Here’s a research activity I used every year with my gifted kindergarten students, but it could easily be adapted for students in higher grades. The final product was always emailed home to parents at the end of the year and my students loved sharing it. If you’re looking for a more challenging literacy activity for gifted and advanced students in grades K – 2, this is a no-prep and fun research activity to work on as a group. It’s something we worked on for many weeks during the spring semester, doing a little each time we met.
Begin by gathering your group together for a reading of the book Q is for Duck (affiliate link). Show students the title and act perplexed. “What? This is crazy! Q is not for Duck! Q is for Queen or Quilt, and D is for Duck! Why is this book title so crazy?”
Read the subtitle: “An Alphabet Guessing Game” and elicit from students what this book might be all about. Begin reading, turning the pages slowly and have students guess what each page will reveal.
Then, explain the group project. Working in pairs or independently, students will use kid-friendly resources to find interesting facts about animals. Your school librarian can probably help with this. My students used websites such as National Geographic Kids, Wonderopolis, and Science Kids and also magazines such as Ranger Rick, Jr. borrowed from our school library.
Encourage the students to find a fact that is not well known about any animal they are reading about, and then help them turn the facts into alphabet guessing game pages. For example, after reading about a giraffe having four stomachs, the page could be: R is for Giraffe; Why? Because a giraffe is a ruminant. A ruminant is an animal that has more than one stomach! Kindergarten students will need a great deal of help and encouragement, but most kids this age love animals and enjoy putting together this project.
It isn’t necessary to have students try to write their facts on note cards or paper. In my class, we just worked together to find facts (a few minutes each time we met for class), and I wrote a list of our ideas on chart paper. This way, we could all see which letters were already “taken.” Toward the end of the year, I created a slide show template (see sample below) and, as a center activity, demonstrated for the students how to type text and insert a picture. Depending on how many students you have, you may just have them help choose the photos.
On the last page of the slide show, I inserted a photo of the class with the caption: “We hope you enjoyed our guessing game!” Here is one that my class made several years ago. You can see that I didn’t spend much time on the graphics, but you are welcome to use it as a template and make a copy in Google Slides for your own class slide show. To share with parents, copy the shareable link and send it in an email! My students also shared it with their classmates in their homeroom classes.
There are so many great alphabet books to spark creativity! If you’re looking for more ideas, here is an article you might like. If you’d like more “ready-to-go” activities and lessons for use in your classroom, subscribe and you’ll receive notification of new blog posts. And if you have anything to add or suggest, leave a comment below or- better yet- share it in our Facebook group!