Non-Fiction Text Features

A broad experience with a variety of stories, informational books, and poetry is fundamental to children's continuing growth in reading and writing.

- Martinez & Teale (1988)

During small group lessons, we have been reading non-fiction books and noticing the different features they have. We found lots of features that help us learn information. As a group we created a list of all the different text features we found. We also found out that not all non-fiction books have each feature in it, the author chooses which feature they want to use.

We used this information to then make our own non-fiction books about animals from our animal inquiry. We have been wondering about these animals and learning lots of information. This small group gathered information and put it into a book to teach the rest of the class.

Students worked in pairs to brainstorm information about their animal (giraffe, polar bear and squirrel).

They then began to add the information into a book, using some text features we learned about.

It was so wonderful to watch the students eagerly search out new information or share what they already knew. They talked with their partner to share ideas about organizing their information and what needed to be in the table of contents. We were so impressed with their conversations, research skills, writing skills and imaginations that we thought we would share their books. We hope you learn something from these books, we know we sure have!

All About Giraffes by J.C.

All About Giraffes by D.M.

All About Squirrels by A.A.

All About Giraffes by A.R.

All About Polar Bears by I.D.

All About Polar Bears by L.L.

All About Squirrels by A.R.

All About Polar Bears

We have been investigating polar bears these past few weeks. At this point we have more wonders than we do answers! But, we have been learning lots of really interesting information.

Polar Bears International is an organization that has lots of scientists working to save the polar bears. The students were curious about this:

I.S- how can they save the polar bears in they’ll eat them?

C.M- the polar bears will help each other

A.R- I wonder how people save the polar bears?

J.B- I like polar bears when they find food

E.B- I wonder why polar bears eat people?

A.P-it’s because people are meat

D.A- if people are made out of meat and the polar bears like to eat meat, how will they  save the polar bears?

We tweeted the wonder 'why do polar bears need to eat meat' to Polar Bears International and they told us that polar bears really like to eat blubber. We realized that's why polar bears like to eat seals, because they have blubber. We learned that polar bears also have blubber to keep them warm!

"I wonder if polar bears stay with their mom?"- A.R.

"What do polar bears eat?"- D.A.

"I wonder why polar bears have white fur in their skin? My theory is maybe they have fur because they need to hibernate."-D.M.

"I wonder why polar bears do not like cold water? I think the water is cold." M.F.

We labelled the parts of the polar bear.

The polar bear has two layers of fur on top of the blubber to help keep it warm.

Learning about how the polar bears paws help it survive in the Arctic.

Polar bear's paws can be 30cm wide! Look how big that is compared to A.H's hand!

We read a book that told us polar bears eyes flatten out when they go into the water! So fascinating!

We are continuing to wonder and continuing to learn more about polar bears! Stay tuned!

Happy Valentine's Day

Wishing all of you a wonderful Valentine's Day!

We hope you have a great Family Day Weekend and enjoy time with your family. We hope you can get outside and enjoy a walk, play board games as a family, visit extended family or just curl up at home and spend quality time together!

The Beginning of an Inquiry

People often ask me, "how do you start an inquiry?" Inquiry learning can seem so daunting. What I have learned through experience and lots of professional reading and development is that inquiry can begin in many different ways. Inquiries can begin from a small question asked by a student. They can be well-planned and initiated by an educator. Or they can be a combination of the two. That's the beauty of inquiry. It is open and flexible for the specific learners and the specific environment. No environment is the same and so, no inquiry will be the same.

We have been really working on encouraging our students to wonder. They have been great at engaging in activities in our classroom, but not regularly wondering. Turns out all you need is to have animals that they know of, but know very little about. We read a chapter book about the Arctic and were introduced to polar bears. The students began talking and wondering. We decided this was something we were going to encourage. As educators, we decided we would push their thinking by encouraging them to think about animals in various habitats. This is how we landed on investigating polar bears, giraffes and squirrels. Quite the unlikely grouping! But, we are hoping some exciting learning will come from this inquiry into animals.

Our learners have been enjoying wondering, exploring and researching about these animals.

What we know

A polar bear out of cubes

Because of the wonder above, these girls began looking at pictures of giraffe's eyelashes and made these pictures.

Using books to help us learn more information about giraffes

We are keeping track of our wonders and learning so far on our 'Animals' wall and in a binder. Students can refer to each others' wonders and information throughout the day.

This space is for the students who want to keep wondering about different animals

'How to draw' pages are up on the wall to support students with the animals

We put out animals and materials for the students to explore habitats and to promote oral language around the animals.

Our learners surprised us by measuring the giraffes to see how tall they were!

After building habitats for their animals, A.R & I.D. wrote down what they know their animals need to survive

"We made this for the bears. The igloos are homes and the seal is for the food."- D.A & M.F.

Clearly, we are just beginning this learning journey and I am so excited

to see what this inquiry will teach us about animals and how we can 

play a role in ensuring they are respected. Stay tuned!