animal research project kindergarten

Investigating Animals: Using Nonfiction for Inquiry-based Research

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Young children are fascinated with the world around them, showing intense interest and curiosity about animals and their lives. Through the use of nonfiction, students can be encouraged and challenged to learn more about favorite animals and to document their findings with graphic organizers. Students begin their inquiry by comparing fiction and nonfiction books about animals, using a Venn diagram. They list things they want to know about animals on a chart. As a class, students vote on an animal to research. They revise their question list, and then research the animal using prompts from an online graphic organizer. After several sessions of research, students revisit their original questions and evaluate the information they have gathered. Finally, students revise and edit their work and prepare to present their findings to an authentic audience.

Featured Resources

Animal Inquiry Interactive: Students can use this online to tool to help them focus and organize their research about animals.

From Theory to Practice

This lesson focuses on teaching primary students doing research with nonfiction, informational material how to document their discoveries. In her Planning for Inquiry: It's Not an Oxymoron! , Diane Parker poses a series of questions that make inquiry-based learning seem essential for elementary grade students: "Do we want them simply to memorize facts and procedures in order to pass a test? Or do we want them to want to know, to seek to know, and ultimately, to understand themselves and their world more deeply as a result of their knowing?" (5). Certainly our youngest students deserve the kinds of richly engaging learning experiences that well-designed inquiry instruction can bring them. Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Access to the Internet
• LCD Projector for full-class use of online Interactives
• Quality nonfiction, informational picture books and videos
• Chart tablets, journals, markers, and other writing materials

Preparation

• Bookmark the Websites about animals from the Resources section as well as any other sites of your choosing.
• Assemble supplies listed above. Ask your school librarian for help gathering books and videos. The Nature Series videos such as “A First Look” distributed by Diamond Entertainment Corporation and the National Geographic Kids videos series are good options.
• Prepare a chart with the heading: “What We Wonder about Animals.” Students will later add headings and supporting questions to define the scope of their research.
• Choose an audience so that the students have a clear idea of exactly who they will be sharing their findings with. Examples might include visitors to a science fair, family members at an open house, and another class of grade-level students. Good writing comes when children research and write on a topic they care about for an authentic and interested audience with whom they want to share their findings.
• Arrange for adult volunteers to serve as scribes or keyboardists as needed.
• Because the Animal Inquiry student interactive will not allow students to save work, for the research phase of the project, print out blank forms from the interactive. Click the Print tab on the opening page and choose the pages you want to print. You can also record these headings and supporting questions on your “What We Wonder about Animals” chart. This will be the basis for the graphic organizers students will create using the interactive to document the findings of their research.
• For a few days before beginning the inquiry lesson, give students an opportunity to experience a variety of informational texts through a genre study of nonfiction by exploring nonfiction, informational texts about animals during read alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading during reading workshop.
• Test the Animal Inquiry student interactive on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

Student Objectives

Students will

• identify the characteristics of nonfiction texts.
• pose questions.
• participate in research.
• document and record discoveries.
• share their findings.

Session 1: Introducing the Genre and Beginnings of Inquiry

• Share a fiction book about animals, such as The Three Bears or The Three Little Pigs , with the class .
• Ask students to compare and contrast this type of fictional book about animals with the nonfiction books from recent reading workshop sessions. Have some nonfiction books on hand for prompting or verifying student responses with concrete examples.
• True versus make-believe
• Facts versus fiction (stories)
• Photographs and sketches versus drawings, collage, and paintings
• Working as a whole group, decide on the questions students want to explore to learn more about real animals. At this point, the questions need to be general, not specific to any one animal.
• Record students’ questions on the chart, under the “What We Wonder about Animals” heading. Usually questions will include questions about what an animal looks like, how it moves and acts, what it eats, where it lives, what its babies are like, etc.

Session 2: Defining the Scope of the Investigation

• Workings as a whole-class, choose an animal to study. Encourage the students to think of animals that they would really like to know more about and have them discuss various animals they might choose.
• Record the list as students brainstorm animals which they have a sincere interest in investigating.
• Give students small pieces of paper and have them sketch or write about the animal they would choose to investigate.
• Make a graph of the votes, and select the animal with the most votes as that which the class will investigate together.
• Review the “What We Wonder about Animals” questions generated during the previous session.
• Ask students if there are any questions they want to add now that they have selected a specific animal, or any questions that they want to eliminate or change. Revise the list according to their responses.
• On an Internet-connected computer with an LCD projector, lead students through a demonstration of the Animal Inquiry student interactive .
• Use the prompts built into the interactive to organize and refine the questions from the “What We Wonder about Animals” chart.
• Be sure students understand how the interactive works since they will be using it during a future session.

Sessions 3–5: Participating in Research

• With students, begin to sort through the books, Websites, and other materials you have collected, and choose those that contain information about your chosen animal.
• If desired, take a trip to the library to collect more information about the animal, introducing students to the process of collecting quality sources. Consult ReadWriteThink Lesson Research Building Blocks: Hints about Print for support in working with students on issues such as these.
• From the very beginning of the research process, emphasize the importance of audience so students have a clear picture of who their audience will be. If several classes are doing animal investigations, it is fun to share the results and be one another’s audiences.
• Help your students understand the needs and interests of their audience, thinking of ways they can choose to present their findings effectively. See ReadWriteThink lesson Teaching Audience Through Interactive Writing for support in teaching students about audience.
• Different groups of readers can explore various texts in guided reading or during paired or individual reading time.
• Help students record information that they find in the appropriate boxes on previously printed-out blank sheets from the Animal Inquiry student interactive. An adult volunteer can help with this process as well.
• As you share the nonfiction, informational texts you have collected, have students record their discoveries. Record from these readings and from students’ other research on their sheets.
• Explore appropriate videos and Websites and record this information as well.
• During the fourth session, have students look at what they have recorded and assess their progress so far.
• What information still needs to be collected?
• Are any boxes still empty?
• Is this information you want to keep hunting for or is this something you are no longer interested in or want to include on your chart?
• What information is interesting, but doesn’t really fit in any boxes?
• Did you find any information that contradicted information you had already recorded?
• How could you find out which is correct?
• The focus of an investigation can change during the course of research. You may find out things that you didn’t even know about and decide to add new questions that you want to explore.
• You can eliminate questions that aren’t interesting or challenging.
• Sometimes you can’t find the information you are looking for with the sources that you have. You might leave those questions for a later time or you might have to find other sources.
• Sources are not equally reliable. Some may give less than accurate information. You need to see what several good sources say and record details that most sources agree upon as the answer to a question.
• Using their observations to shape the direction of their research, have students decide what still needs to be done, and allow time and support to complete their interactives.
• Use adult volunteers to help students type in their findings using the Animal Inquiry student interactive.
• Encourage students to discuss their findings and report what they have learned through their research.

Session 6: Sharing the Findings

• Ask students how they want their information to look in its final form. Since students will be sharing what they learned with their chosen audience, they need to decide how to revise and edit so that the information can be shared effectively with their audience.
• Display large sheets of chart paper with labeled headings and captions reflecting the graphic organizers filled in with the results of the research. Individual students can use their smaller copies from the interactive for their personal journals and then can illustrate and write about a favorite fact that they learned about their animal. Other options might include art created by the students about the animal that would also be displayed. Adult volunteers can help students copy their writing to the larger charts.
• Have students divide up the information to present orally to their audience, present in small groups, or come up with other ways to share the results of their research.
• Once students have experienced a whole-group investigation of a favorite animal, match each student to a fourth or fifth grade buddy and let each pair research an animal of their choice using the same process. Ensure that the older buddies understand the process your class has used in the whole-group investigation. Provide each pair with the graphic organizers complete with headings and captions that your kindergarten students developed, so everyone understands what is to be researched and how the information will be recorded. Make sure that the pairs have a clear sense of the audience with whom they will be sharing their findings. Older students will be able to identify the steps of the writing process being used and may compare this with their own research writing. Book Buddy Biographies is a similar lesson, pairing students to investigate each other’s backgrounds.
• Three other examples of writing reports can be found in the ReadWriteThink lesson Writing Reports in Kindergarten? Yes!
• Older students can extend the animal study to mathematics with the ReadWriteThink lesson plan Bridging Literature and Mathematics by Visualizing Mathematical Concepts , which uses picture books to talk about size and ratio.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Encourage students to assess their the processes and evaluate their work on an ongoing basis. Urge them to decide what is going well and what needs further attention.
• At the end of each day, encourage students to reflect on what they learned and accomplished, and to share those thoughts either orally or in their reflection journals.
• Use mini-conferences as you move around the room during independent reading to talk with individuals or pairs as they explore nonfiction texts. Encourage them to share what they found exciting or interesting.
• posing questions
• participating in research
• documenting and recording discoveries
• sharing their findings
• the animal inquiry graphic organizer
• the journals
• the writing
• identifying nonfiction by its characteristics
• using nonfiction to learn about a topic
• using graphic organizers to record and share their findings
• effectively sharing their findings with an audience

This reflection can easily be done as a celebration as students and teacher share what they noticed, felt, discovered, and learned during this lesson, reflecting on what they accomplished and shared. This is a time to CELEBRATE the learning!

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This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

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• ELEMENTARY TEACHING , INTEGRATED CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES

Animal Research Project for Kids at the Elementary Level in 2024

Whether you are doing a simple animal study or a fully integrated science, reading, and writing unit, this animal research project for kids includes everything you need. From the graphic organizer worksheets and guided note templates to the writing stationary, printable activities, projects, and rubrics.

Thousands of teachers have used this 5-star resource to have students complete self-guided animal research projects to learn about any animal they choose. The best part is, the resource can be used over and over again all year long by just picking a new animal! Learn all about this animal research project for kids at the elementary level below!

What is the Animal Research Project?

The animal research project is a resource that is packed with printable and digital activities and projects to choose from. It is perfect for elementary teachers doing a simple animal study or a month-long, fully integrated unit. It’s open-ended nature allows it to be used over and over again throughout the school year. In addition, it includes tons of differentiated materials so you can continue to use it even if you change grade levels. Learn about what’s included in it below!

What is Included in the Animal Research Project

The following resources are included in the animal research project :

Teacher’s Guide

The teacher’s guide includes tips and instructions to support you with your lesson planning and delivery.

Parent Letter

The parent communication letter promotes family involvement.

Graphic Organizers

There are graphic organizers for brainstorming a topic, activating schema, taking notes, and drafting writing.

Research Report

There are research report publishing printables including a cover, writing templates, and resource pages.

There is a grading rubric so expectations are clear for students and grading is quick and easy for you.

Research Activities

The research activities include a KWL chart, can have are chart, compare and contrast venn diagram, habitat map, vocabulary pages, illustration page, and life cycle charts.

Animal Flip Book Project

There are animal flip book project printables to give an additional choice of how students can demonstrate their understanding.

Animal Flap Book Project

There is an animal flap book project printables that offers students yet another way to demonstrate their learning.

Animal Research Poster

The animal research poster serves as an additional way to demonstrate student understanding.

Poetry Activities

The resource includes poetry activities to offer students an alternative way to demonstrate their learning.

Digital Versions

There is a digital version of the resource so your students can access this resource in school or at home.

Why Teachers love the Animal Research Project

Teachers love this animal research project because of the following reasons:

• This resource guides students through the research and writing process, so they can confidently work their way through this project.
• It is a great value because it can be used over and over again throughout the school year because the pages can be used to learn about any animal.
• It offers several ways students can demonstrate their learning.
• It includes a ton of resources, so you can pick and choose which ones work best for you and your students.
• It is printable and digital so it can be used for in-class and at-home learning.

This animal research packet is great because it can be used over and over again using absolutely any animal at all. The printables in this packet are ideal to use with your entire class in school, as an at-home learning extension project or as a purposeful, open-ended, independent choice for your students who often finish early and need an enrichment activity that is so much more than “busy work.”

