Have you used EPIC!? I'm a big big EPIC! fan. It's a free website/app that has a TON of ebooks. It has a lot of non-fiction, graphic novels and popular titles (my kids love Scaredy Squirrel). It has an AR reading level and some of the books have a "Read-to-me" option. Did I mention it was free- whaaaaaaaaaatttt??!!!
Which brings me to our first research project for my first graders. As the season changed, they were studying fall. I didn't have a lot of non-fiction books about fall that were on a first grade reading level. Good ole' EPIC! had 7 titles for my kids- all in their reading level range! In my library, I have 8 computers and 8 iPads. The kids on the computer worked alone (because they needed headphones) and the rest worked with a partner on the iPads. Each person got a leaf and they had to write down one fact that they learned about fall. After sharing, they glued it on the bare tree that I had prepared and the end result was a Fall Research Tree. Easy, effective and a great use of resources!
During the lesson, we were also able to talk about what research is, why we research and even fiction/non-fiction (there was another book called Humpty Dumpty's Great Fall that came up when they searched "Fall" -would that work for our research? would this be good information for our research?)
And yes...all the 1st grade teachers in my building are this cute! Love these girls!
