Content Area(s): Social Studies, Language Arts
Grade(s): 1, 2

Invitation
Just how do animals fit into our world? This unit approaches the subject of Pigs from a variety of angles, through reference CDs and both fiction and nonfiction books, and guides first grade students to publish their own stories and songs about pigs.

Tools
Computers, printer, word processing software; Template: The Important Thing About Pigs; All Pigs Are Beautiful by Dick King-Smith, The Three Little Pigs story

Situations
The unit occurs in the classroom. It requires three weeks to complete.

Interactions
The students work in groups of 4 or 5 for most activities. The teacher leads group discussions for the KWL (What we Know, What We Want to Find Out, What We Learned) charts and assists groups and individuals with the other activities.

Standards (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills)
The student reads fiction and nonfiction for pleasure and/or information. The student discusses meanings of words and develops vocabulary. The student draws conclusions from information gathered. The student writes in different forms for different purposes.

Tasks
The students complete the K and W portion of a KWL chart about Pigs. While the teacher reads the story All Pigs Are Beautiful, students take notes in a response journal and share what they have learned. The students research pigs using the reference CDs and complete research sheets on pigs. They create a pig booklet and “pigtionaries” based on their research. They use the Template created by the teacher to create a class book The Important Thing About Pigs. Finally, the students complete the L portion of the KWL chart.

Assessment
The teacher assesses what the students have learned by evaluating the research forms and booklets.