The Power of Teaching Nonfiction Text Features for First and Second Graders

 

Non-Fiction Text Features

Teaching young readers about nonfiction text features is a game-changer in helping them understand and engage with informational texts. Non-fiction text features are like little reading road signs that guide students through new information, allowing them to locate and comprehend facts more efficiently. It’s very important in first and second grade to focus on key text features which will allow students to be more successful and build their confidence when they encounter more complex texts later on.

Here are some important text features students should know:  

·        Headings – Titles that introduce the main topics or sections of a text. It gives readers an idea of what they’ll be learning about.

·       Subheadings – Smaller titles that break down the main topic into specific sections, allowing the reader to find information quickly.

·       Table of Contents – A list at the beginning of the book that shows all of the chapters or sections and the page numbers they can find it on.

·       Captions – A description under pictures or diagrams that explain what the image shows and gives more information about it.

·       Glossary – A small dictionary at the end of a book that defines the important words found in the text.

·       Index – A list at the end of the book in alphabetical order that shows where certain topics or words are mentioned.

·       Bold Words – Words that are darker in print to show they are important terms

·       Diagrams – Drawings or images with labels showing parts of something, providing a visual explanation of a concept.

      ·        Labels – Words or phrases on a pictures or diagram that name specific items or parts.

·       Charts and Graphs – Visual displays of information, like numbers or facts, that make it easier to understand data or relationships.

Check out some engaging activities below that let students practice identify and using these features while learning about incredible topics such as bats, bald eagles, spiders and more!

Includes follow up comprehension activities and writing activity.

 Check out Bats here!

Spiders is also available!

Here are some great books (fiction & non-fiction) to read about bats and spiders!

TPT Giveaway and October Ideas!

Here are some fun activities for October!

Did you know it was Bat Appreciation Month? 

Our kids are working on learning non-fiction text features so I tied it into a unit on bats!  You can do it in October or anytime of the year.  

Here we are brainstorming what we know about Bats.

Then, we read a book about Bats and glued in the various text features on the pages such as diagrams, labels, bold words, table of contents and glossary.

Bats also includes a writing project, graphic organizers and so much more. You can grab it for your class here.

We also visited a sanctuary where the students created bat houses. They turned out amazing!

 Then the students decorated them.

 Here's a bat skeleton.

Here are some great books to read about bats:

Since Columbus Day just passed and I wanted to share this easy craft activity for students to share their knowledge of Columbus.  I try not to get into the nit and grit of history, but I teach them how he was an explorer and about the voyage.

 

 On each sail we wrote facts about Christopher Columbus.  The kids were given brown rectangles and cut off the corners on the bottom to create boats.

If you haven't already grabbed this FREE Halloween color code printable, get it here! Monsters aren't usually this cute!

A fellow teacherpreneur, Michelle Dupuis, is about to launch her new store and to celebrate over 30 teachers have joined in for a fantastic giveaway!  You can check out her new store here.

 Now for the fun part!  Enter to win 4 TpT Gift cards!

CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS!

Click here to enter  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click here to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway

Halloween!

So October is officially here!  

You can look forward to the crisp cool mornings and the beautiful fall leaves. I love this season and everything about Halloween! I still love to carve pumpkins, do all the fall activities that kids do, and try anything that has the flavor of pumpkin!  Do you know how many items you can eat that comes in pumpkin flavor??

I created Octoberfest (for kids!) for some fun and engaging learning activities for kids K-1.  If you grab it this month, there's a bonus inside for you!

Octoberfest For Kids includes over 110 pages of math, language arts, science, writing, and art activities. It has 4 emergent readers (non fiction and fiction) and is aligned to the CC.

You can grab it here and get a FREEBIE too!

  

                                       

 Here are a few previews:

Practice missing addends with manipulatives

Non-Fiction & Fiction Emergent Readers

 (with an interactive book that teaches positional words)

Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching Activity

 *NEW* Label It! Activities- children practice the skill of labeling (this is one of my best selling items - see Label It! in my store for a closer view of this type of activity)

Grab a FREEBIE Color by Code Here!

Some other fall activities to enjoy:

You can keep them as leaves and measure them to see who has the longest leaf or create a picture with them!

 This month, we're working on non-fiction text features.  I decided to have the kids work on creating their own book about bats.  This tied in nicely with Halloween and the kids were so fascinated by bats.

In the beginning, students created a web with all the things they knew about bats. 

We read a lot of books about bats (both non-fiction and fiction) and learned how to take notes using a 'can, have and are' organizer.
We used the following books that were great for note-taking.

I liked this book because it was written in a Question & Answer format and was very simple for kids to understand.  It's also great for teaching what types of questions you would want to find out about bats.

These are some great  books available from Scholastic Books.

Amazing Bats is great for note taking for older kids. Below are other great books:

Stellaluna is a favorite book of mine.  You can have your class listen to it on storylineonline.  Sometimes it's nice for them to hear someone else's voice =) Click here for the book.
After Stellaluna, students compared the attributes of bats and birds.

We read this non-fiction reader about bats.  It's an interactive book where students identify and add in the missing text features on the pages in the book (not shown below). Comprehension questions and non-fiction text feature match up is included.

Here are some of the notes the kids took after reading some bat books.

Check them out!

Then, using their notes, students created a rough draft outline for their writing and then worked on their final draft. There is another outline enclosed for students who need more guidance.

 The kids followed these directions to draw a bat and cut it out for their front cover.

This bat is hanging upside down!  Pretty creative kids!

We labeled a diagram from a bat I made.  

Here's a final product!

Create your own Bat Unit in your class. 

Check out BATS here:

Here's  a preview:

Here are some adorable bat crafts/treats to go with this unit:

Check the original pin out here.

Check the original pin out here.

Check the original pin out here.

Check the original pin out here.

MORE FUN HALLOWEEN IDEAS

The kids loved all the Halloween snacks and crafts, but my favorite healthy snacks were these:

Pumpkins:
Clementines with celery sticks

Ghosts:

Bananas with chocolate chips (mini chocolate chips for the eyes and regular chips for the mouth!)