What's the Difference?

Here's a little quiz.  Write down or remember your answers and then scroll down to see how you did.

Are these pairs of animals the same?

                   A)  cougar & puma

               B)  turtle & tortoise

               C)  crow & raven

               D)  jackrabbit & hare

               E)  crocodile & alligator

               F)  firefly & lightning bug

               G) butterfly & moth

               A)  yes

               B)  no

               C)  no

               D)  yes

               E)  no

               F)  yes

               G) no

How did you do?  If you're wondering why B, C, E and G are NOT the same then I've got the thing for you. . . actually it's for your students.

Click to get

Click to get

I remember wondering, about a year ago, "Are ravens and crows the same thing?", as I watched a raven (revered by certain Native Alaskan groups) caw at me from a light post at my school one morning.  Right then and there I got the idea for yet another Readers' Theater pack and my brain started racing to think of more animals that were similar but not the same.

Each play comes with 2 different comprehension checks: a Venn diagram fact sort and a 6 question opened ended response sheet.

I came up with so many animal pairs that I'm going to start working on pack #2, followed by pack #3!  

Next week I'll be at a cabin in the woods, on a lake, in the middle of no where and I'm excited to churn out some more writing!

Non-Fiction Animal Book Project

        Every spring my students each write and publish a non-fiction animal book.  Way back in January I pull out all my non-fiction book baskets and teach kids about the many helpful features of these fascinating books.  Writing a book that contains some of these features is our culminating writing project.  

       Even though I've done this for a few years, I always try to make it better each year.  This year, after some reflection and tweaking, was by far THE most successful for this project!  The main thing was LOTS of guided practice beforehand.  First, we wrote animal riddles.  Then, we all wrote a non-fiction animal books about the SAME animal, the leopard.  Finally, kids chose their own animal and because they had just written a leopard book, they knew exactly what to do (research----note taking----writing) and they did it SO well!

      Since I had so much success with this project, I wanted to share it with others!  It's aligned to the K/1/2 CCSS too.  I know there are other non-fiction animal projects out there on TPT or TN (I downloaded one myself when I started back in March) but know that there are teachers out there who might want to add this to their collection and use it.  I included photographs of the rough drafts and finished products so you can really see what I describe. 

Click here to preview it.

 I hope you'll take a peek at it and maybe add it to your collection :)