This is a guest post by Lesley Boatright, who will be contributing a series of posts over the next few months. If you like what you see here, check back frequently for more posts, click here to see her other posts, and click here to read her blog, Practice Makes Perfect.

Using Nonfiction Text

A few weeks ago, I shared ideas on how to use the fiction story Three Little Pigs  from the Story World series to learn a bit about houses. Today, I'm going to show you how I plan to use the nonfiction text Where Would You Like to Live?  from the Real World series to learn more about houses.

Before we begin reading, I plan on introducing the features of a nonfiction text to the class by looking through the book and pointing out and discussing the features the book has. Then I will let the children put sticky notes on the features in the book.

After reading the book to the class, I have flashcards that show different types of houses from all around the world. We will discuss the different houses. Using a map, I will have the children find the different places in the world where the houses are found. They will glue pictures of the houses onto the map.

Next, I will ask the children to pick two houses to compare and contrast using a Venn diagram. They will have to tell at least one way the houses are the same and different.

Finally, the children will work with partners to complete a class book about homes, using the format found in the Where Would You Like to Live?  story. I will encourage them to be creative and silly, with nothing being too far out there to use as a house!

After writing, making pictures, and assembling the class book, I will put all three books into a take home bag, and the children will take turns taking the bag home to share our stories with their families!

Check back in a few weeks for another post about using paired texts in the classroom. I will be showing how I will use The Little Red Hen  and Who Made our Breakfast?  to teach about food from the farm to the table.

Lesley Boatright is an Early Childhood/Elementary Education teacher from Southwestern Pennsylvania. After graduating college, she moved to South Florida, where she taught kindergarten in the Palm Beach County School District for 8 years. After having children, she decided (with her husband) that Florida was too far away from the rest of the family, and she moved back to her hometown, where she took a few years off to spend time with her son. She has been teaching in the parochial school system for 18 years now, first at kindergarten, and currently in a first grade classroom. Lesley has also taught 2nd and 3rd grade Spanish and 4th grade social studies. Visit Lesley at her Facebook page, blog, Pinterest, and on Teachers Pay Teachers to get great teaching ideas.

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For more information about the Story World Real World series shown in this post, click here to visit our website, or click the image on the left below to download a series information sheet with key features. To download the lesson packet, click the image to the right.