Apples and Spiders and Bats, oh my!

Last week we finished up a nonfiction unit on apples, bats, and spiders.  We learned that readers read fiction books for enjoyment and nonfiction books to learn new things.  Unknown vocabulary words such as orchard, echolocation and arachnids were discussed.  Students created KWL charts where we discussed our prior knowledge, what we wanted to learn, and then what we did learn once the unit was over.  Diagrams and books were made to further our knowledge of each of these topics.  Our writer’s workshop unit also turned to nonfiction writing, as we were no longer writing about things that we did, but rather things that we know a lot about.  We look forward to future nonfiction units later in the year!