Researching the Alamo

This week in social studies, we are going over Texas landmarks. Each second grade class has a different Texas landmark to research and present at the end of the week. Our landmark is the Alamo. We will be going through all the step of research. 

A great site for students to do web searching is called www.kidrex.org. We used this site, books, and short movies to gain lots of information on our topic. 

We have just starte step four of research which is where we organize our information. 

We still have tons to do, because for step 4 (present and share) we will be making All About Books and presenting a poster to all of second grade. Research is lots of work, but they are all doing a great job with it. 

Non-Fiction Text Features

We have spent a while talking about non fiction text features. Today we went on a scavenger hunt for the features in books from the library. These are some of the features we found!

Maps

Labels

There's a caption at the bottom if the page on the right. 

The index is usually found in the back of the book. 

Table of Contents

A photograph of a cat, and also a caption. 

More labels!

A glossary

A timeline

Another map!

Its hard to tell from this picture, but the word hibernate is bolded. 

Apparently everyone wanted to be on the blog, so here's most of the class showing glossaries. 

Today I sent home a study guide for the features of non fiction. Go over them with your child. If you have a book at home, you can do what we did in class. Find as many features as you can!

Non Fiction Features

There are certain features/characteristics that many non fiction books have, and we are trying to remember all of them. Genre is a very important skill in second grade. Because of this we have spent the week talking about these features and comparing them to the features of fiction books. 

Today we made our very own posters about Non Fiction features. This poster will be taken home to use as a reference. 

Do you have any non fiction books at home?  See if you and our child can find some of the features we have put on our posters in your books.