Skill:

Classify works of fiction by characteristics (fables, tall tales, and folktales) and works of nonfiction (including biographies and personal essays)

Activities:

• American Folklore

  Explore tall tales, myths, folklore, and spooky stories from around the United States.

• Melvin & Steven Video: Non-fiction

  Check out this video as Melvin and Steven explain non-fiction. Be prepared to laugh!

• Myths, Folktales & Fairy Tales

  Meet authors of myths, folktales, and fairy tales and find out how they create their stories.

• Bio4Kids

  Learn more about the lives of famous people, both in history and today.

• Fractured Fairy Tales

  Write your own fractured fairy tales, traditional fairy tales with a twist.

Skill:

Summarize the evidence that supports the central idea in a nonfiction text

Activities:

• Supporting Point of View

  Choose the evidence that best supports an author’s point of view.

• Summarize as You Read

  Can you find the main idea in each passage?

• Sum It Up

  Write a $2.00 summary and “sum it up” in twenty words.

Skill:

Analyze nonfiction texts for facts and opinions

Activities:

• Fact Fragment Frenzy

  Learn to find the facts you need in a paragraph.

• Fact or Opinion Quiz

  Some of these sentences are facts and some are opinions.

• Fact or Opinion

  Can you tell whether each sentence is a fact, an opinion, or both.

Skill:

Use headings, subheadings, print styles, white space, and chapter headings to gain information on nonfiction texts

Activities:

• Parts of a Book

  Find out what you can learn from the title, author, title page, table of contents, and chapter headings.

• Parts of a Book Game

  Play the matching game with different parts of a book and their definitions.

Skill:

Use tables of contents, glossaries, indexes, and appendixes to gather information

Activities:

• Using an Index for Information

  An index can help you find information in a book.

• Using a Table of Contents

  Learn how to use a table of contents to find information quickly.

• Locate Information

  Use the index and the table of contents to answer each question.

• Kid’s Glossary of Legal Terms

  Check out an example of a glossary. This one helps you understand words that are about the law.

Skill:

Break words into parts to understand what the word means

Activities:

• Prefixes Make New Words

  Use the prefixes to make new words!

• Suffixes Say a Lot

  Learn to use suffixes to understand the meanings of unfamiliar words.

• It’s Greek to Me!

  Many prefixes we use are from the Greek language. Compete in the Olympics to learn them all.

• Spelling Game

  Use suffixes and prefixes to create new words from words you already know.

• Short Circuit

  Match prefixes and suffixes with their meanings.

• Vocabulary Pinball

  Play pinball! This time, you are trying to spell a word with the ball.