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 Pig s    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.