Introduction

Welcome Detectives!

Did you ever wonder what a hedgehog eats for breakfast? What about snowshoe rabbits? Do they really wear snowshoes? This is your chance to find out more about some interesting forest animals on the Web. Kindergarten students will pair up with their grade three reading buddies to investigate some of these animals from the fantastic book “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.

Task

Working with your partner you will:

· Listen to your teacher read the story “The Mitten” by Jan Brett

· Investigate four web sites about forest animals from the book.

· Fill out a table with information from the forest animal websites.

· Vote for your favorite forest animal from the book.

· Here are the four web-sites about forest animals that you should

investigate.

http://www.42explore.com/hedghog.htm

http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/birds/great_horned_owl.htm

http://www.k12.de.us/warner/redfox.htm

http://members.aol.com/KiteCD2/an_MRabbit.htm

Process

Here is what you will have to do to become a Forest Animal Detective:

· Listen to your teacher read the story “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.

· With your reading buddy, you should click on one forest animal at a time. Each picture brings you to a different web-site.

· Grade three students should read aloud the information on the sites to their kindergarten buddies.

· Find the Forest Animal Table. Work together with your partner to fill this out, Put an X in the boxes that have the information that you are looking for. Leave the box blank if you can’t find the information or picture that you need.

· Now it is time to vote for your favorite forest animal in this project. Your teacher will give both of you a ballot. You should mark an X beside the picture of your first choice.

· When everyone is finished, your teachers will help you count all of the votes.

Have fun!

Forest Animal Table

Here is the table that you need to fill out with your partner. Remember to put an X when you find the information that you need. If you do not find the information leave the box blank.

Information
Site gives you a picture of the animal
Site tells you what the animal eats
Site tells you the size of the animal

Evaluation

The students will be evaluated using the following rubric.

WebQuest

Criteria	1	2	3	4	Your Score
Skillful	Makes no effort to learn new skills	Satisfied with answering questions, but no real understanding	Has general idea of task. Able to answer specific questions	Has clear idea of task and its relationship to technology and education
Cooperative	Will not help - ignores partner	Sometimes willing to help partner	Shares work when asked and listens to partner	Willingly explains things to partners and will use partner’s ideas
Creative	Never thinks of other ideas to solve a problem	Occasionally has a new idea, but little follow through	Has new ideas but will not share with others	Develops new ideas or ways of doing things. Products exceed requirements
On Task	Constantly talking to others in room, rarely works on task	Sometimes talks about unrelated subjects	Usually follows the task and talks only to partner	Always follows the steps of the task and sometimes goes beyond the concepts

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have completed the project and you are on your way to becoming Super Forest Animal Detectives! However, there is much more to learn about these interesting animals. Ask your teacher for help to find new sites about some of the other animals in the book “The Mitten”.