Animals in Inspiration

This is a lesson I co-teach with our media specialist. We do this lesson at the end of every year with all 250 second grade students. This lesson gives the students the opportunity to demonstrate several of the skills they have learned through the year: researching, writing, and technology.

The students are given choices of animals based on the books available in the media center. They are asked to find information in the books and record it on a worksheet. The worksheet has four areas for the students to write: diet, habitat, appearance, interesting facts. Once the students have several facts in each category, they work with the teacher to locate a picture of the animal on the internet. The students will print the picture and keep it with the worksheet containing the animal facts.

Once the students have the animal facts and picture, they use the software program, "Inspiration", to create a graphic organizer. The students are guided through the process of inserting a main idea and adding supporting ideas. The animal name is the main idea and then the students must give one fact for diet, habitat, appearance, and something interesting they learned as the supporting ideas. After the words have been written on the organizer, the students are able to add pictures to the graphic organizer. The projects are printed and displayed for all to enjoy.