Bat Week!

I love to use bats to introduce nonfiction text features.  The students love to learn about bats, and they get so excited when they begin to find nonfiction text features during our small groups or independent reading.  I find the activity that really makes an impact on them is creating their own informative "All About Bats" book that includes some nonfiction text features.  When they are actively constructing their own examples of these features, it solidifies their understanding.  I could point out nonfiction text features all day long, but for many of my students, they won't truly begin to recognize them until they create their own example.

I started by reading an a to z reader about Bats projected on the smartboard so that we had large examples of the features to look at it.  We discussed how an author's purpose and our purpose as readers is different when reading nonfiction versus fiction.  As we read and came across a new text feature, I would add it to our anchor chart.  I tried to keep the anchor chart very simple.  I simply had the word and an example right from the book we read.  I didn't want to include a written definition because that wouldn't be meaningful or a helpful reference for first graders.

Then in small groups I guided students in finding examples of each of the features in nonfiction bat books that I got from the library.  As we found examples, we reviewed the purpose of each feature.  Later in the week, my job share partner had them read nonfiction a to z readers at their level and they had more opportunities to identify nonfiction text features.

Bold print the students found

A diagram with labels

After reading (either the read aloud, small group reading, or independent reading), the students would summarize important facts they learned about bats.  I made a list on the smart board and we added to it each day.  Students chose between 4-8 facts to include on their graphic organizers.

I wanted to include at least a couple of the nonfiction text features in our books.  I found a directed drawing activity, so we drew bats and then labeled them.  Their little bats turned out so cute!!  The other feature I thought would be good for them to create an example of their own is a caption.  I printed a small color picture of bats hanging upside down and the students wrote their own caption to go with it.  As the week went on, I could tell that they were definitely finding more captions and labels in their independent reading!

I considered having the students create their own Table of Contents and glossaries (with just one word), but I decided to save that for our next All About informative writing piece.  We did an awful lot with this one for the beginning of first grade!  I did provide them with a Table of Contents and they were actually quite excited about that.  I think having all of these features made them feel like true authors and I love to see them excited about that!  Here are a few pages from completed books:

You can get the graphic organizer I used in my TPT store here along with other bat writing resources. 

Next up, SPIDER WEEK!