Non-Fiction Text Feature Book, Non-Fiction All About Book, & GIVEAWAY

   Happy Veteran's Day friends!!  Thank you, Veterans, for your service to our country and for this fabulous day off from school!!  It's been sooooo nice to get some things done today. I've got laundry in the wash, cupcakes in the oven (I get to celebrate my sweet niece's 2nd birthday tonight with the fam!), did some major Christmas pinning on Pinterest (that was a SUPER productive 2 hours....NOT!), and some school work!
    Anyway, I've been meaning to blog about this FOR - EH- VAH, but as usual, blogging gets overtaken by that pesky thing called LIFE. :)  But anyway, my kiddos have been overtaken by some non-fiction lately!  Oh, and little side note.....what do you guys call non-fiction??  Do you call it non-fiction or informational text, or both??  And do you use the two terms interchangeably? I know that's random, but it's been bothering me because I see activities listed under both terms, and I know it's the same thing, but I never know which one is more appropriate to use or if it even matters!!  Goodness gracious..that was a bird-walking moment if I've ever seen one.  BUT...we've been reading non-fiction/informational text (there, I covered all my bases), we've been studying non-fiction text features, we've been writing non-fiction, and more!  The kids are loving it too.
    I don't know about you all, but when I'm about to do a project with my kids, I have to have some kind of an organized template for how they will record/write down information or I just go crazy.  I know some teachers can just let their kids staple some paper together and write and glue random things on it, and I envy you.  But I just can't handle it.  It makes me batty...  I like uniformity.  I have control issues...I know this, and I'm working on it.  But in the meantime, making a template for my kid's projects keeps me sane. 
      We have done two projects lately with our non-fiction study. The first was a non-fiction text feature scavenger hunt type project where the kids went through Time for Kids magazines and other magazines and found examples of all the different text features we studied and made their own book.  This project was a blast!!!  It was incredibly messy and quite time consuming, but it was authentic work and worth the time and effort.  Click the picture above to find this great book on my TPT store!

It's only $1.00!!

  

Here are my sweet babies (no pun intended) with their AWESOME non-fiction text feature books!  They did such a great job!!

       The next non-fiction/informational text (this term thing is driving me crazy..) project we did was in writing.  Each student chose a topic that they wanted to research.  We gathered books, articles, etc on each students topic and they are creating "All-About" books on their topic.  Now this kind of thing is another type project that just throws me into a tizzy sometimes too.  Research projects are so meaningful and so much fun for the kids, but they can be utter chaos.... because every child is doing something different, and it can be hard to manage if there isn't organization....which is another reason why I've created an entire set of documents devoted to "All About" book organization!! 
        

This unit ties in seamlessly with the non-fiction text feature book project because it basically has the kids write a non-fiction book using a lot of the text features that they just learned about!  It has a planning form for students to brainstorm ideas about their topic for research, then a rough draft form that is organized so students can plan out the names of their headings for each section, their text, and their glossary, etc.  Finally, it has the actual book template where students can publish their own non-fiction "All About" book.  It has a cover page, table of contents, pages with places for headings, captions, labels, and photographs, as well as a glossary and all about the author page!  I love it!!  And I hope you do too!
    If you are in the middle of a non-fiction unit and would like these two units, I would LOVE to give them away, so the first 3 people who FOLLOW MY BLOG, FOLLOW MY TPT STORE (www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/bethbanco), and COMMENT ON THIS POST with your email will get these two units for FREE! Happy Veteran's Day!
     Love, Beth