This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Animals Are Amazing!: | In this lesson, students will use What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page to identify the main topic and relavant details. Students will complete a 3-2-1 card, a group poster and presentation, and an independent expository writing piece to demonstrate their new learning about some amazing animals. |
| The Difference Between Fact and Opinion: | Using the book Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin, students will explain facts and opinions about worms from the text. Students will decide if information from the text is a fact or opinion and write a factual statement about worms from the text. |
| A Tree Is a Plant - Step by Step: | In this lesson, students will participate in multiple readings of the text A Tree Is a Plant by Clyde Robert Bulla, They will complete a K-W-L chart about trees, answer text dependent questions in pairs, and learn about the parts of a paragraph when writing their own expository text. This paragraph will include a topic sentence, supporting details, and a conclusion. This lesson provides great background information and extension activities to support learning in science as well as reading! |
| Learning About Community Helpers: | Students will learn about the important jobs of the community helpers in their city or neighborhood. After reading Whose Tools Are These? and Helpers in Your Neighborhood, they will write an expository paragraph about a helper of their choice. |
| Using National Geographic Reader: Frogs! To Explore Topic and Detail: | This unit focuses on using text features to understand non-fiction text, specifically National Geographic Reader: Frogs! by Elizabeth Carney. The students will participate in a whole group activity where a portion of text will be analyzed for its topic and details and the teacher will write a paragraph about it using shared writing. The students will then apply the skills they learned as they create a topic and detail table and write an expository paragraph. |
| Night Sky Introduction: | This lesson plan is an introductory lesson for first graders on the objects seen in the night sky and stars. |
| Falling Down? A Lesson on Gravity: | In the lesson Falling Down? students will explore why objects fall. They will explore the meaning of gravity and the invisible pull to the center of the Earth. They will also explore why objects don't fall. |
| Name That Fruit!: | In this lesson, students, will read three informational texts about fruit. Students will identify key ideas and details in each text and use illustrations to help them identify the key ideas. This lesson also incorporates a science standard that asks students to sort objects by color, shape, and size. After reading each text, students will participate in several hands-on activities to sort fruit. |
| Making a Splash: Comparing Two Informational Texts through Read Alouds: | In this lesson, students will compare and contrast two informational texts through read alouds and use of a Venn diagram graphic organizer. The lesson uses Swimming by JoAnn Macken and Let's Swim by Carol Lindeen. Students will also write to summarize the similarities and differences between the two texts. |
| Digging Deep for Dino Details and Discussion: | In this unit, students will read appropriately leveled informational text on dinosaurs and identify the relevant details of the text. The students will create a detail web using evidence from the text and will then write an expository paper about their choice of dinosaur. The students will also participate in a guided class discussion. The students will practice the guidelines and procedures for successful discussion and will also practice how to come prepared for discussion by providing supporting information from texts that have been read. |
| Text Detectives Investigate Meat Eating Plants: | In this lesson, students will identify the text features of non-fiction books and use several informational texts on meat-eating plants to answer text dependent questions. Students will become "text detectives" and learn how to use the text to find the evidence to prove that their answers to questions are right. The students will learn to use evidence from informational texts to write explanatory paragraphs. |
| I'm Seeing Starfish: | In this lesson, students will work with two texts, Starfish by Edith Thacher Hurd and Discovering Starfish by Lorijo Metz. As they learn facts about starfish, they will also discuss an important text feature that readers use. Students will write an expository paragraph about starfish to culminate their learning. |
| Studying Text Features with Polar Bears: | This lesson focuses on using text features to understand nonfiction text, specifically the National Geographic Reader: Polar Bears, by Laura Marsh. The students will use a text features anchor chart to support student understanding of how these features contribute to the meaning of a text. Students will read and take notes to answer specific questions about the text and use those notes to write a paragraph about polar bears. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
