Sunday 28 September 2014

Bats have fur, birds have feathers! Using a Venn Diagram to support our learning!

As we continue to explore and investigate how bats and birds are different, I thought this might be a great opportunity to introduce the Venn Diagram to students and demonstrate how it might help us with our comparison. 



With the support of natural artifacts such as nests and feathers, as well as various fiction and non-fiction books about birds and bats, students independently deciphered important facts and information to add to the Venn Diagram. 

Wonderful story comparing bats and birds.











Students seemed to enjoy using the Venn Diagram to document their learning about bats and birds using drawings, adding labels, and writing descriptions.  

"Bats hang upside down." J. S.

"Bats are nocturnal." W. E.

"Bats hibernate in the winter." E. E.

"Bats have fur." P. I.

"Birds have feathers." C. C.

"Birds have beaks." L. B.

"Birds make nests." O. S.

When I introduced the diagram to students, I asked them what information we would place where the two circles intercept? Right away students mentioned that we would put things that bats and birds have that are the same.

"Bats and birds have wings." Z. G.

"Bats and birds fly." O. S.

Our Venn Diagram continues to be a working document. Students are adding to it daily as we discover new information about bats and birds.


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