3rd Grade Animal Adaptations
Third graders at Varina Elementary have been learning about animal adaptations in Science (SOL3.4) and writing for a variety of purposes in Language Arts (SOL3.9). So today students in Ms. Lanham’s class wrote about animal adaptations using Google docs. This was my first lesson with them, so I wanted to introduce them to Google classroom and the basics of word processing. First I posted a blank Google doc template to Google classroom and set it to make a copy for each student. I instructed them to choose an animal they were curious about and do a bit of research in another tab. A good way to get some quick facts is just to type the name of the animal and “adaptations” into a Google search. We discussed the importance of putting the information in their own words and not plagiarizing. Then we went back to the Google doc and typed a creative title. I showed them how to change the font, size, and color of their title. Next they wrote a few sentences about some of the adaptations their animal had to help it survive. Finally, instead of simply adding a picture of the animal, we clicked Insert > Drawing so we could circle or otherwise point out the various adaptations seen in the image. When they were finished, the students published their writing and posted the links to Google classroom. You can read all their animal reports here.