Headfirst - a blog for primary teachers by a first grade teacher: October 2020

I love using nonfiction with my students! I did not have a lot of nonfiction books available and my students LOVED learning about animals so I started making these nonfiction animal passages for the different levels of students in my first grade classroom and they were a HIT!

I find that my low-socioeconomic population needs a lot of building of background knowledge so I included picture vocabulary cards to go over before reading to get students ready for the text.

Having two levels of text, I could teach the same lesson to different levels of learners. They can all learn about the animal at their level!

When I want a shorter lesson, I can use individual pages of the resource and the corresponding comprehension questions.

I love connecting reading to writing so I have included graphic organizers including webs, can have are charts, and writing outlines at different levels. These really helped students organize their thoughts for writing about the animals.

At the end of the year, each student gets to choose a zoo animal to write about. These passages gave them lots of facts to use in their own animal books when I couldn't find a lot of books on the more obscure animals. They loved being able to highlight the information they wanted to write about.

Some of the passages have animal life cycles included.

Here's what buyers have said about my nonfiction animal passages:

"excellent packet thank you for differentiated lessons"

"Great no prep resources are included in this bundle. My students loved learning about hyenas."

"My students loved reading about Toucans and writing about them. It worked perfectly with our rain forest literacy night!"

"Love all the informative texts that you have! Thank you!"

"This pack is good value as it has a range of activities, and is suitable for various ages and stages."

"My 3rd grade intervention group loved these passages they were very interested in what they were learning."

"My students loved learning about Meerkats with this resource. Thank you!"

"We read the story "Koala Lou" in class and this was a perfect non-fiction text to pair with it! Thanks!"

"Great unit to send home to have students complete during distant learning."

"This had two levels which I found very helpful. I loved the photos and vocabulary that were included with it. Thank you!"

"Great resource! The 2 different passages are helpful, as well as the graphic organizers."

"Great resource to help my students with informational reports!"

"Great supplement to an animal research project!"

"I bought this product to do with my reading enrichment group. We had a fun time with it and learned a lot."

"Great for reading groups, and differentiated for different leveled learners!"

"My kids loved learning more about owls! I thought the price was great for the amount of material provided."

"I love this bundle! Can't wait to save up to buy more of them! Perfect for differentiation in my mutli-level ability classroom."

"You are truly an amazing and gifted resource person. You have a great insight into what teachers need. Thank you for sharing this amazing resource. I use a lot of comprehension exercises in my class and this will be perfect."

"My first graders loved this resource!"

"Students love animals and learning about them! This resource had the facts I needed for a mini-lesson on Llamas and compared it to fiction stories like Is Your Mama a Llama. Very engaging!"

"MY KIDS LOVED THIS! Great resource!"

"My students loved reading about flamingos. My theme in my classroom is flamingos so it was easy to engage them. I had them work in small groups to read and find the information. It was really great practice!"

"My students were curious about flamingos & I'm so happy that I was able to use this resource to support them in exploring their interest! Thank you so much!"

"This is one awesome, comprehensive resource! It is just what I was looking for, even better than expected."

"This was a perfect resource to use with distance learning. The passages were just right for them which was wonderful since it is hard to get the right resources in the hands of little ones during school closures."

"Love this resource! It has great information about the tiger and great activities to support the comprehension of the text."

"These are great passages to use with my higher first graders for our animal research projects. Thank you!"

"Used these in our after school program for our grizzlies unit. We hung them throughout the program and used the information in them for trivia games. Kids love them!"

"I have a camping theme in my class and the last few days we did everything to relate to it and this resource was so fun to do with them. thank you!"

"I used this at home with my daughter. She loved learning about the different farm animals. Great read for a child who loves animals."

"I appreciate the leveled materials. The use of vocabulary/key terms was great."

"Very useful product! My students loved the activities!"

"Thank you for your skilled and creative work."

Check out this freebie for a sample!

PENGUIN PASSAGE FREEBIE

Click on the links below to see the passages in my store.

Gators and Crocs Passages

African Animals Bundle

Kids love learning about animals. My nonfiction animal passages for Google Slides are engaging and full of animal facts for kids to explore. You'll love the vocabulary and comprehension components as well as the webs, writing outlines, and writing paper.

Each has a similar format for consistency if you choose to assign these regularly or if you want to give students a choice of which animals to read about. Assigning on Google Classroom is easy and no prep.

Assign one page or two pages together or separately. There is a page of questions for each page and one for the passage as a whole.

Writing webs, outlines, and online paper is included. All the worksheets can be printed before or after using them online.

Many animals are available. Click below to see each in my store or click on the bundles to $AVE!

Here is what buyers are saying about my Google Slides Nonfiction Animal Passages:

"My students love learning about the different animals and having a similar layout in each type of animal. Thank you for this great resource."

"This is a great way to keep the kids interested in learning and writing without having lots of teacher support (since we aren't in class). This kept my students learning and was easy for them to understand and do."

"Some of the words are a bit advanced, but my kids love them all the same. They are enjoying learning about different animals and having similar layouts each week for their work. They really like them and are keeping them learning during this time."

"My students loved this product! It was perfect for virtual learning. Perfect for Field Trip Friday’s to the zoo!"

"Love, Love Love this."

"We used this non-fiction resource along with the book Sylvie. Thanks so much!"

"As an ESY Distance Learning educator and previously a 3rd Grade Special Ed inclusion teacher (next year unknown), I need resources that would both work with my diverse group and be engaging. Students will be able to work independently and with the group throughout the use of this resource. They can be focused and on task. Thanks for offering it during the sale."

"This was a great resource to use for my class for Distance Learning. The students could complete the slides easily and I liked how I could change the document to meet my students needs! Thank you!

"I used this product in the spring and it was a great resource. My students enjoyed the reading passages. Thank you."

"My kids love it and it is easy for them to use."

"This was a great resource to use for my class for Distance Learning. The students could complete the slides easily and I liked how I could change the document to meet my students needs! Thank you!"

"A wonderful digital resource for distance learning!"

"This is a great reading comprehension activity on bats to use with your students in Google Classroom."

"Great resource! I love all the information, vocabulary, and thinking maps for the students to fill out."