Teaching With Terhune: Ocean Unit with Informative Writing!

At the end of the school year I always love to do an ocean unit. There are so many great things I want to teach about the ocean each year, however one week is not enough time to cover it all! So, I decided to turn my ocean unit into an ocean animal research project for each of my students! Each student picks an ocean animal, does research on that animal, and then writes an “All About” nonfiction book about that animal. Once everyone is done, each student presents/reads their book to the class! By the end of the week the students have learned about 25 different ocean animals!

I also like to do this project at the end of the school year because it’s a great way for students to learn/practice the text features of nonfiction books. There is no better way for them to understand a nonfiction book than by writing their own!

I’ve created writing templates for each page of the book, as well as supporting posters for my students to use as reference tools along the way.

Here is a look as just some of the nonfiction text feature posters I display to help my students when they are writing their nonfiction booklets!

Here is a look at our "All About" Ocean Animals Informative Writing project!

I like to set out a basket full of nonfiction books about ocean animals. From there the students get to look over and choose which ocean animal they would like to write about. I usually have my librarian pull a bunch of ocean animal books for me from the library. I also get a handful of books from my public library as well. I find it helpful for the students to have different nonfiction reading materials to go through as they are writing their facts.

This Informative Writing outline is the first page I have my students complete. It basically acts as a graphic organizer for them to get their thoughts/facts down before they start making their "All About" booklet.

Here is a look at the cover page the students make for their "All About" booklet.

I have my students create one writing page for each fact (4 in all).

Each fact page has a picture that goes with it.

The students add a Title/Subtitle at the top of each writing page.

The students highlight any keywords they used throughout their writing. They will refer back to these pages as they complete their Glossary and Index page.

Here is a look at the additional pages we add to our "All About" booklets to make them like real nonfiction books!

Title Page: