Write about Reindeer – Caribou Informational Writing Activity for Elementary Students

Holidays are a great time to infuse informational writing into your reading and writing curriculum. Students get to learn about animals from around the world and learn to write informational paragraphs about them.  During December, we research and write about reindeer or caribou. 

Note: For this lesson, I’m using reindeer and caribou interchangeably. They are the same species with slight differences. Originally I did the lesson with students and we researched reindeer.  The next year I wrote an informational article (that you can get for FREE below) and wrote it about caribou.  At this age and grade, I generally tell students that they are the same species and that reindeer are slightly smaller and often domesticated. 

In December we generally have three weeks before the Holiday break, so we study polar animals.  Week one is all about reindeer.  Week two is about polar bears and the following week is about penguins.

Write about Reindeer or Caribou – Sequence of Instruction

For these holiday-themed animal studies, I follow the same routine as I do during our Informational Writing Units.  You can read about those lessons in the blog series about Informational Writing.

Each week, we read a book about the animal or watch some videos about it.  We’ll make a circle map of what we know and what we learned about the animal.  The students will then write sentences and a paragraph about that animal.

Day 1: Learn about Caribou or Reindeer

On the first day we learn all about Reindeer and Caribou in preparation for writing about the animal.  We read books, informational articles, and watch videos. 

Prior to reading or watching anything, I elicit information from students and fill in the top of the chart shown below. This is “what we know”. 

I take all answers from students, even incorrect ones. 

As we read and watch videos about reindeer and caribou, we add notes to the bottom and check what we “know” at the top to verify the facts are correct.

Day 2: Sort the Facts about the Reindeer

On the second day, students sort the facts in order to write about reindeer.  While most facts will fit into specific columns, there is a lot of flexibility with the facts sort. Younger students will appreciate doing a closed sort. For older students, you might consider doing an open sort and having students group related facts together.

Here’s what a fact sort could look like in your classroom.

The FREE Caribou informational article comes with a fact sort that matches the article.  

Day 3: Finally Write about Reindeer – Create a Paragraph about the Topic

On day three, students write about reindeer. I help students write a topic sentence and they use the facts we sorted the previous day to complete a paragraph about the animal.

I’m trying to find “crafty” ideas related to the animal.  This week, we made reindeer antlers.  Unfortunately, they flop about a bit.  But they’re still really cute!   

When we did this with bats, I had the students do a prewriting graphic organizer, but I didn’t with the reindeer.  The process went much quicker this time around and I think the students are able to synthesize the information well enough.  

Plus, I want them to be able to complete a paragraph in a week, including doing a rough and final draft.  I’ll count the circle map as the prewriting graphic organizer that we completed whole class.

FREE Caribou Article & Fact Sort Activity

Would you like the Caribou Article that you see in this blog post for FREE?  Click the image below.  It comes with a two-page article with photos, a one-page article without images, a page of QR Codes for additional research, and the fact sort seen above. 

More Information about Expository Writing

Are you looking for more information about how I teach informational writing or more Animal Articles? I have several blog posts that will help. 

• Informational Writing Overview – This is the first in a blog series that gives details about my informational writing unit. Each blog post is a week of instruction and shows how I increase the complexity of the tasks asked of students.
• Animal Articles – These are the articles, QR codes, and fact sorts that I use when teaching informational writing.  There are a variety of animals to choose from all over the world.