Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday 8.27.14

NF PB 2014

We know that a big part of the CCSS is to include more informational texts into ourstudents' reading.  I quickly discovered I had a "gap" in my reading diet - the genre of informational texts!  To help me fill the gap this year, I am going to participate in Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesdays!  This is a great link-up hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy.  Please visit this website to see other educator's link-ups.  My goal is to read at least one informational text each week and post information on the blog.  The more books and subjects I read, the more I can encourage (my #OLW for 2014) other teachers to use in their classroom! 


This is a new series that is perfect for a primary classroom to use as a brief introduction to genres and other literary formats.  Of course, there is no better explanation than using real pieces of work, but sometimes you need to show something quickly to help students wrap their thoughts around something.

Two of the books deal with fiction and nonfiction.  They both give quick overviews but list all important factors kids need to know.  Standard 5 for both kindergarten and first grade is about students being able to determine the difference between fiction and informational texts.  These two books are excellent tools to help teach and demonstrate this standard.  I love them because not only do they give quick-to-the-point-overviews, but they also go into the different genres.  The fiction book includes realistic fiction, adventure, scary, fantasy, historical fiction and science fiction genres.  Some of the genres in the nonfiction book include current events, opinion papers/reviews, how to books, and books that explain.  Our first grade team is using both of these books in short, mini-lessons, reading just a few pages at a time and creating anchor charts for students to refer to throughout the year.


What Are Fiction Genres?       What Are Nonfiction Genres?
What Are Fiction Genres? by Valerie Bodden
What Are Nonfiction Genres? by Valerie Bodden

The books in this series use bright photographs to keep the young readers engaged.  When showing a genre or a specific example of a format, the books include the explanation on the left side and an excerpt demonstrating the genre on the other side.

Some of the other books in the series include:

What Is Poetry?
What is Poetry? by Trudi Strain Trueit

What Are Legends, Folktales, and Other Classic Stories?
What Are Legends, Foldtales, and other Classic Stories? by Lisa Owings

I think these books are great teaching tools for the classroom.  They lay the information out in a very accessible way and make it easy for kids to understand the difference between the genres.

7 comments:

  1. I will have to get one or two of these to share in my Children's Lit class. They look like very useful additions to a classroom. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. These look great! Thanks for highlighting here. I am particularly interested in the titles about genre.

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  3. I know the What Is Poetry one, but not these, Michele. The Primary Teachers and I read all the Fontas & Pinnell genre book a couple of years ago, so I will share these with them too. They sound good!

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  4. Very cool, thanks! I think the nonfiction genre one could work really well for our second graders when they study nonfiction text and its structures.

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  5. Looks like these books would not only be helpful for kids but also for teachers! I haven't heard of any of these titles yet, so thank you for highlighting them. :)

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  6. I'm going to be trying to locate these Michele. Thanks for this post.

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  7. Really great to hear such kind comments about this series. You can find the complete set at Lerner Publishing Group's website: lernerbooks.com Or you can purchase them on amazon.com as well. Thanks, everyone!

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