Categories Literacy, S.T.E.A.M., Science, Social Studies

Teaching Science And Social Studies With Research Projects

Teaching science and social studies can be fun and easy with our kindergarten research projects! When Common Core standards were introduced years ago, one of those standards was research and writing. The standards said students should participate in shared research and writing. I found this standard to be terrifying. I mean, what could go wrong with kindergartners researching something on Google?! That’s where our research projects were born. While the standards might have changed, these research projects still meet state standards and, thus, are still applicable in all classrooms! They also help make research and writing fun and developmentally appropriate.

As a teacher, I believe in doing what’s best for my students, but I also do what my district asks of me. This means providing tools and scaffolding so my students can be successful. So, if research and writing are standards, I want to find a way to make that goal accessible to my students in ways that they can be successful. I decided that research projects should be a fun, engaging way to research and write in kindergarten. So here’s how it works in our classroom!

The research projects are completed during our ELA time or literacy block. This allows us to integrate science and social studies standards while meeting ELA standards such as research and writing. However, we have been fortunate the last two years to have a dedicated science and social studies block so we do our research projects in that block. Our classroom proven research projects work either way. We spend two weeks per research project but they can be done in one to three weeks.

The actual research is done through read-alouds and videos. The information is discussed and recorded on graphic organizers. Students then use the graphic organizers to do their writing. Our ELA block is designed for a 30-minute whole-group lesson. Our research projects use that time to be completed. The read-aloud/video and graphic organizers are done in 15-20 minutes, and the students then work on their research journals independently. We do one activity or graphic organizer each day.

teaching science and social studies with graphic organizers

Each research project includes a research journal. In the journal, students record their learning. They write, label, sort, etc. The journals give students ownership of their learning and are a source of pride.

Each research project begins with a schema map. Students share their schema or what they already know about the topic. Every piece of schema they share is recorded on a post-it note and placed on the schema map. The post-it notes allow us to organize our thinking much like our brains organize information.

When creating our schema map, I always draw a fun picture. This helps introduce the topic and makes the learning fun!

We add our new learning to the schema map as we progress through our research projects. At the end of the research project, we re-visit our schema and address misconceptions. Misconceptions might be wrong, or they might be something where our thinking needs to be adjusted. We move misconceptions to the misconceptions area of the schema map while discussing why it’s a misconception.

integrating science and social studies with ELA

science and social studies lessons for kindergarten

teaching science and social studies with schema maps

Research And Writing: Graphic Organizers

The research portion of our research projects uses read-alouds and videos. As we read, we record what we learned about graphic organizers. We use turn-and-talk strategies and questioning to access the information. The students also have to share the information in complete sentences. Our research projects include can/have/are charts, t-charts, circle charts, Venn Diagrams, and more. The types of graphic organizers for each research project are tailored to meet the purpose of that project. Note: each research project includes suggested read-aloud books, and some research projects include video suggestions!

We record the information DURING the read-aloud. We do not wait until the end of the read-aloud because doing it after the read-aloud makes it an assessment, and we don’t want it to be that. When we read a piece of information we should include I will stop and ask something like “What did you just learn?” and we record it.

teaching science and social studies worksheets

Writing

The students take the information from our graphic organizers and use it to write in their research journals. Differentiated journals use sentence frames for student writing. Students copy information from the charts and they’re encouraged to write on their own. As the year goes on and they build their writing skills, independent writing becomes much more natural. It’s also important to note that students might not be ready to write or copy, so they can draw pictures and dictate what they have learned to you!

We also use the writing to work on the mechanics of writing. I use one-on-one conferences to help them improve their writing. Students are encouraged to use inventive/phonetic spelling when writing.

We use labeling in our research projects to explicitly teach vocabulary. We label a class chart, and then students labeled their pictures in their research journals. As we’re labeling we are explicitly defining each term and having conversations about adaptations and how each part helps or works. Our research projects are aligned with the science of reading and are a powerful tool to teach vocabulary explicitly. We know vocabulary is a MUST-have piece of the reading puzzle, and these research projects bring vocabulary instruction to the forefront!

We also create vocabulary charts for our research projects. As we’re learning about a topic we add new vocabulary to the chart using student generated definitions and drawings.

explicit vocabulary instruction for kids

For higher-order thinking, we use a true-false sort. This higher-order thinking activity allows students to discuss what they’ve learned. I read a statement and they decide if the statement is true or false. For false statements, we discuss why it’s false, and we change it into a truth statement. Students then use the true statements to write about their topic.

teaching science and social studies with higher order thinking skills

Additional Activities

Each research project also contains activities specific to that topic. There might be clothing sorts for seasons, a lesson on the water cycle, or a life cycle activity. For push-and-pull, we drew things we could push and pull. The students made a forecast for our weather research project. These additional activities allow us to target specific science and social studies standards.