The Research Report Process

This animal research project packet was designed in a manner that allows you to use all of the components when studying any animal. Because the printables can be used over and over, I will often work through the entire researching and writing process with the whole class focusing on one animal together, This allows me to model the procedure and provide them with support as they “get their feet wet” as researchers. Afterwards I then have them work through the process with an animal of choice. You may find it helpful to have them select from a specific category (i.e. ocean animals, rainforest animals, etc) as this will help to streamline the resources you’ll need to obtain.

Step 1: Brainstorm a list of animals to research. Select one animal.

During this stage you may want to provide the students with a collection of books and magazines to explore and help them narrow down their choice.

Step 2: Set a purpose and activate schema.

Students share why they selected the animal and tell what they already know about it. Next, they generate a list of things they are wondering about the animal. This will help to guide their research.

Step 3: Send home the family letter.

To save you time, involve families, and communicate what is happening in the classroom, you may want to send home a copy of the family letter. It’s so helpful when they send in additional research materials for the students.

Step 4: Research and take notes.

The two-column notes template is a research-based tool that helps the kids organize their notes. I added bulleted prompts to guide the students in finding specific information within each category. This method has proven to be highly effective with all students, but is especially useful with writers who need extra support.

I have included two versions of the organizers (with and without lines). I print a copy of the organizer for each student. I also copy the lined paper back to back so it is available to students who need more space.

Step 5: Write a draft.

Using the information gathered through the research process, the students next compose drafts. The draft papers were designed to guide the students through their writing by providing prompts in the form of questions. Answering these questions in complete sentences will result in strong paragraphs. It may be helpful to give them only one page at a time instead of a packet as it make the task more manageable.

Step 6: Edit the draft.

Editing can be done in many ways, but it is most effective when a qualified editor sits 1:1 with a student to provides effective feedback to them while editing.

Step 7: Publish.

Print several copies of the publishing pages. I like to have all my students start with the page that has a large space for an illustration, but then let them pick the pages they want to use in the order they prefer after that. I have them complete all the writing first and then add the illustrations.

Finally, have the children design a cover for the report. Add that to the front and add the resources citation page to the back. Use the criteria for success scoring rubric to assign a grade. The rubric was designed using a 20 point total so you can simply multiply their score by 5 to obtain a percentage grade. The end result is a beautiful product that showcases their new learning as well as documents their reading and writing skills.

In closing, we hope you found this animal research project for kids helpful! If you did, then you may also be interested in these posts:

• How to Teach Research Skills to Elementary Students
• 15 Animals in Winter Picture Books for Elementary Teachers
• How to Teach Informative Writing at the Elementary Level

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

• Animal Research Project

Education Standards

Ohio standards for english language arts.

Learning Domain: Speaking and Listening

Standard: Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Learning Domain: Writing

Standard: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts that name what is being written about and supply some information about the topic.

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

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

Ohio Standards for Science

Learning Domain: Life Science

Standard: Living things grow and reproduce. Living things are found worldwide.

Standard: Living things are made up of a variety of structures. Some traits can be observable structures. Some of these structures and behaviors influence their survival.

Animal Anchor Chart

Animal research project google slide, animal research project teacher lesson plan, google kids, kid info-bits, national geographic kids, speaking rubric, lions and tigers and bears oh-my animal research project and google slide presentation for primary students.

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH-my! Help young students practice their research and presentation skills with this fun, hands-on animal research and presentation project. 

Choose Animal

1) Prior to starting this project, you may want partner with your school librarian and/or STEAM teacher. Gather books and other resources to help peak your students interest and help them with their animal research. 

1) Choose an animal that you would like to learn more about. To help you choose:

• Check out the books in our class library.

National Geographic Kids:  https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/

• Kids Info-bits: https://infohio.org/document-library/item/kids-infobits?passthru=Y

Research Animal

** Before students begin researching it would be beneficial to make sure students have previous knowledge and practice with search techniques. For more information on how to teach this check out INFOhio's research module for teachers:  https://success.infohio.org/module/search-effectively/get-ready

1) In a large group create an anchor chart for students to reference back to during their researching. You could create your own on chart paper or use this digital version: 

Animal Research Anchor Chart

2) Use the following links to research your animal:

Kids InfoBits  https://infohio.org/document-library/item/kids-infobits?passthru=Y

Google Kids https://www.safesearchkids.com/google-kids/#.XQ18qFNKhE5

3) Find the answers to the following questions:

• My animal's name is and an interesting fact.
• My animal lives?
• My animal can?
• My animal has?
• Why I chose this animal?

Create Animal Presentation

4) Complete the Google Slide presentation and make it your own.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Q1eT5C01MFq8EDgUb034cS79H-tRl_qhYVJEuM_MnzQ/edit?usp=sharing

• Change the title to represent your animal.
• Change the image.
• Add your name.
• Complete the sentence.
• Add a sentence or two of your own.
• Change the image. 
• Challenge yourself by adding additional slides that tell interesting facts about your animal.

Present Animal to Classmates

Help students practice speaking skills. You may find this free rubric TPT download made by Apples and Bananas Education helpful. 

5) Practice reading and presenting your presentation. Remember to look at presentation rubric to help you prepare. 

Extension Activity

1) To extend this lesson further partner with your schools Librarian, art teaher and/or STEAM teacher and have students create a model of their animal to use with their presentation. Provide a variety of materials for students to use. A quick google search will provide examples to help get your students creative juices flowing. 

1) Use resources provided to create a model of your animal.

Sprinkles to Kindergarten!

Sprinkle some fun into teaching

Sunday, May 12, 2013

• Animal Research Project

19 comments:

I love this! Thanks for sharing! ~ Diving Into Learning

Your projects are great! We are getting ready to learn about zoo animals and this might be fun to try! Thanks for sharing! Michelle

I would love these as a freebie! This would fit right into our zoo unit! The kids already do research and this would be a great way to showcase the information! Thanks. [email protected]

I love that website of Pebbles Go. I have ordered a lot of books from Pebbles this year. I am going to have to see if my principal will get that for us next year. LOOKS AWESOME!! Thanks for sharing! Robynn BusyBees

This would really fit well with the zoo unit we do. I would love to have this as a freebie.

