Wonder Bubbles: Nonfiction Research for Elementary Age Students
This research project utilizes nonfiction text features and answers your students’ most engaging questions.
Do your students have research questions that they are “wondering” about? For example: How is water cleaned? How smart is an octopus? What do earthworms eat?
Elementary teacher Angela Bunyi encourages her students to ask these sorts of questions about nonfiction topics and then research and answer them in a published project. In Bunyi’s experience, “If you want to assess a student’s ability to research and apply nonfiction text features, you can leave their query as broad as any question they might ponder.”
Bunyi adapted the Wonder Bubbles research project from fellow teacher Chandra Verbic, and she has seen students from first to fifth grade enthusiastically answer their “wonder” questions with great success.
Before beginning the Wonder Bubbles research project, invite your students to wonder within a particular curriculum area so their research falls in line with specific content you are studying. The book lists below feature hundreds of nonfiction titles that can spark students’ questions about science, history, animal facts, and more.
Not sure which books will appeal most to your students? Learn how to help young readers pick the perfect nonfiction book.
The Wonder Bubble posters your students create should consist of their research question prominently asked and answered, along with a set number of displayed nonfiction text features. These features can include a combination of the following:
Step 1: Collect a series of “wonders” from your students. Send this list to your school librarian and ask for books on those topic areas to supplement the books in your classroom library. You can also compile a list of research-friendly websites students are allowed to use.
Step 2: Have students collect a series of “dash facts.” These are just quick facts that are not necessarily complete sentences. When they are ready to make their posters, they can choose which facts to include and how they want to present them.
Step 3: Review nonfiction text features with your students using books around your classroom and from the school library. Text features you may want to review include the table of contents, index, glossary, headings, sidebars, pictures and their captions, and labeled diagrams.
Step 4: Help students stylize their questions for their poster board presentations. You can type up their “wonders” using a circular format or other text embellishments. For the posters, cut large circles out of standard poster board for the students to use. You can trace the base of a trash can or other large round object to make a template for cutting out the posters.
Step 5: Now it’s time for students to organize their research and incorporate nonfiction text features into their Wonder Bubble posters. Lined and unlined paper cut into fun shapes, colored pencils, construction paper, and more can be used to make their research more eye-popping.
Step 6: Have students present their final projects to their peers!
Bunyi had this to say about the success of Wonder Bubbles in her classroom: “When students can not only research the answer to a question, but present it with a chart, a close-up, or a picture with captions, I know they have taken it to the next level.”
If you loved this research project, check out the 60-Minute Research Project inspired by the Who Would Win? nonfiction series. And for tips on teaching research reports to young writers, review this step-by-step guide.
Shop popular nonfiction books below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.
No one expected this autistic girl to speak, but Temple did and demonstrated her talent for visual thinking that's made a lasting impact on farm management.
Most people think of mathematicians as solitary, working away in isolation. But that wasn't what Paul Erdos did. At the age of four, he could ask you when you were born and then calculate the number of seconds you had been alive. But he didn't learn to butter his own toast until he turned 20.
At a time when being a woman and an African American limited what a mathematician might achieve, meet women who helped NASA win the space race.
Check out how these amazing real life creatures match up. Who's the strongest, fastest, biggest and baddest-in a fight to the finish, who would win?
Even as a child, Martin Luther King Jr. was shocked by the terrible and unfair way African American people were treated. When he grew up, he decided to do something about it—peacefully, with powerful words.
Although he is shorter than most of his classmates and everyone discourages him from trying out for the basketball team, eight-year-old Chris just works harder than everyone else so his size will not matter.
When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Persevering against the odds, William built a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps, and thus became the local hero who harnessed the wind.
An illustrated rhyming biography of the African American woman and first Naval engineer to design a ship using a computer.
• Alligator vs. Python
• Hammerhead vs. Bull Shark
• Killer Whale vs. Great White Shark
• Komodo Dragon vs. King Cobra
• Lion vs. Tiger
• Polar Bear vs. Grizzly Bear
• Tarantula vs. Scorpion
• Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Velociraptor
• Walrus vs. Elephant Seal
• Wolverine vs. Tasmanian Devil
In this innovative science series from favorite nonfiction author Jerry Pallotta, readers will learn about dangerous creatures by asking "Who would win?" Each book is illustrated with full-color pictures and features a pair of animals that rarely, if ever, meet in the wild. Young scientists will love using the book's easy-to-read facts and their own reasoning skills to decide for themselves which creature would be the winner.
Amphibians can be found in all shapes and sizes! Did you know there is a frog that's the size of a fly? Or, that a Chinese giant salamander is as large as an adult human?
Reptiles can be found in all shapes and sizes. Did you know a nano-chameleon is small enough to fit on a fingernail? Or, that the saltwater crocodile can grow to be 20 feet long? What do these animals look like and where do they live? Look inside to discover which of the ten reptiles in this book are very small and which ones are really big!
What do you call a group of rabbits? A fluffle! Discover why this interesting mammal lives in groups, where they live, and what they eat. With amazing photos and lively text, this book takes you inside a burrow, tells you the differences between wild rabbits and pets, and teaches you what you can do to help conserve and protect rabbits. Get ready to learn all about fluffles of rabbits!
What do you call a group of butterflies? A kaleidoscope! Discover why this interesting insect lives in groups, where they live and what they eat. With amazing photos and lively text, this book takes you inside a chrysalis, tells you what a butterfly keeper does, and teaches you what you can do to help conserve and protect butterflies. Get ready to learn all about kaleidoscopes of butterflies!
Knowing how to navigate - whether it's by using a compass or by using objects found in nature - is a skill that every outdoor adventurer needs. Did you know that you can make a compass out of sticks and rocks? Or that you can use the stars as a guide? Learn all this and more in Navigation-a book that gives kids the confidence they need to get outside and explore.
What do you call a group of dogs? A pack! Discover why this interesting mammal lives in groups, where they live, and what they eat. With amazing photos and lively text, this book takes you inside a den, tells you the differences between wild dogs and pets, and teaches you what you can do to help and protect dogs. Get ready to learn all about packs of dogs!
What do you call a group of bees? A swarm! Discover why this interesting insect lives in groups, where they live, and what they eat. With amazing photos and lively text, this book takes you inside a beehive, explains what a beekeeper does, and teaches you what you can do to help conserve and protect bees. Get ready to learn all about swarms of bees!
A poetic reflection brimming with hope where Ruby Bridges tells her own story of that pivotal day in Civil Rights history.
This touching graphic novel explores the story of how a young change-maker learned to find himself and never compromise. How the right decision is very rarely the easy one, but taking the road less traveled can make all the difference in the world.
This exciting biography tells Sally Ride's story from her days studying stars on Earth to looking at the Earth itself from above as the first American woman to orbit in a space shuttle. Readers will learn about satellites, robotic arms, and how astronauts float in space in this informative Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers®.
What's the Milky Way? What's a galaxy? How far away is the farthest planet in our solar system? How hot is the sun? Discover all this and more about deep, dark space. Engaging text, detailed facts, and impressive statistics give children exciting scientific insight into the world around them and the universe beyond. A glossary at the end of the book helps reinforce the information.
A picture book celebration of pioneering British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid who broke boundaries and defied forms. “An inspiring story based on a dazzlingly influential life.”-Kirkus