Nonfiction Writing in KC

 In the past, I have used Lucy Calkins Unit of Study Books(which I love) but this year I decided to use lessons from Linda Hoyts Crafting Nonfiction. I just bought the book it was expensive around fifty dollars, but it is worth every penny!!!  I love her style of writing; her lessons are simple yet so effective. So below, I will share how I took some of her BIG IDEAS and used them in my class to get a started with writing nonfiction books.

~Looking at a photograph of                                           a nonfiction text ~ 

 What can you learn from this picture of a giraffe? 

This lesson focuses on looking at a picture and getting information.  I did this lesson many times over the last week using different animals. I also modeled how some of our descriptions could  turn into sentences for a book.The kids loved talking about what they noticed.

Student Recording

 Students came to the meeting area with a clipboard and while we created a  class chart describing the animal they worked independently on the sheet below.  

We learned about sketching our work.

Looking carefully at a snake.

 Looking carefully at a Giraffe.

I had students select a nonfiction book/ picture and talk about what they notice from the picture. 

Sheet to record what you notice from pictures

click here to download

Class Book
We took a class vote on what animal the class would write about. You can see the list of class suggestions. 
Dolphins won in the end. 

I know when the students create their nonfiction books 
they will probably pick one from this list.

Learning About Dolphins

We used the photo above, and we read 
the book Bottlenose Dolphins.

During the lesson, I did a lot of thinking aloud.

T: Wow just by carefully looking at the picture we know that dolphins live in the water. They have tiny sharp teeth. Dolphins have skin like the color of the water. What does that usually mean when an animal/creature blends in with its habitat?  
Dolphins swim above and below the water.

While reading the story, we recorded relevant keywords. The Keywords will help us remember important facts to include in our nonfiction book. Linda Hoyt defines keywords as those that are essential to understanding a concept.  Each group selected a keyword to write about and illustrate. 

The Post-Its has the keyword from the reading.

 Partners created books about animals. 

The dolphin has almost 100 teeth it swallows whole fish.

They swim in groups, and they are mammals.

Warm water dolphins

Dolphins have a blowhole it helps them breath. Dolphins have a blowhole it closes when the dolphins underwater.

Dolphins jump as tall as giraffes neck.

Parts of a dolphin
For this dolphin book, I plan on adding more nonfiction features during interactive writing time. 

Guess Who Books

On a different day, we read the following Guess Who series books recommended by Mrs. Bell from A Place Called Kindergarten. I love everything Mrs. Bell does in her classroom!!!!  

She has a recent post on nonfiction goals that I LOVE! I got all of the books out of the library, and when I read them to my class the kids went CRAZY!!!  I need to buy them. At the time of sharing half the class was going home, and the other half had a stay-day, immediately the kids wanted to write a Guess Who Books. 

Pebble Books 

Pebble books have great nonfiction facts. 
You can find these books in scholastic book orders.
The amount of print and  information is perfect for kindergarten.

Before starting our Guess Who books 
we reread a story writing Key Words from the book.

  Groups started by reading their nonfiction book about their topic. While reading, they recorded important words from the books. I was checking in with each group. One group just looked at the pictures and illustrated things they noticed. I was excited to see that because it connected back to the first few lessons on looking at photographs and finding information.

Keywords for Guess who Leaps


Here is the story three girls wrote that day.