Awesome teaching! Love the rubrics on the boxes. Yep, kinders can research! Jayne smartkidsgammons.blogspot.com

We just finished our animal research, but I would love to have it for next year.. Love the table of contents.. [email protected]

i would love this for next year!!!! :)

I love how you incorporated the research with writing a nonfiction book, complete with table of contents. I'd love to see more in a freebie. :) Thanks for the ideas.

Please do post your organizers and rubrics!

What a great way to bring content and writing together! I would love to try this. Could you please post organizers. I am trying to use technology to share the work we do in class with at home. Have you ever tried podcasting for your students work? or little Bird tales?

Love your animal research projects! So glad I found your blog, I'm your newest follower! ✿Sue✿ ✿ Science for Kids Blog ✿

I really love these - they look so enjoyable for the kids, not the same old same old! Thanks for sharing your ideas - and like the comments before me, I'd love a freebie! Following along now in Michigan, Lynn

....and I just found it - thanks! :) I have a new colleague coming down from 3rd grade - she thanks you too!!

Would love this as a freebie. [email protected]. Thanks!

I would love this also as a freebie! [email protected]

i would love this freebie. Thanks

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Animal Research for Kids with Zoey and Sassafras (Free Printable)

Animal Research for Kids with Zoey and Sassafras

We at Natural Beach Living LOVE everything that has to do with animals and animal habitats . In fact, my kids would have one of every animal if they could. We also love to read and learn new things every day. Recently we received Zoey and Sassafras and fell in love with the series. I think every child will enjoy this spunky little girl and her scientific adventures. Download the free printable below so your kids can enjoy a little animal research of their own.

Animal Research Printable for Kids

If your child is anything like Zoey , they’ll be learning about new creatures, asking questions, and figuring out why animals do and need certain things.

Animal Activities 

In the Zoey and Sassafras series , Zoey discovers she can see Magical animals. She also finds out that she and her mom are the only ones that can help them, but she has to learn about them first. Whether you go searching for animals, they visit you at home, or you find them in a book , learning about animals can be so rewarding.

Animal Information for Students

You might want to click over here and grab the free printable for Body Coverings . It will be a great addition to any animal study, or to add to your Zoey and Sassafras fun.

Subscribe Below for Your Animal Research for Kids Printable

You might want to get a copy of Zoey and Sassafras for your home library. The books are so good we recommend them to all of our friends.

Animal Habitat Activities

Animal habitat activities for kids.

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8 Genius Research Projects for K–2 Students You Will Definitely Want to Try

Turn your K–2 students into researchers and detectives with these fun classroom projects.

PebbleGo  is the award-winning database for reading and research for K-2. It makes learning fun while improving reading and research skills. Learn more about the six different databases—Animals, Science, Biographies, Dinosaurs, Social Studies  and the Spanish-language Animals. 

Research-based learning is often reserved for students in upper elementary or middle school, but this is a skill that kids can and do learn at an early age. Yes, you can teach kindergarteners how to do proper research (i.e. be awesome detectives and readers) . 

Here are eight inspiring research projects on subjects common for the K–2 age group. For each one, we give tips for LEARNING about the specific subject first with key research questions and tasks. Then, we offer a creative project idea, inspired by teachers and educators around the country, for DOING with your students.

1. The World of Bugs

SOURCE: Plain Vanilla Mom

It’s a big, enormous world out there—and there are   lots of bugs in it. This is a good one to start with if you’re teaching young elementary students how to research. Spiders, insects, and bugs will forever be fascinating subjects for kids. So this project should generate a lot of excitement.

LEARNING: Assign each of your students a different bug and have them answer very simple questions like: How many legs do they have? Where can you find them? How big are they?

DOING: This bug fossil activity is fantastic! All you need is modeling clay, plastic insects (which you can get at the dollar store), a magnifying glass, and tweezers or tongs. Your students will love making the little molds, and it will really encourage them to pay attention to detail!

2. Money, Money, Money

Source: 123 Homeschool 4 Me

Understanding the value of a dollar, counting, and even doing small math problems with money are all skills that your students will be doing for years to come. Here’s how you can get them going on concepts now.

LEARNING: Start with the basics and make sure your students know the value of each bill and coin. Once they understand this, talk to them about earning money, saving, and even the purpose of banks.

DOING: Get inspired by this money minibook. Either download a free one (see link above) or create your own version to meet your classroom needs. Create several books for your class or one for each student as a quick reference to help them really understand the value of money.

3. History and Fame

Source: Let’s Explore

Every grade level has history and biographies as part of its curriculum. It’s essential for students to learn about historymakers, inventors, artists, and other important people of the past, and there are lots of fun ways to do this.

LEARNING: The research comes first, so it’s a good idea to assign a famous person to each of your students. Have them do a little biography, answering questions like: When were they born? Why are they famous? Where did they live?

DOING: Now it’s time for the fun part, where students get to be creative in reporting their results. Some teachers have the students get up in front of the class to present on their specific person, while others make it an art project. We love biography poster collages, like the one pictured above, because they really encourage students to focus on the most essential biographical facts.

4. Learning Plant Life Cycle

Source: The Imagination Tree

Learning about plant life is always a popular classroom activity. It’s such a great opportunity to show students how things grow, and help them understand where their food comes from. 

LEARNING: Students can research farming and agriculture, and learn about where food comes from, both locally and around the world. Discover where tropical fruits like bananas and pineapple come from compared to crops in the United States like corn, potatoes, and beans. Help students understand that all plants have a similar start like the beans you will grow in class. 

DOING:  Plant your bean plants in a clear container like a jar. You can use paper towel or cotton balls for the planting so students will be able to see the roots grow and develop. Have students track the plant’s progress. They can measure it, take photos, or draw pictures every few days. Your students will love seeing how it changes so quickly. 

