The Adopt a Pet Project Ms. Myers, 2 nd Grade Holy Cross School

Your Signature Project It includes many things we’ve learned in our class. It is a group project with individual parts. You will be doing the following: ◦ Reading: Research on sea animal ◦ Writing: Expository (Information) essay ◦ Math: adding, money and measurement ◦ Oral presentations ◦ Social Science: learning about the election process

What to Expect in this Project Choose and write about an endangered animal and its habitat. Raise money for your adopted pet. Create a commercial about your endangered pet candidate. Present to the class your sea mammal essay. Vote for our class adopted pet.

Vocabulary Adopt Endangered Campaign Candidate Elect/Election Mammal Gulf of California North America

Choose Your Sea Mammal Your group will select a pet candidate. The pet candidate is an endangered sea mammal from North America, in Gulf of California There are six animals to choose from:

Choose Your Sea Mammal Vaquita Blue whale Fin whale Sea turtle

Choose Your Sea Mammal Whale Shark Big Eye Tuna

Write About Your Sea Mammal You will write about the selected sea mammal in an essay. Your essay must be three to five paragraphs. It must include a topic sentence, supporting details and a conclusion. Each person in the group will choose a subtopic.

Subtopics Description of sea mammal (includes life cycle, physical description including measurements). Sea mammal’s habitat. Sea mammal’s diet. Sea mammal’s enemies and threats. Why should the class vote for your animal?

Research Your Sea Mammal You will use different resources to learn about your animal. ◦ Internet ◦ Library resources

Raise Funds for Adopting a Pet We will adopt a pet from WWF. Collect coins to contribute to the pet adoption. Each week a group will be treasurer to count and record our adoption amount. After voting, funds will be used for adopting a pet at wwf.org. Each student will receive a copy of the adoption certificate with a picture of our new pet.

Create a Campaign Video Each group will create a campaign video about their “candidate pet”. You must write a script that persuades others to vote for your animal. Video must include three facts about the animal and why the class MUST vote for this animal. Be creative! Sing, dance, act … whatever works for you! The video is NO MORE than 3 minutes.

Group presentations Each group will present their essays to the class. Each member is responsible for reading their essay topic. Each group will be assigned a day for presentation. All members must be present on that day! Students will ask questions about their animal. The group video will be viewed that same day.

Voting for Our Adopted Pet A selected day will be Election Day! On Election Day, we will have a polling place for voting, including poll workers. You may vote for ANY animal on election day. It DOES NOT have to be your selected animal. The animal with the greatest number of votes will be elected as 2 nd Grade Adopted Pet.

Grading Your Signature Adopt a Pet Project will be graded on the following: ◦ A 3-5 paragraph essay about your selected topic with detailed facts from research, correct grammar and spelling and a bibliography. ◦ Your oral presentation to the class and answering questions from classmates. ◦ Research and group participation ◦ Video presentation.

Your Time to Shine Remember … This is YOUR time to SHINE! So get ready to ROCK AND ROLL!