Reindeer Research for Kids

December is one of my favorite months in the classroom because of this reindeer research activity for kids.

Students have so much more fun when we take what’s normally a boring ELA standard and turn it into a fun themed project!

In winter, we use a reindeer research project to help reinforce research skills. I love mixing it up with books and technology so students can practice using text features to locate information. 

Reindeer research is also a great idea for activities that don’t center around the holidays!

I used this with my 2nd grade students, but it’s perfect for 1st-3rd, and it also includes a digital version for Google Classroom if you are virtual this year. 

Reindeer Research Ideas for Students: 

To get started with our reindeer projects, we checked out National Geographic Kids. They have a lot of the basic information about reindeer, including another common name, Caribou. 

It always surprises kids to find out they are also called caribou!

If your school has a subscription to PebbleGo, this is another great one for students to research Caribou. I personally love that the sentences can be read aloud to the students, which helps them research independently!

The class favorite is watching the live reindeer cams! This live reindeer cam is on Youtube, but there are a few on different sites if you check with Google!

Another good option, is to check out YouTube for some informational caribou and reindeer research videos for kids!

After spending some time online, we checked out some informational books from our school library. 

I typically share a few together as a class so we can focus on the text features we find in the books! 

Reindeer Research Flip Flaps:

The research flip flaps could be completed in a variety of ways depending on your class this year. These are the Reindeer Research Flip Flaps we used!

Some years, I was able to hand this off to my second graders and they could complete it independently. 

Other years, we would complete the activity as a class, but I’d allow students to add any extra facts on their own. This was a great way to differentiate for kids who could work independently.  

The flip flaps are awesome because they are only one page, but still interactive!

They ask students to: 

• Label the parts of a reindeer
• Draw a reindeer habitat
• Record reindeer Facts
• Collect data & create a bar graph
• Can, have, are activity

In the “collect data and create a bar graph” section, I had my students use their peers as a reference source. Everyone asked their friends at their table if they had ever seen a reindeer.

This lends itself to a great discussion on how different your data can be, depending on who you poll. 

If you love the flip flap idea for winter, you might also love the Easy Snowglobe Parent Gift that I recently shared!

Optional Writing Activity: 

My students took the facts that they had collected to write a short summary about reindeer. They loved being able to take the knowledge they had gained and share it! You could also complete this activity with the digital version on Google Slides.

It’s always exciting to see students beg to write more on a research project. That’s one huge perk when it comes to writing on topics of high interest. 

They were able to easily take those facts that they had learned and put them into written words.

Once my class finished the research and writing, we completed the reindeer craft. The Reindeer Research Project comes with a template for all of the pieces. 

I printed off the parts of the reindeer on construction paper, but you could also print on white paper and have students color the pieces. 

Displaying Your Reindeer Research Activities for Kids:

These also make for a super cute bulletin board where students can show off all of their newly learned research skills! You have a couple options too! You could display the craft with just the writing piece, the flip flap, or both. 

Teacher Tip: Use clothespins to hang student work so that students can change out your boards independently!

If you want to try out the Reindeer Research Project we used, you can find it HERE! 

What Other Teachers Are Saying: 

What are some projects that you do to engage your students in research? I would love to hear about them, comment below!