5. Animal Tracks

Source: Green Kids Crafts

Animals are such a big interest area for younger elementary students, and they make lessons instantly more popular. This really useful lesson covers animals, human anatomy, and animal habitats.

LEARNING: When your class studies animal tracks, students can learn a lot about animals. For instance, they can learn about an animal’s size. They can also compare the size of the animal track to their own handprints or footprints for an anatomy lesson. And students can learn about animal habitats, too! We can help our students understand how all of these items are connected.

DOING: Now that your students have learned about animal tracks, have them recreate the tracks using cardboard scraps and sponges. This will give them a real idea of the actual size and shape of different tracks in the wild.

6. Digging into Dinosaurs

Source: Inquiring Minds

Even though they’re now extinct, dinosaurs remain some of the most popular animals with kids. Once you get your students researching, they can learn so much about these magnificent animals that came before us.

LEARNING: Help your students define the words “paleontology” and “paleontologist.” Next, encourage your kids to research different types of dinosaurs. Have them answer questions like: What were some of the big ones? Which ones could fly? What did different types of dinosaurs eat? These will all be important questions to answer before you dive into a project.

DOING: You can steal the sponge idea mentioned above to also create dinosaur tracks. Or for the ambitious teacher, create your very own giant dinosaur skeleton. This teacher outlined the shape for her students and then let them use packing peanuts and empty cardboard tubes to fill the inside.

7. Environment and Pollution

Source: The Owl Teacher

Whether you’re looking for a good Earth Day activity or you just want to teach your students more about environmental issues we are facing around the world, you can bring home the message by studying water pollution. This is a topic that affects millions every single day.

LEARNING: First, learn about the different types of pollution with your students. Air and water pollution are two big ones to start with. Help your kids learn the difference between these two and what they look like. Then ask them a question like, how could pollution affect animals, humans, and the future? Questions like this might seem too big for little minds, but they can handle it!

DOING: It really helps to see this lesson firsthand, and this Freddie the Fish activity is perfect. You’ll definitely want to see this teacher’s step-by-step instructions  describing how she did it, but the basics involve a fish-shaped sponge, plastic containers, and adding different toxins to the water. Your students will really start to see how a little bit of water pollution can really get out of hand quickly.

8. Color Mixing 

Source: Preschool Inspirations  

Color mixing is always a popular activity, and it’s great for hands-on research. Your students will love being in charge of the colors and watching them change before their eyes. 

LEARNING: Talk to your students about primary colors and go over the basics of what happens when you blend colors together. Depending on age, talk to them about why this happens and/or what they are seeing. Work with them to come up with a list or anchor chart about the most common color combinations. 

DOING: There are so many great color-mixing activities out there, including mixing colorful ice cubes or having a color mixing station in the classroom. We also love this project from Preschool Inspirations,  where they make sensory bottles with color mixing. 

Make research for your K–2 students easier by using PebbleGo , a reading and research database specifically targeting younger elementary students.

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Sharing Kindergarten

Engaging Ideas, Activities, and Learning Fun for Kindergarten

Ocean Animal Research Project with These Engaging Printables

June 8, 2023 by Mary Amoson Leave a Comment

Ocean Animal Research Project Printables: Are you looking for an exciting and educational activity to teach your kindergarten students about ocean animals? This is an ideal way to end the school year as a culminating activity! We have a fantastic set of ocean animal printables and research materials that will make learning about these fascinating creatures that are perfect for little learners. This comprehensive resource includes everything you need to get started, from word walls to fact sheets and writing materials. Get ready to explore the depths of the ocean with your young learners and even ocean animals research posters.

Types of Ocean Animals – Word Wall Exploration

To kick off your ocean animal research project, we’ve included a set of six real images featuring specific types of ocean animals. These vibrant visuals can be used to create an engaging word wall display in your classroom. As your students encounter new ocean creatures throughout their research, they can add relevant vocabulary to the word wall, expanding their understanding of these amazing animals.

Comparing and Contrasting with Fact Sheets

Our Ocean Animals fact sheet is a valuable tool for comparing and contrasting different species. Students can use this resource to explore key details and characteristics of the specific animals showcased on the word wall. Encourage your kindergarteners to share their findings with their peers, fostering collaboration and discussion within the classroom. This activity not only enhances their understanding of individual species but also promotes critical thinking skills.

Understanding Anatomy with Labeled Images

Learning about the different parts of an ocean animal is an essential aspect of this research project. We’ve provided images of ocean animals with labels, allowing students to identify and understand various body parts. This visual aid helps them grasp the unique features and adaptations that enable these creatures to thrive in their aquatic habitats. Encourage discussions and ask questions to deepen their understanding of the different roles each body part plays in an animal’s life.

Interactive Learning with Student Versions

To encourage active participation, we’ve included a student-friendly version of the labeled ocean animal images. These printables provide space for students to write in the parts of the ocean animal, reinforcing their understanding of the creature’s anatomy. This hands-on activity not only enhances their cognitive skills but also nurtures their creativity as they actively engage in the learning process.

Creating and Labeling Custom Ocean Animals

Let your students’ imaginations run wild by giving them the opportunity to create their own Ocean Animal Research Project. We’ve provided parts of the ocean animal label pieces that students can use to label their unique creations. This activity sparks creativity and allows students to apply their knowledge about different body parts while inventing their very own marine species. Encourage them to share their creations with the class and explain the functions of the labeled body parts.

Research Made Fun with Printable Books

Our Ocean Animal Research Project printable book is an excellent resource for organizing students’ findings during their research project. They can document interesting facts, draw pictures, and even write short narratives about the ocean animals they explore. This printable book is a fantastic way to track progress, showcase individual learning, and compile a comprehensive collection of students’ research efforts.

Developing Writing Skills with Engaging Printables

To further strengthen writing skills, we’ve included four additional writing printables in this resource. These worksheets encourage students to express their knowledge and creativity through descriptive writing, storytelling, and informative pieces about ocean animals. These writing activities help refine language skills while fostering a deeper connection with the subject matter.

