Non-Fiction Ideas

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Many students need more practice reading nonfiction text. If you use Scholastic News, Time for Kids, or Weekly Reader in your classroom, then you can make some easy nonfiction text to display at centers. I save these flyers or magazine articles that are kid friendly and interesting to students. I glue the articles to colored construction paper and laminate them. Then, I store them in a ziplock bag for easy storage. After a few years of doing this, I have a ton of nonfiction articles that are ready to use.

Once you have some articles saved up, place them at a reading center along with a graphic organizer. Sometimes I write up a set of questions about a certain article and have the students answer them individually or with teams. I only have to do this one time for that article and I can use the set of questions over and over again. Also, most graphic organizers will fit any article. Depending on the grade level you teach and how difficult the article is, the students should be able to do this independently.

Here are some subscriptions you may want for more nonfiction reading:
Ranger Rick
Scholastic News Grade 3

Here is a FREE graphic organizer you can use with any non-fiction reading. Just click the picture on the left and you will be able to download this graphic organizer freebie!

If you do not use a "weekly reader" in your classroom, sometimes I have used old magazines that the library discards too. I try to find kid friendly articles or stories to add to my collection.

We all know that non-fiction reading can be extremely hard for students to read and comprehend. These little articles are a great way to incorporate more non-fiction reading in your classroom for very little cost and prep time.

Here is a Non-Fiction Reading Center for 2nd and 3rd grade students. Students read about frogs and toads. They compare and answer comprehension questions about each one. Click the picture to see this product up close.

Here are 15 United States of America's National Symbols. Students read a passage about each one and answers comprehension questions. Timeline and research ideas are available. Click the picture to read more about it.

Hopefully you can use this tip!

See you soon,