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A GIANT STEP FOR SMALL FEET
Short, Focused Research Projects for the Primary Grades

Introduction | Background Knowledge | Activities | Extensions | Standards

Introduction

The famous American astronaut Neil Armstrong is quoted as saying that "research is creating new knowledge," and research, as defined by Western Sydney University, is "the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new or creative way to generate new concepts…" What do teachers do then with the littlest learners, where everything creates new knowledge? Teachers guide them and provide support for their research experiences. Preschoolers and kindergarteners can research. Even special needs students can do research; they just need more support. Do not be afraid to do a research project with younger students! It is exciting and rewarding and sets them on the path to success!

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Background Knowledge

Research is finding information to establish facts and draw conclusions. Primary-aged students can do this at a basic level. While they are typically unable to draw conclusions based on research, they can make connections to the process and the product. Primary students need specific research tasks to be successful. For example, a teacher cannot tell a five-year-old to research a bear. Instead, they can ask the child what new thoughts they want to learn about a bear and then provide a supported experience to find the answers to those questions.

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Activities

All About Animals

  • Animal research is a great place to start with primary-aged students. This project takes about a week with daily work or about five weeks in a weekly library setting. Begin by discussing finding information; creating an anchor chart (a visual connection of text and often hand-drawn images) reminds the student of the text's meanings. Start by creating an anchor chart that shows the students the three ways to locate information: look in a book, look on an iPad or computer, or ask an expert, modeled after Dr. Kristi Meeuwse's blog. (This entire page is an excellent resource for primary-level research!)
    • First, introduce and discuss getting information beyond "asking Google." Identify the library area where students can find nonfiction books - consider it an in-house field trip. Talk about how to use the iPad or computer to find information, being sure to mention the credibility of sources. Discuss what makes a person an "expert," who other experts are in the school, and why that person is an expert.
    • For the next class, set a purpose for the activity. Show the students a picture of an unfamiliar animal, like a manta ray. Discuss the things they might want to know about the animal. Guide them to decide they want to know where manta rays live, what they eat, and what one thing they have. Next, make a large graphic organizer on chart paper to fill in the information as they gather it. To end this lesson, show a short video of an expert talking about an unfamiliar animal. You can find a video about manta rays here. Discuss what the students learned and add their thoughts to the chart.
    • For the next lesson, incorporate a book and the computer as you read an e-book on Epic! (TeachersFirst Review). An example of a great book about manta rays that is available on the Epic! site is titled Manta Rays: Oceans Alive by Colleen Sexton (ISBN 9781600142673) and is written at about a second-grade reading level, which is perfect for a Kindergarten read-aloud! As you read, stop and talk about the text, look for keywords (LIVE, EAT, and HAVE), and add new information to the anchor chart. From there, the students can move to a place where they can complete their graphic organizers. They can begin by drawing pictures and then labeling the pictures as they can do so. Make the anchor chart available for them to use if they choose to.
    • Finally, students are ready for the final project! It can be completed with or without technology!
      • Non-Technology Approach: Students use craft supplies to make a manta ray. It can be glued onto blue paper to represent the ocean. Students copy their statements onto a paper fish and glue the fish around the manta ray. Sentence frames (Manta rays eat ______) can support writing and encourage the students to write the sounds that they hear in the word that completes the sentence.
        • Colorin Colorado (TeachersFirst Review) has many resources to support student research. The site offers many ideas for sentence frames and sentence starters.
      • Technology Approach: Try using the free Doodle Buddy app to draw pictures of the animal you researched. This app is available for iOS and Android and can be downloaded from Microsoft for the PC; there is no download available for Mac computers. Provide a common background and airdrop it to each device in your classroom. Revisit the ebook to remember what colors would be best for their drawings. The project is nonfiction, so it encourages realism. You could use any drawing app you have available, including Color, Draw and Paint (TeachersFirst Review). ChatterPix Kids is an excellent app that can be used to animate the drawings, and then students can record their voices giving the information. Here is an example from a Kindergarten and self-contained class with students with autism. Another great option would be Wriddle (TeachersFirst Review). At Wriddle, students can draw and add voice audio to their digital story page. Wriddle is available on any device with a web browser.
    • Lastly, repeat this same activity with different animals. Epic has a feature that allows teachers to create an album and books that have a Read to Me function, making the information accessible to emergent or beginning readers. The children can choose a new animal, listen
    • to the book, and complete the familiar graphic organizer, drawing pictures and labeling them as they can. Choose the technology option or the non-technology option for a final product.
    • WriteReader (TeachersFirst Review) is an easy-to-use book creation and learning tool for young readers and writers to share their research projects. In addition to features such as audio, speech-to-text, and camera integrations, WriteReader allows teachers to add comments and include "correct" spelling if needed.
    • This activity can be adapted for older children by expanding the purpose of reading and asking students to identify more information from the book and the experts. The students can rely less on pictures and more on print in both the reading and graphic organizers.