Ten Types of Ocean Animals

Our set of TEN types of ocean animals printables and research materials is a time-saving and engaging way to introduce your kindergarten students to the wonders of ocean life. With its real images, word walls, labeled diagrams, student versions, research books, and writing printables, this resource provides a comprehensive and hands-on learning experience. Dive into the world of ocean animals and ignite your students’ curiosity about the vast and captivating depths of our oceans.

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Writing Unit of Study: Animal Research Project

This free animal research project will provide you with a writing unit of study that will help you build excitement about writing informational text in your classroom.

You can download this free animal research project to help your writers develop their research and writing skills.

This project will be a great fit for your first, second or third grade writing workshop.

This is another free resource for teachers and homeschool families from The Curriculum Corner.

Why should I introduce my students to research through animal study?

Animal research can be a great topic for writing informational text because students tend to be curious about animals.

Nothing seems to spark interest in most kids like learning about animals in our world. Turn their enthusiasm into an engaging animal research writing project.

They can take the time to learn about different habitats and diets.

You can also encourage students to expand their vocabulary by having them create a glossary to accompany their writing.

About this animal research project

Within this post you will find over 30 pages of anchor charts, mini-lesson ideas, writing planners and graphic organizers.

The unit will help guide your students through the complete process. In the end, you will be helping to teach your students how to write their own pieces of informational text.

The intended end product for students is an animal booklet that they can staple together to share with others.

Students who are ready for more advanced work, can create a larger project with less direction.

A description of the mini-lessons

Lesson 1: introduction.

• Begin the unit by having the students brainstorm a list of animals that they might see everyday.
• Then, have them brainstorm a list of animals they see when they visit the zoo or walk in the forest. You can do this on the blank anchor chart provided or on cart paper.
• Another option is to place students in groups. They could work to create a list together.  
• You might assign each group a continent and have them find animals that live there.
• Pull the class together and have each group share what animals they found that live on their continent.

Lesson 2: Noticings

• Next you might want to get your students familiar with common characteristics about informational texts that teach about animals.
• Have them work in pairs or small groups to go through some books and record their “noticings” about the writing.
• Then come together in a community circle to discuss those noticings and create a class anchor chart.

Lesson 3: Opinion vs. Facts

• Before getting truly into this unit, you might need to conduct a lesson on opinions vs. facts.
• After a brief discussion you can use the giraffe paragraph provided in our resources to give your students some practice differentiating between the two. This paragraph contains both opinions and facts.
• With your class read through the paragraph and record facts and opinions on the T-chart.
• Discuss both sides and how they are different from each other.
• A black & white copy of this giraffe paragraph has also been provided.  You can have them work in pairs or groups to distinguish between the facts and opinions.
• If you need more resources for your students surrounding fact & opinion check out our   Fact & Opinion Sort .

Lesson 4: Choosing a Topic for the Animal Research Project

• We want to help students to narrow their topic choices by giving them some guidance.
• Gather students and begin a discussion about choosing an animal research topic.
• For this lesson we have provided two pages where students can individually brainstorm the animals they are interested in.
• You might have students work in groups or independently to make their choice. Conference with students as needed to help.
• Don’t shy away from letting more than one student research about the same animal.  This can be a great way to promote group work. It might also help out with some of your literacy center choices throughout this unit.

Lesson 5: Good Places to Find Information about an Animal

• At this age we want students to begin to understand that all they read online about animals isn’t always true. Sometimes writing might sound true without being filled with facts.
• Show students two possible places to find information online about their animal. One should be a trusted site with reliable and accurate information. Another should be a site that perhaps a child has created.  (There are many that you can find if you search.)
• Pose these questions: Is everything on the internet true? Why?  How can you tell? Why is it important for your research writing to contain accurate information?

Lesson 6: Taking Notes

• Sometimes giving students resources and a blank sheet of notebook paper can be too overwhelming for them. Some students will copy word for word. Others might feel overwhelmed.  We need to guide them to read and pull out facts & relevant information to use later in their writing.
• For this lesson we have provided four templates for note-taking that you might choose to use for your students.
• You might need to provide different organizers to students depending on their needs.
• You will want to model the organizers your students are use. Show them how to take notes as they read.
• After initial teaching, you may find that you need to pull small groups for extra practice. Others might benefit from a conference as you take a look at the notes they are taking.

Lesson 7: Word Choice in Research Writing

• To help students think about making their writing more interesting, have them brainstorm words about their animal.
• Together brainstorm words that would be appropriate for animals. They might add words about what they look like, their movement, their habitats, their life cycles, their diets, etc. You can create a class anchor chart on the page provided.  You might even think about using the real life picture of the wolf in the download. This can get the students to begin thinking of more interesting words for animals (fierce, mighty, strong, etc).
• Then, pass out the individual brainstorm pages. Students can use the anchor chart as a guide to begin their own word choice pages about their animal. This might be a good partner activity as well.

Lesson 8: Writing Sketch for the Animal Research Project

• Next, you can model the writing sketch planner for your class.
• One idea to help your students narrow down all of the information they have learned about their animals is to give them a specific number of animals facts that they can focus on.
• Each of these facts can serve as the actual text that they will put on each page of their animal research book. Or the facts could serve as a focus for each paragraph in their writing.
• You might find that this would be a good mini-lesson to do with smaller groups of children.

Lesson 9: Creating a Table of Contents

• Another idea that can be a writing planner AND a page in their animal research book is the table of contents. Pull out one of the Table of Contents pages from the resources provided and model how to fill in the blanks on each page.
• This page will then serve as their Table of Contents (with a focus discussion on what that is and the purpose it serves) and also their writing planner so they know what they will put in the pages of their booklet.

