First grade students recently completed a four-lesson unit on the difference between fiction and nonfiction. As part of this unit, students compared short penguin video clips for Happy Feet and March of the Penguins to begin our discussion. We then read two hippo books to discuss features of fiction and nonfiction - The Hippo-NOT-amus (fiction) and Best Friends: The True story of Owen and Mzee (nonfiction).. Firsties also created a mini book to help them remember that “NonFiction gives us New Facts” and that “Fiction is to enjoy For Fun”. |
As a final activity, students sorted actual books within our library into fiction and nonfiction categories by using the spine labels and remembering that “Numbers mean Nonfiction”. The use of animals ties into their current unit theme in Reading Street and their current science unit of animals and their adaptations. |