The Perfect Animal

  • As students progress in grades, they become more confident and independent with research. This activity uses a gradual release model and collaboration to encourage students to think critically to create the Perfect Animal.
  • Begin by reading What If You Had Animal Teeth? By Sandra Markle (ISBN 9780545567275), looking at each animal and discussing their teeth. Discuss the benefits and limits of each tooth type and how that type of tooth was useful to the animal. Work together to create a graphic organizer, considering each animal presented in the book. This activity can be modeled or a shared pen activity, allowing the students to add their ideas to the class graphic organizer, depending on time and the students' abilities. Finally, discuss how to decide which is the best. Take the students' input and make a checklist or rubric for decision-making. The checklist or rubric can be done on paper, a Google Form (TeachersFirst Review), or a rubric creator, such as Quick Rubric (TeachersFirst Review). Students will use these later in the process.
  • The next step is to divide students into expert groups. These groups will then work to complete a graphic organizer for a different animal part. The groups will use the other books in Sandra Markle's series. Use as many or as few of these resources as possible. Each group will focus on one book, making them experts in that animal body part.
  • These expert groups will then split up into animal groups. Each animal group should have at least one member from each expert group. Using the completed graphic organizer from What If You Had Animal Teeth? lead the groups through the process of choosing the perfect teeth. Model how to use the rubric or Google Form and allow time for the groups to select the perfect animal teeth. Each expert then presents the information they learned about their specific body part. The members of each animal group work together to analyze the information to determine which animal has the perfect body part. The groups can use the rubric the class created together or use discussion and consensus. Teams have to justify their answers. (For example, the beaver has perfect teeth because they are sharp and orange, which will scare predators away.)
  • After the students have chosen each of the perfect body parts, they are ready to create the perfect animal.
    • Non-Technology Approach: Students can create an animal using old magazines or printed stock pictures. They can label the picture with sentences explaining which body part they picked and why.
    • Technology Approach: Students can also use the cut-and-paste feature on a device to create a slideshow in Google Slides (TeachersFirst Review) or a movie in iMovie or another movie-making program such as FlexClip (TeachersFirst Review) or Moovly (TeachersFirst Review). Find an example of a finished product here.
      • Take a picture of students' animals created using the non-technology approach and use it as the background in Animate from Audio (TeachersFirst Review). Have students select a character, then record their information on how to create the perfect animal.
  • This activity can be adapted to meet the needs of younger students. Similar to the animal research project for kindergarten, the students can complete the perfect animal through whole-class read-alouds. The group can make a class animal or split into smaller groups to discuss the information and make decisions. Older students can work independently or extend the research process to find more information about the animal's body part that they chose. (For example, using Encyclopedia Britannica, a student can find that the beaver's lips close behind the teeth, which keeps water out of the animal's mouth while swimming.)
  • Use a random wheel spinner to enhance your research projects in several different ways:
    • Create groups of experts—Use a wheel spinner to assign students to groups to become experts on different animal body parts.
    • Spin the wheel to determine the animal for students to research for their assigned body parts.
    • Add names to Wheel of Names (TeachersFirst Review) to quickly generate a random spinner, or try Spinner Wheel (TeachersFirst Review) to create and spin multiple wheels simultaneously. For example, add student names to one wheel, the names of animals to a second wheel, and body parts to a third wheel to assign research projects to students.

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Extensions

Research should always have a purpose. The purpose can tie back into the curriculum or support decisions in a project-based classroom. The more authentic the activity, the more meaningful it will be for the students.

