Writing Like a Scientist--Looking Closely

On Thursday during Gramma Preschool, Meron and I started our unit of study: Writing Like a Scientist. She was very excited to see what we would be doing. We talked about the difference between a story, like she has been reading and writing, and a nonfiction book to teach her readers. We have been doing science all year and even have a science notebook where she keeps her discoveries. But this time she would be writing a book to teach others what she was learning. Big stuff for a four year old!

We started off with reading lots of books about autumn, bugs, leaves, spiders, and even caterpillars. We looked at how the authors taught us things as we read and looked at the books. They had zoom in pictures. They had labeling. They had diagrams. These were all things she could do in her book, too. We talked about what we would see as we took our Science Walk!

The weather for our science walk was perfect!

Meron looked closely at the nut and found a "heart" inside.

As we walked to the woods in my neighborhood, we talked about how we were looking at things with fresh new eyes. She found a bug on the sidewalk and many different shaped leaves. They went right into her BIG zip-lock bag.  Yes, even the bug! We got to the woods and found many other things: nuts, more leaves, bark with moss on it, and lots of little white butterflies. We didn't put the butterflies in the bag. On the way back home, she even found a wiggly worm to stick in the bag. She had collected all the material she needed for her book.

Meron writes her book using colored markers.

Flower page from her book. Notice the F in the upper left corner. That says: Flowers

We spread all the things out that she collected in her bag. We sorted them into groups: leaves, bugs, nuts, and other things. We then talked about what kind of book she could make. She knew she could write a book about leaves because she had lots of those. She knew she could write a book about nuts because she had various types and sizes of those. She finally decided to write a book about Science Walks and talk about all of the things she found. She wanted to write a page for each subject.  She planned on having five pages: flowers, nuts, leaves, bugs, and worms.  She gathered five pages and began writing. She used two sizes of markers to write and illustrate her book. She had all her collections on the table beside her so she could refer to them to get just the right drawing. She also had a couple of her mentor texts beside her to refer back to them if she needed to some ideas. When she was done, she made a cover and we stapled the book together. She then took her book home to share with her little brother and teach him about Science Walks. She knows now how to look at things like a scientist with fresh new eyes!

Hope you have as much fun with your Science Writing as Meron and I had!