Going Batty!

Bats are so interesting, although I wouldn't want to run into a roost in a dark cave.  Bats do make for a great topic for first grade research though!  We used the topic to discuss informational text.  As we read different nonfiction books and articles, we recorded our learning on a RAN (Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction) chart.

The chart starts with our background knowledge.  The students brainstormed what they already thought they knew about bats.  As we read, we moved and added post it notes to the other categories.  When our background knowledge was correct we moved the note to "Yes, we were right."  Of course, when we found text evidence of our thinking we were sure to note the source on the the post-it.  Sometimes, as we read we found that our thinking changed.  For instance, some students thought bats were blind.  As we read, we learned that bats can see quite well in low light.  If our thinking changed, our post-it moved to "We don't think this anymore."  There was also a category for new learning and another for wonderings.

Next, we brought our learning about bats into writing.  We made a bat diagram and took some notes on a graphic organizer.  The notes on the graphic organizer became our big ideas.  Then we came up with supporting details for our big ideas.  We made a chart to organize big ideas and details.

When the students put all the learning together the writing was pretty impressive.  The students wrote their three big ideas in yellow.  They had to write supporting details in red.  The color coding really helped the students organize their thoughts for writing. The students' finished informational writing pieces were quite impressive.

Although the informational writing was the focus of our bat study, we also did some other learning activities around the subject of bats.  For instance, in spelling we played a game making real and nonsense words out of the -at chunk.  We did made a bat craft using only circles.  Also, we graphed the class's opinions on whether bats are creepy or cute.  We read and made a nonfiction book of bat facts and then read an awesome fiction book about bats called Stellaluna.  Here are just a few pictures highlighting some of our other activities.  Enjoy!