We’ve been focusing on nonfiction text features in reading recently. I’ve always enjoyed teaching nonfiction because my kids get so excited about all of the different subjects we explore. As a kid myself, I loved looking through my nonfiction books because there was always something to look at: a photo, label, map, chart…even if I couldn’t read every big word on the page I still enjoyed the content and the exploration. One specific book was my very favorite as a child, and I still have it today! It was called Geo Whiz and I spent hours engrossed in the photos and maps in this book! Do you have a nonfiction book that you loved as a child?
One of the first things to teach when introducing nonfiction are text features. We did our initial introduction to these by using text features posters that Amy Lemons and Katie King created in their Rooted in Reading 3rd grade curriculum (January, I Wonder Why Penguins Can’t Fly). I just printed them all out at a smaller scale and added them to one anchor chart for us to refer back to often.
Kids use text features all the time; they just don’t always know the correct term for what they are using. The real test is having them identify the text features in real nonfiction text, using the correct terminology when talking about the features in the text, and being able to do both with a variety of nonfiction sources including books, magazine articles, printed or digital web articles, atlases, etc. They should understand that different sources display different features in different ways. For instance, one source might use italics in their captions while another might use bold print. Identifying that both are captions is the point.
I whipped up this Nonfiction Text Feature Scavenger Hunt Freebie to use during our scavenger hunt, and it was a great success! It uses sticky tabs to mark each text feature instead of having to write down page numbers or explanations on worksheets. I used to do this with my students in my small groups back when I was in the classroom, and it was always a successful activity. I just decided to finally put it down on one activity sheet!
There are a few ways you can use this with your students, which I have explained in the How To portion of this resource download. I hope you find this free resource helpful in reinforcing nonfiction text features with your students! Feel free to pin to save and share! And don’t forget to find me on Instagram and Facebook to see what else we’ve been up to!
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