Teaching Text Features in Second

I always find when students can create a product, it helps them understand a concept.  I planned this project around that idea, where the students had make a book about tulips and text features.  This was the second time we were covering the standard, and I wanted to give them something hands-on to do that was different than making a collage/poster (which is what we did the first time). 

Ta-Da!  Do you like the background?  I put it on a log. 😬

So my thinking for this is, it may not be exactly to the standard, BUT it gives the students a peek inside the mind of an author of informational text.  The kids had to plan their book, create a table of contents, include the text features we were reviewing, create a glossary using some of the words in their book, include page numbers, and complete the pages. 

 

It was a lot harder than I thought to get second graders to do all of that.  The illustration page was pretty easy because the kids had tons of practice with drawing pictures and writing a sentence about said picture.  

Even this page was not too difficult for the kids to complete.  Especially because I put a word bank on the board for the kids to use to help with the labels.  

For whatever reason, the students had hard time with this page, even though it is very similar to the first page.  After a whole class brainstorm, the students felt more confident and completed the page.  

It seemed like it would be easy, it as not.

This about killed me.

Originally, I was going to have the kids choose their own words to put into the glossary, but after so many of my kids seemed to struggle with it, I decided to choose the words.  They had to go back and underline the words in the book.  The glossary and table of contents were done in whole group since most of the kids needed the extra support.

All in all, we made it!  The books were fun, the kids were able to practice using the text features in their own spring-themed book, it was a win-win!

Think this is something that would be awesome to do in your classroom?  

I've got you covered!

Visit my TPT store by clicking the link HERE