Musings of a Teacher: Kindergarten Reports (Non-Fiction Writing)

Days 1 and 2

In trying to figure out how to start of this new unit in Writer's Workshop, a co-worker suggested reading two short books: one fiction and one non-fiction. We compared and contrasted the components of both books and found out that fiction has lots of pretend, and non-fiction has lots of facts. There was quite a bit of conversation revolving around new vocabulary pertaining to non-fiction, specifically reports, like "facts", "research", "data", etc. The literal minds of my kindergartners soaked up the features of reports in a heart beat.

Next, I brought a basket of books over to the rug and handed each child a book. Long-story short and lots of discussion later, we sorted the books into fiction/non-fiction piles. I pointed out that illustrations could aid in determining if a book is fiction or non-fiction.

Next, (see picture and caption below)

As part of the introduction to non-fiction writing, I read a report about spiders. During Writer's Workshop I invited the children to record two "fun facts" that they remembered from the report.

Day 2

To get the hang of creating diagrams (that will be one of the pages I ask children to include in their own reports) we practiced making diagrams of ourselves. The children definitely understand the concept that a diagram is a picture with labels.

Labeling with permanent marker (eeek!) since this is a special occasion in Writer's Workshop.

Working with total concentration.

This child even labeled his belly button.

Later in the day this group of gals hustled over to show me what they found within our classroom library: "a diagram of a horse!"

All in all, I have been so impressed with this group's ability to label drawings of themselves. Most importantly, I am thrilled how enthusiastic they are about diagrams and telling me facts (Mrs. Adams it's a fact that giraffes have realllllly long necks) that they know about animals and places as they come up in conversations.

I anticipate that the following lessons may be a bit tougher, nonetheless I can't wait to have these kiddos get started....

FOLLOW UP!

Gail Gibbons' books about animals have proven to be extremely user friendly for my kindergartners. The pictures give a lot of clues (in fact the children are able to gather a lot of information just from the pictures alone); for those students who are able to read Gail Gibbons is not too wordy, which makes the language and information accessible for early readers.

This diagram prompted a class discussion on the word :characteristics.

Another wonderful diagram from Gail Gibbons.

In the days to follow, the children were given several options of animals to "research" and report on. The choices were: dragon flies, caterpillars, butterflies, frogs, lizards, ducks/ ducklings, chickens/ chicks, polar bears, sea turtles. We looked through several non-fiction books the students would be using because I wanted to remind them of some features of the book that would help find information. I also reminded the children that pictures in the books would give them a lot of information, so not to worry if they had a hard time with the words. I also introduced the 'Table of Contents", pointing out that section titles would give them clues as to where they would find specific information. Once they made their choice, the reporting frenzy started.

I created a report template for the children to follow in order to scaffold the writing process. I made it very clear what information they were to include in their reports: habitat, food, physical characteristics (where they drew diagrams), and fun facts.

Take a peek at what wonderful reporters we have in class. I was SO IMPRESSED with these kids' abilities to research, gather information, and transpose it into a report of their own.

Enjoy:

A Research Book About Sea Turtles