
I had the most success with
the students creating and completing
·
An accordion nonfiction summary
·
A vocabulary flip flap
·
A Venn-trifold
Nonfiction summaries are
very difficult to write, and my students often struggle. The accordion summary
foldable is a great hands-on approach to breaking text paragraphs up into
shapes. While giving students one or two pages, from a nonfiction book, they
can easily create a short summary. We focus on the five W’s, (who, what, why,
where, when, and how) when writing a nonfiction summary. The students are
easily able to locate the main idea and important details from each paragraph
and write them into the boxes of the foldable.
The vocabulary flip flap
foldable is always a student favorite. Not only is it a fun paper to cut and
fold, but it also organizes information very well. When using this foldable, I
choose eight vocabulary words, with a similar theme. The students write the
vocabulary words on one side and define them on the other side of the little
blocks. In the center, they try to guess the theme or the commonality between
all words. When defining the vocabulary, they can use the nonfiction text
features such as the glossary, index, bold face print words, or even context
clues.
Using a Venn-trifold is very
easy. It is just like a Venn- diagram, except the two opposite sides open and
the commonalities are written in the center. Students usually use bullet points
when writing on their trifold to keep it neat. It is a great visual aid when
one side is colored one color and the other side is colored a completely
different color. When the trifold opens, the students usually mix both colors
together to signal “alike”.
The students in my class
were excited for group this week and could not WAIT to find out more
information about the underwater sea creatures.
Check out the materials by clicking here or on the picture below!
I hope you can incorporate these fun foldables into your small
groups or whole class lessons.