Investigation through the make believe.....

Uno's Garden - Evidence based fictional writing

Our narrative writing unit has taken an interesting turn. This week we have been using our higher order thinking skills to create evidence based fictional writing. This involves many different skills such as: Thinking creatively, using the 'what if' key, using and analyzing criteria, combining attributes, thinking outside of the square, researching, assessing, logic and reasoning, justifying, sorting, categorizing, investigating, selecting and interpreting visual images and texts and using graphic organizers and diagrams to order our information.

Using the amazing creatures of Graeme Base’s Uno’s Garden we are writing interesting, scientific reports on a range of wonderful animals.

Ever wanted to know more about the Snortlepig or the Frinklepod or the Grazing Gondolopes.

We started by listening and exploring the story, looking closely at the pictures. Then after choosing an animal, we created mind-maps, grouping information to make the writing of our reports easier.

We also had to do some research, finding information to support our reports by making links with other animals and their characteristics. We learnt about animal families and how to make inferences about their physical features. for example, we asked each other " why are they that colour?  What is the significance of their feelers?"  This helped us draw conclusions and look into our cretaures with more depth.

Once we had all individually created a brainstorm about our creatures we grouped up with people who were investigating the same creatures.  Working together we each presented our ideas to the group.  We had to come up with a set of information which we all agreed on. then we presented our findings to the class, as though we were scientists who were exploring Uno's Garden.