explain Everything, Recap, Seesaw, Pic Collage, and iMovie.  Pretty impressive!  What is even more impressive is how they rose to the challenge of sharing what they learned about bats in an app of their choosing. I love how when I set high expectations, my students often surpass how I envision the final products will be.  This project was one of those times! After creating their own nonfiction bat books with Miss Teixeira, they brainstormed all the facts they learned and we added them to the KWL chart.

Normally, the class and I work together to create a single bat movie.  This year, with our expansive knowledge of open-ended apps, I proposed a challenge for a culminating activity.  Students were very excited to learn that they could choose their partner, determine which facts they felt were important to highlight in their project, and then do some research on their own.  I wish I could share the pure excitement that fell over the room as the class got right to work collaborating with their peers.   After a little bit of time researching with their partners, we came back together as a group to decide some key science words and some topics that would be beneficial in helping everyone organize their information.  

Then, after a little more research...

...the students were ready to produce their final product.  I showed them some examples of how to organize and categorize information in some videos and collages I had created, which got them even more eager to start.
Mrs. Baker came into our room to help with production.  Many students took the knowledge they had learned about certain apps from the guided practice we had done throughout the year and got right to work independently.  Mrs. Baker, Miss Teixeira, and I were all extremely impressed and proud of the leadership, collaboration, creativity, decision making, and problem solving we saw occurring while groups worked pretty quietly around the room.  Kids were respectfully discussing the order of pictures (such as using the life cycle - from baby bat, to growing and eating, to adult bat) to grouping facts into categories.  I was a very proud, happy teacher, especially knowing I was doing all of this with Kindergarteners!
I took the list of ways we discussed organizing the information and created folders with Google images in our class Google Drive account, so that students did not have to search the internet and could work responsibly in a controlled internet environment. 

 I admit, I was a little nervous how production would go as this was the first time I introduced how to find and download pictures in Google Drive, which was silly because these students were observant listeners during the instructions!

Without further ado, I present our bat movies.  Children choose to complete this project with the app Explain Everything or iMovie.  Their favorite part was being able to take pictures of each other, import them into Explain Everything, crop themselves, and then add themselves to a bat picture.  Their creativity will make you smile!
 
I am so glad I gave this project a try!  Fantastic job, boys and girls! Thank you, Mrs. Baker, for all your help and support!  We love having you come in to work with us!
Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.2

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.6

With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.7

Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.8

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.