Informative Topic Writing: Kindergarten Animal Reports
I’m so excited to share my latest kindergarten animal reports and printables with you! These templates will make writing informative essays easy and fun for your kindergartners this school year.
Plus, they’re filled with opportunities to build print awareness, handwriting practice, and fine motor skills development.
Check out my tips and tricks for introducing your kindergarten students to informative writing with animal reports and informative topics about animals you can use in the classroom and at home. Plus, discover some of my favorite nonfiction books about animals, documentaries, podcasts, and more to explore these fun informative writing animal resort topics with your kids!
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Writing Informative Topics About Animals
Primary writing projects give kindergarten students many opportunities to build literacy skills and practice expressing their own ideas. Kindergarten writing assignments help students further develop fine motor skills, build print awareness, and practice phonics.
Engaging and fun informative topic writing gives kids the chance to show what they know and learn more about the topics they’re most interested in exploring.
Kindergarten students can begin organizing their thoughts and learning to write essays with a little help. Informative essays are a great place to begin building these important writing skills with kindergartners because they allow kids to focus on a topic they’re interested in, share what they know, and learn more about it along the way.
So how can you teach your kindergartners to write informative essays?
I like starting by exploring informative topics about animals. Kids can choose their favorite animal or an animal they don’t know very well. If all the students are choosing the same animal, try a decision wheel.
Decision wheels make choosing your informative essay topic so much more fun!
Just add the name of an animal to each section on the decision wheel and let your students take turns spinning the wheel. Kids can write their informative animal reports on the animal where there spin stops.
Informative Writing Animal Report Steps to Follow
When students begin their informative writing animal reports, they’ll want to start with an interesting or fun fact. Beginning with something interesting about their animal will grab the reader’s attention and help them get started writing too.
To help your kindergarten students begin writing animal reports and informative essays, try learning about the animals together.
Next, help your kindergarten students group the information they learn into topics like diet, habitat, or physical characteristics. Learning to organize the facts they discover will make it easier to complete the informative writing animal reports.
Finally, organize the topics into the order they will appear in the kindergarten animal reports. You can assign an order for students to follow or let them choose what fits best for their own informative topics about animals.
My new printable kindergarten animal report pages
My new printable kindergarten animal report pages are a great place to begin helping your students gather information, organize their thoughts, and begin writing their own informative writing animal reports.
Here’s what’s included in this bundle:
Easy Reading Passages
I’ve included an easy reading passage for a variety of animals including lions, zebras, pandas, and many more. Each passage is easy enough for kindergarten students to read independently and filled with fun facts about the animals they love.
Fact Collector
Make it extremely simple to collect facts for your next all about animals unit with these nonfiction writing printables.
Simply describe the animal by writing details or drawing a picture in each box.
Sentence Writing Page
In order to help your students get started with their first informative essay topics, I’ve included two sentence writing pages. These pages have an adorable animal picture at the top and blank spaces for kindergartners to share their thoughts on a variety of topics.
Kids will be encouraged to write about what their animal likes, eats, where it lives, and more. There are templates with sentence stems provided and blank primary lines as well.
Each page also includes a checklist to remind students to begin their sentences with capital letters, use space between words, and end in correct punctuation.
Cover Page
There’s a fun printable cover page included for every animal. These pages will make it easy to celebrate your kindergartner’s first informative writing topic! Print and let your students decorate however they’d like!
Book Page Templates
Some of my favorite printables included in this kindergarten animal report bundle are the book page templates. These pages encourage kids to keep writing and make it easier for little hands to form the letters needed for these informative writing animal reports.
Each page comes with lines to help kindergarteners build fine motor skills and practice handwriting. Plus, there are spaces for students to add their own unique animal drawings to every page. Adding art is a great way to keep kids engaged in writing and sharing their informative essay animal reports.
Hands-On Animal Crafts for Informative Writing Animal Reports
Animals are fascinating! I just know your kindergartners are going to have fun learning about the fun animals featured in these informative writing animal reports.
Plus, they’ll be learning so much and practicing important writing skills too.
Kindergartners can color each of the printable animal report pages and add their own unique animal drawings too. Check out my fun hands-on animal craft activities for even more printable practice that’s easy to incorporate into your lessons and informative topics about animals.
Books and Media for Further Research About Animals
Giving your kindergarten students access to a variety of materials to help them gather information for their informative writing animal reports is critical. Consider bringing books from the library to your classroom or purchasing some fun animal facts books to keep in the classroom.
Here are a few of my favorite books and media sources to help you get started:
Lions
All About Lions by L.E. Arning
Explore My World: Lions from Nat Geo Kids
The Last Lions by Dereck Joubert
Tigers
Amazing Animals: Tigers by Valerie Bodden
National Geographic Readers: Lions by Laura Marsh
Tigers Forever by Steve Winter
Wild Kratts “Temple of Tigers” Episode from PBS Kids
Zebras
Follow Those Zebras by Sandra Markle
A Zebra’s Day from National Geographic Kids
Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes by Stephen R. Swinburne
Giraffes
Giraffes for Kids by Tristan Keefer
Save the Giraffes by Anita Sanchez
Giraffes from Penguin Young Readers
All Creatures Podcast Episode 56: Stick Your Neck out for Giraffes
Bears
Our Amazing World: Bears by Kay de Silva
Bears from National Geographic Kids
American Black Bears by Molly Kolpin
Pandas
Magic Treehouse Fact Tracker: Pandas by Mary Pope Osborne
Nature’s Children: Giant Pandas by Lisa M. Herrington
Panda Kindergarten by Joanne Ryder
Stingrays
Stingray from Curious Kids Press
Stingrays by Martha E. H. Rustad
Facts About the Stingray by Lisa Strattin
Wild Kratts “The Vanishing Stingray” Episode from PBS Kids
Gorillas
Amazing Gorillas by Sarah L. Thomson
Animals with Strength: Gorillas by Julie Murray
The Ultimate Gorilla Book by Jenny Kellett
All Creatures Podcast Episode 73: The Magnificent Mountain Gorilla
Vultures
Turkey Vultures by Mary R. Dunn
Vultures of the World by Keith L. Bildstein
Penguins
Penguins of the World by Wayne Lynch
Passionate About Penguins by Owen Davey
Penguins from National Geographic Kids
All Things Penguins for Kids by Animal Reads
March of the Penguins Documentary
Elephants
National Geographic Readers: Elephants by Avery Hurt
Discover More Writing Projects for the Kindergarten Classroom
Are you looking for even more fun writing projects to use in your kindergarten classroom or homeschool this year? I’ve got tons more writing template pages and writing crafts available in my shop to encourage your kindergarten students this school year. Check out a few of my favorites below.
Grandparents Day Writing Activity
All About Bees Writing Activity
St. Patrick’s Day Writing Prompt
Polar Express Writing Activity
Combining hands-on activities or cut-and-paste craft templates with your kindergarten writing assignments is a great way to encourage your kids to explore writing their own unique stories and essays.
Stick with fun topics your students are interested in to get the best results. Informative topic writing is easy and fun with my new printable kindergarten animal report templates. Which animals will your kids write about first?
Do you have some fun writing activities and informative topics about animals I forgot to mention? What’s your favorite way to teach kindergarten students about new animals and essay writing? Share your tips and tricks in the comments. I can’t wait to read them!
thank you