Non-Fiction Writing

Last week in writer's workshop, the children were introduced to non-fiction writing. To launch this unit, we first defined what fiction and non-fiction meant. Then, we read the book Frogs by Gail Gibbons (a well known non-fiction author). The next day, the children each picked a book from a pile, examined it, and had to decide if their book was a fiction or a non-fiction book. Then, we sorted our books by making two piles: one for fiction books and one for non-fiction books. On the third day, I read Frogs again to them and pointed out the topic sentence.

While reading the book Frogs, I pointed out that many non-fiction books have diagrams (labeled drawings) in them. After, as an example, I drew a diagram of my body and labeled the different parts of my body. Then, the children repeated the same activity, but instead drew a diagram of their body and labeled their parts.They did a terrific job with this activity!

Part of our non-fiction unit, the children will write an All About book on a particular pond animal(ask your child what animal they are learning more about to write their book). The children have been "researching" their animal by looking through books about their animals and writing/drawing where they live, what they eat, the life cycle of their animal, and some cool facts. A diagram of their animal will be included in their book. The children will share their All About book with you sometime in June for our end of the year celebration.