  1. Classroom Habitats - Turn the classroom into a habitat! This activity can be a grade-level or team project! Each class chooses a habitat to display, and then the students get to work learning about the habitat. This undertaking is a great project-based learning experience adapted to the classroom and the district's rules. This can be a big and immersive experience. After checking with the administration about school and district rules, make giant animals from bulletin board paper and hang them from the ceiling. Make it 3D with the extra pages of the consumable textbooks. If that is a little adventurous, paint a plain sheet or shower curtain to look like the habitat. Hang it from the chalkboard, whiteboard, or bulletin board. Students can add plants and animals to the background. Either option will encourage students to learn more about the habitat and scale as they work to fit all of their ideas into the space, be it the entire classroom or a king-sized sheet. Once the classroom has been transformed, the students can write paragraphs to explain what visitors will see. Invite neighboring classes to tour the habitat with students as their tour guides. This project-based experience is cross-curricular and so much fun; the students will not realize how hard they work!
  2. Expert of the Day - Students ask questions all day! Designate one student to be the expert of the day. This student can answer all of the unanswered questions that the students ask. Younger learners will need help with the process, but this could be integrated into rotation during the reading block or used for a few minutes during homeroom (to answer the questions from the day before) or dismissal. This gives each student some one-on-one research instruction every month (or so).
  3. Observe a virtual animal—visit webcams available from zoos and aquariums to study the daily habits of animals. Encourage students to find examples of the food they eat and places they visit to rest and play and observe their daily activities.
    1. Monterey Bay Aquarium (TeachersFirst Review): Visit the live cams to observe penguins, sea otters, and other ocean animals.
    2. Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (TeachersFirst Review) - Four webcams provide a peek into the daily lives of the giant panda, naked mole-rat, lion, and elephant inhabitants of the zoo.
    3. Department of Natural Resources (TeachersFirst Review) - Seasonal webcams provide a live view of eagles, falcons, and selected wildlife habitats.

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Correlation to Standards

  • AASL National School Library Standards
    • Inquire Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners display curiosity and initiative by:
      • 1. Formulating questions about a personal interest or a curricular topic.
      • 2. Recalling prior and background knowledge as context for new meaning.
    • Inquire Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners adapt, communicate, and exchange learning products with others in a cycle that includes:
      • 1. Interacting with content presented by others.
      • 2. Providing constructive feedback.
      • 3. Acting on feedback to improve. 4. Sharing products with an authentic audience.
    • Include Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners exhibit empathy with and tolerance for diverse ideas by:
      • 1. Engaging in informed conversation and active debate.
      • 2. Contributing to discussions in which multiple viewpoints on a topic are expressed.
    • Include Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners demonstrate empathy and equity in knowledge building within the global learning community by:
      • 1. Seeking interactions with a range of learners.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners identify collaborative opportunities by:
      • 1. Demonstrating their desire to broaden and deepen understandings.
      • 2. Developing new understandings through engagement in a learning group.
      • 3. Deciding to solve problems informed by group interaction.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Create Domain - Learners participate in personal, social, and intellectual networks by:
      • 1. Using a variety of communication tools and resources.
      • 2. Establishing connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners actively participate with others in learning situations by:
      • 2. Recognizing learning as a social responsibility.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners develop and satisfy personal curiosity by:
      • 1. Reading widely and deeply in multiple formats and writing and creating for a variety of purposes.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Create Domain - Learners construct new knowledge by:
      • 1. Problem solving through cycles of design, implementation, and reflection.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners engage with the learning community by:
      • 3. Collaboratively identifying innovative solutions to a challenge or problem.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners develop through experience and reflection by:
      • 1. Iteratively responding to challenges.
      • 2. Recognizing capabilities and skills that can be developed, improved, and expanded.
      • 3. Open-mindedly accepting feedback for positive and constructive growth.
  • ISTE Standards for Students
    • Empowered Learner 1.1
      • 1.1.b. Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.
      • 1.1.c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
    • Knowledge Constructor 1.3
      • 1.3.d. Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories, and pursuing answers and solutions.
    • Innovative Designer 1.4
      • 1.4.d. Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance, and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.
    • Global Collaborator 1.7
      • 1.7.c. Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

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