Second grade - "Kids Care About our World" unit

SEE ALL THE PIX BELOW... & Read just a hint of what's going on in 2nd Grade:  The students in Mrs. Dye's class were assigned an endangered animal to research. The students were guided through this DOK 4 (Depth of Knowledge) project with steering six questions:

1- What habitat does your animal need to live in to survive?
2- What foods does your animals eat?
3- What size is your animal?
4- Where on earth does it exist now?
5- How many are left?
6- Why is it endangered?

The students were asked to list three sources of their information. The kids did research in class during center time, visited the library’s reference section, and “googled” their animal in the technology lab.  The students then followed the color-coded writing process to formulate an informative essay based on the information they found while researching. As a connection point, we have not only been discussing the environment as related to animals but also to the people on earth. We studied natural resources and how we use them and many systems we could not do without in our world- water cycle, life cycles of many animals and plants, and the food chain. We have discussed the importance of recycling and reducing waste products and found a new, fun way to reuse our trash. We decided to make a model of the animal we researched from the trash we brought from home- all recyclable of course! We used, cardboard boxes from diapers to cereal to pop tarts and other snacks. We used plastic bottles of all sizes- liters, gallons, pints, and more. We used cans, paper towel and toilet paper rolls- all cylinders, and tops and lids of all kinds. After making the sculpture, we took our animals to art to paint them. We have had some fun but have been really busy at the same time!!  Kids do care about our world... don't you agree?