Lesson 10: Creating a Glossary

• There are two pages provided in the resources that might help your students to learn to pull out topic specific words to put into a glossary for the end of their animal research book.
• Be sure to model how you would like for your students to use these organizers (keeping in mind that you may need to copy more than one page if there are more words than the page provides for).
• If your students need a refresher on ABC order check out these links for some added practice/review: ABC Order Task Cards & Fry Word ABC Order Task Cards

Lesson 11: Writing Your Animal Research

• You will decide on the best method for your students to showcase their published animal research.
• You may want your students to use their own creativity in the texts that they write and share. If you’d like a first experience to provide a bit more guidance, we have provided two different sets of pages for booklets.
• One is more guided and the other has less structure and smaller lines for more writing.  15 pages are provided so that you or students can pick what fits their needs.
• This “lesson” may actually become a series of lessons if you choose to model how each page can be used.  (We have also included a page with simple writing lines in case students need less guidance than the booklet pages provided.)

Lesson 12: Labeling Pictures

• One final lesson idea that pairs well with writing informational text is to teach your students how to label pictures.
• Since most nonfiction writing has real photographs, students can find some pictures online to print out and label for their booklet.  Hand-drawn pictures are also great if you would rather encourage some or all of your students in that direction.
• Whatever you choose, show your class how to effectively label a picture so that it teaches the reader more.  You can use the picture of the polar bear provided to model how to add words or even short facts as labels.  (For example if the simple label “fur” wouldn’t add additional information to the book, you might teach them to label it with a short fact such as “dense fur protects the animal’s skin from the weather”.
• To make this idea more user friendly, you might want them to use the page of blank white boxes provided to write their labels for their pictures.  Then all they need to do is cut them out and glue them to a printed picture.

Lesson 13: Writing Celebration

As always, find a way to celebrate your students’ writing.  

Invite guests (younger students or special adults) to read the books with your young authors. You might simply want to pair or group them, or some students might choose to present their book to everyone.  

Provide some light snacks if possible to give it a party atmosphere and pass out the author certificates to each child for his/her hard work.

You can download this free writing unit of study here:

Writing Download

As with all of our resources, The Curriculum Corner creates these for free classroom use. Our products may not be sold. You may print and copy for your personal classroom use. These are also great for home school families!

You may not modify and resell in any form. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Christine E.

Saturday 8th of May 2021

Thank you so much for this resource and the many pages that I can use in my homeschooling. It is exactly what I've been looking for to help me get my kids to write about our animal units! You are doing a great job, keep up the amazing work you do. I appreciate the hard work you put into putting these together.

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Kid World Citizen

Activities that help young minds go global

Endangered Species Projects and Lessons for Kids

October 2, 2014 by kidworldcitizen 2 Comments

Focus: Endangered Primates

Angelique Felix  asked bloggers to write a post about kids and animals for “World Animal Day” on October 4th. We are huge animal lovers in our house, and decided to share endangered species projects for kids.

Facts about Endangered Species

• An endangered species is one whose numbers are so small that it is at risk of extinction.
• A species is “endangered” or “threatened” when it is suffers: damage to its habitat; disease or predation of the species; and hazards to the continued life of the species.
• Factors that threaten creature on Earth include deforestation, water scarcity, erosion, pollution, climate change, overfishing, oil and gas development, infrastructure, and illegal wildlife trade.
• Around 50% of all endangered species live in the rainforest. The planet’s largest rainforest –The Amazon – lost more than 17% of its forest cover in the last century due to human activity.

Endangered Species Projects for Kids

Step 1. find out: what is an endangered species.

Use this simple power point to introduce the term “endangered species.”

STEP 2: Learn about a specific endangered species

We chose 3 endangered primates, from 3 different parts of the world:

Silky Sifaka Lemur (from Madagascar) Roloway Monkey (from Ghana) Cotton-Top Tamarin (from Colombia).

When I used this in my class, I made groups of 4-5 students to study each endangered primate. I researched and wrote reading passages (informational texts, aligned with Common Core- available here) about each of the endangered species. First, the kids read the passage about their primate to themselves. Next, they read it aloud in their small group, taking turns reading paragraphs while going around in the circle. Each group became “experts” on their specific endangered species.

An info grid (also available here ) is a visual organizer where students could fill out important information about their species. Later, during the presentations, students needed to listen to the information about the other species and fill in the remaining boxes in the info grid.

Students watched the following videos that gave more details on their endangered species. Videos are great when you can find animal scientists that are clear, and give detailed information for the kids. Since we couldn’t take a field trip to Colombia, Madagascar, or Ghana:), we especially loved being able to see the animals climbing around:

Cotton-Top Tamarin

Roloway monkey (also called “diana guenon”), silky sifaka, step 3: present the information.

Each child can take a couple of minutes to present the information that they learned about their endangered species- giving features about their habitat, food, characteristics, unique behaviors, their location (use a map!), and the biggest threat to their survival. After reading and watching videos, the kids really do feel like experts and enjoy sharing their knowledge. The other kids should pay attention to the presentation so they can fill in their info grids with the pertinent details.

Step 4: Take Action!

Kids might feel overwhelmed that they are unable to do anything to help (at least my kids did!). A major way to help endangered animals is to spread awareness. Students can take part in this by making posters and hanging them in school hallways, the public library, or even hanging in their rooms to show their friends—sharing what they’ve learned with everyone who walks by!

My sister is the phenomenal artist that hand-drew these coloring sheets of our endangered primates  for our posters.

In the Endangered Primate Unit we also have an activity that looks at the problems (the reasons or threats to the endangered species), the reason behind the problem, and then the kids come up with an action that they can do as kids to help prevent it in the future.

This is a great way learn problem solving, in a meaningful lesson:

Step 5: Endangered Species Art Project

After learning about their unique physical features, using a paper plate and the templates available here, we made these awesome endangered species masks with felt, fabric, and lots of soft feathers. Interdisciplinary units cross subjects areas and integrate a variety of skills: reading, science, art, oral presentation. I have seen that interdisciplinary lessons increase students’ success, interest, and make the unit more meaningful as it engages different intelligences across the same topic.

In the huge Endangered Primate Unit, I included additional exercises (and their answer keys) that include math, vocabulary, science, journal writing, cursive handwriting sheets, a webquest, and a geography mapping activity (most are Common Core-aligned):

• Alphabetical Order Activity with Key Science Terms
• Science Career Path Matching Game
• Endangered Species Math Word Problem Worksheet
• Estimating Fun! Math Worksheets (Numerical and Word Problems related to endangered species)
• Endangered Species/Environmental Journal Prompts Printable
• What Makes a Primate? Handwriting Sheets
• Endangered Animal WebQuest
• Mapping Endangered Primates Geography Activity

Endangered Species: Three Primates

Check out all of our Common Core aligned activities about three endangered primates that can be used to introduce endangered species in a classroom or home setting. All materials can be found at the Kid World Citizen store at Teachers Pay Teachers ! A wide range of activities incorporate math, science, balanced literacy, and art. Go now >

Additional Resources for Endangered Species Projects

This endangered species animal list, with detailed information and photographs about locations, habitats, food, size, threats, and more. At Kids Planet,  there are also fact sheets on over 50 animals.

A  thorough list of endangered species is maintained by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). It is astounding to read the actual numbers of animals left in the world of each species:

• 30 Amur Leopards
• Less than 35 Javan Rhinos
• South China Tigers are believed to be extinct in the wild

Read the Top 20 Countries with the Most Endangered Species.  Led by Ecuador, the US, and Malaysia, this infographic is easy for kids to read and inspired my kids to find out more.

Free Endangered Species Coloring Book from EPA  (click “get a copy”)

Free Endangered Species App from WWF

Possible Extension Activities

After the activities above, students can choose an endangered species they would like to learn more about.

1) Have students create a newspaper article about the endangered species of their choice. Include the following:

• Explain why the species is in trouble
• Describe it’s habitat, food sources, and predators
• Write ideas of how people can help

2) Have students think of 20 key words related to their endangered species, including adjectives, nouns, and verbs. Using these words on Tagxedo Word Cloud Generator, students can make a word cloud all about their animal. These word clouds make a class display, and can also be shared on the class blog.

Check out all of our Common Core aligned activities about three endangered primates that can be used to introduce endangered species in a classroom or home setting. All materials can be found at the Kid World Citizen store at Teachers Pay Teachers ! A wide range of activities incorporate math, science, balanced literacy, and art. Go now > If you’d like to see more activities for kids who love animals, check out the wonderful series from the Kid Blogger Network: “Children Loving Animals” for World Animal Day, October 3rd.

By Category

October 2, 2014 at 11:18 am

Wow, this is such an important contribution to the World Animal Day event of us kids bloggers. I enjoyed very much reading you super interesting post Becky! Thank you for your participation and I hope we can change the world a little bit 🙂

[…] Endangered Species Projects and Lessons for Kids: Kid World Citizen […]

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• Categories Literacy , S.T.E.A.M. , Science

Kindergarten Writing Lessons: Animals

• Greg Smedley-Warren
• April 21, 2024
• No Comments

Writing and research are among the most intimidating things to do in kindergarten, so hopefully, these kindergarten writing lessons will make things easier!   Research involves a great deal of reading, comprehension, and vocabulary.  And then you have to be able to translate that into writing.  That is a daunting task for kindergartners and all early childhood classrooms. Daunting is not impossible, though. Our zoo Animals Research Project makes kindergarten writing lessons fun and engaging! And it’s aligned with the science of reading!

Kindergarten Writing Lessons: Zoo Animals Research Project

We use read-alouds and videos for our research.  We use graphic organizers to record our research and learning.  Then, we used the organizers to complete our research journal.  And finally, we use all of those resources to write!  Not only are we learning to research and write, but we’re also meeting science standards as we learn about animals, habitats, and adaptations!

Kindergarten Writing Lessons: Animals: Research Project

For each animal, we do a read aloud and for some animals, we watch a video. This is how we conduct our research. As we read, we record our learning and information on our graphic organizer. We complete the graphic organizer during the read-aloud. This allows us to focus on the learning. If we wait until after the read-aloud, it becomes an assessment, and we don’t want that. We’re also building language and do explicit vocabulary instruction, which is a cornerstone of our TKS research projects.

The students then use the graphic organizers to help with their writing. This is also when we work on writing instruction. We model conventions of writing, punctuation, etc. We encourage students to write on their own if they’re ready, but they’re also encouraged to use the graphic organizers. Some students might write on their own or some might copy from the graphic organizer. Those are both ok! Meet students where they are!

Kindergarten Writing Lessons: Animals: Labeling

To bring in explicit phonics instruction and learning about adaptations, we label the parts of the animals. We define each part of the animal, and the kids explain how the parts help the animals and how they are adapted to their habitats.

Kindergarten Writing Lessons: Animals Culminating Task

Students complete a culminating task at the end of our Zoo Animals Research Project. This allows students to apply what they’ve learned in a fun way. The task is to choose an animal for our zoo (an animal not already at the zoo) and design an exhibit for the animal. The exhibit must have the correct habitat and be designed for animal adaptations. They also create a sign for the exhibit with information about the animal.

Our Zoo Animals Research Project has everything you need to learn about animals:

Included activities:

• Schema maps
• Suggested read alouds
• Graphic organizers for 22 different animals
• Labeling activities
• Habitat sort
• Zoo exhibit design task
• Writing activities and rubrics
• Math and literacy centers

Zoo Animals Art Projects

Art projects are a must in any classroom, so we do fun art projects for each animal. This might a directed drawing, a handprint painting project or another type of art project. I model each step and the students complete their own project. No templates or patterns are used.

Animals Snacks

We also make fun, simple animal snacks to celebrate our learning!

The lion snack is two graham crackers with peanut butter in between the two crackers. Students insert pretzel sticks for the mane and add chocolate chips for the eyes and nose and a pretzel for the muzzle. The second snack is animal parfait: yogurt, granola, and animal crackers.

Animals Green Screen Pictures

My class loves using our green screen so students get to choose their favorite animal and pose for a picture!

For more resources, check out these creations:

For more resources and ideas, check out these blog posts:

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