Students should have specific guidelines for completing a written report. You can choose to assign a report on whales in general or a specific whale. You could allow students to choose their favorite whales. They should have clear instructions on format, including how many paragraphs they will need to include. Explain what topic should be covered in each paragraph. For instance, students could research and write about the whale's appearance, diet and habitat, as well as any special features or unique characteristics. This would also be a good time to teach structural elements of writing, such as the introduction and conclusion.
Building a three-dimensional model whale is a fun way to mix art and science. You could involve your school's art teacher, build the models in the classroom or have students create a model at home. Models could be made out of paper mache or clay and could be painted to look like a real whale. Students could then be required to write facts about their whales on index cards. Then you could create a class museum by setting up models with accompanying index cards around the classroom.
Posters are fairly simple to make but still require research and design decisions. Students could choose a whale, research facts about the whale and create a poster. The poster could include a picture or diagram with arrows and vocabulary words for each physical feature. It could include some writing or typed material about the whale. Children could include pictures of what the whale eats or maps depicting its migration routes.
Teachers could incorporate technology by teaching students how to create slides for a PowerPoint presentation. Choose a set number of slides the students must complete. Show them safe sites to explore for facts and pictures. During the presentations, students might talk about interesting behaviors of certain whales and then show corresponding photographs on slides. You could also tie in environmental awareness and ask students to research endangered whales and include statistics in their presentations.