New Agriculture and Farming Books at DC Elementary

Earlier in the school year, the Dallas Center Elementary library was awarded a $200 grant from the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation. This grant allowed for the purchase of several new farming and agriculture books to add to the collection and to use with units of study.

Recently, second graders completed a mini-unit that reinforced the main idea/detail note-taking work they had been doing in their classrooms throughout the year. Students could work individually, with a partner, or as a trio to read all or part of a new book, then complete the handout, identifying one main idea and two supporting details.

Access the handout HERE

Below are some of the things students learned in their work:

Once students had read and completed the handout, it was time to return to one of their favorite web tools, Flipgrid. This group of students has used Flipgrid several times and with very few reminders were able to record their learning. 

Awesome Octopuses

As an extension to our fiction/nonfiction work with kindergarten students, we turned to octopuses--an animal with which many students already had a fascination. We began with a quick review of the difference between fiction and nonfiction books, and then we were off with our octopus books.

Students quickly began sharing what they already knew about these sea creatures, and we referred to National Geographic Kids's website for additional information as well.

CLICK HERE to access the full article

With all of our octopus learning, we turned to creating our own octopuses. We used a template from Minieco.co.uk. The template reinforced scissor skills, and students were able to design their octopuses with camouflage elements as they chose. You can CLICK HERE for the template:

Check out some of the students' work: