All About Books

As a final project of the year, the children are writng "all about books."  After our recent study of insects, they were already familiar with many non-fiction texts.  We broadened the discussion and began looking at how author's organize their facts and information.  Using Lucy Calkins' Units of Study for Primary Writing as our guide, the kids began to examine different books, from frogs to pharaohs.  We made note of the common features that most informational texts have, including a table of contents, sections or chapters, diagrams/labels, illustrations or photographs, pages with extra information, how-to pages, find-out-more pages, a glossary, and an index.  All year, we've stressed that authors write about what they know and love.  We encouraged our young authors to do the same. The subjects chosen by the children include soccer, pandas, horses, the solar system, and more.  We can't wait to learn all about them.   A few children were so excited by this project that they gave up valuable playtime after lunch to keep writing!