Informational Text Pack
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Informational Texts for Interactive Notebook. Task Cards, Literacy Center Discount Bundle (Main Idea)
$10.00Add to cartInformational Texts about Animals
The 12 informational articles in “Things I Didn’t Know About Animals” are designed to help students grasp the concept of main idea and spot supporting details. The texts are short, compact, and filled with unusual and interesting facts to motivate young readers.
To give teachers multiple use options, this material is posted in a zip file in two different formats.
Informational Text Task Card Format:
- The Task Card/Literacy Center format is a single, full-page presentation with the article on the left and a set of 3-5 questions on the right. In addition to main idea and supporting details the questions also address sequencing, cause and effect, inference, and using context clues to determine word meaning. Answer forms are included. This format can be used as a whole class lesson.
Informational Text Interactive Notebook Format:
- The Interactive Notebook version includes the same set of 12 informational texts and questions, both resized and reformatted for the right side of the notebook as a flip two-layer page. Two additional response forms, also in flip-page style, are provided for the left side. Teachers may choose to use the prepared forms, or allow students to create their own response designs
Full answer keys are included.
These pages are appropriate for 4th-6th grade classrooms and some 7th and 8th grade students. Motivated 3rd graders will also enjoy these articles.
View Sample Pages of both formats HERE
The two different formats for these texts can be purchased separately at $5 each. This bundled zip file offers a savings of $2.
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Informational Text Pack for September: Coffee with Punctuation
$6.50Add to cartThis informational text pack—Coffee with Punctuation—highlights National Punctuation Day on September 24th and International Coffee Day celebrated on September 29th.
The first article, “Punctuation Rules!,” begins with a trick sentence that illustrates how punctuation can change meaning. Next is a list of 5 punctuation vocabulary words with Greek and Latin backgrounds. A brief history of the development of English punctuation from ancient Greece to the present gives student a look at punctuation through the centuries. A final trick sentence offers them something a little different to do on National Punctuation Day.
The second article,”Let’s Go for Coffee,” chronicles the dual histories of coffee drinking and coffeehouses from the 14th Century to Colonial America (Students will be surprised to learn that the Boston Tea Party was plotted in a coffeehouse!) to the founding of that famous chain of coffeehouses in Seattle, Washington, in 1971.
“Punctuation Rules!” has 15 CCSS aligned questions. “Let’s Go for Coffee has 12.” Full answer keys (with targeted CCSS alignments) are included.
View Sample Pages
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Informational Text Pack For October: A Monster Story and Strange Weather
$6.50Add to cartWhat could be more appropriate for the month of October than an Informational Text Pack that begins with an article about Frankenstein’s monster? Not only is he one of Halloween’s most versatile characters, he is also a star of stage, screen, and TV. The strange thing is—he has never had a name and he owes everything to his strikingly ugly looks.
The second text takes students back to 1816, known as the Year Without a Summer when people in New England and a few states father south were shoveling out from under a foot of snow in June! It wasn’t until the 1980s that science understood exactly what happened.
Youngsters will be surprised by the connection between the Year Without a Summer and Frankenstein’s monster.Each article is three pages of script accompanied by 15 CCSS aligned questions.
Full answer keys are included.
View SAMPLE PAGES
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Five Things You Didn’t Know about Thanksgiving
$7.00Add to cartThe five informational texts in this pack present unusual, but true facts about Thanksgiving—things you won’t find in the history books. Use them as a count-down to the Thanksgiving holidays or as part of a holiday literacy center.
Each one-page article is accompanied by 5 CCSS-aligned questions and 1 to 3 bonus questions that can turn into a writing or research assignment. Full answer keys are provided. Targeted CCSS skills are listed in the answer keys.
These texts are designed appeal to 6th-8th graders and address particular RI CCSS skills in these grade levels. However, 4th graders, 5th graders, and some high school students might also benefit from the material.View Sample Pages HERE.
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Informational Text for November: Pumpkins and a Thanksgiving Parade
$6.50Add to cartIn America, nothing says Thanksgiving and Halloween like pumpkins, and they are the first featured article in this November Informational Text Pack. Surprisingly, this common fruit (or is it a vegetable?) has some interesting facts in its history and in its present.
The giant balloons of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade are the focus of the second article. Since their beginning in 1926, the balloons have exploded, floated away, banged into lampposts, and poured water on spectators. The balloons have been naughty at times, but the parade wouldn’t be the same without them!
Pumpkin Surprises has 14 CCSS-aligned questions and Parade in the Sky has 15.
For teacher convenience, targeted CCSS skills are located in the answer keys rather than on the question page.
Full answer keys are provided.View sample pages HERE.
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Informational Text: 5 Things You Didn’t Know about Christmas Songs
$8.00Add to cart“5 Things You Didn’t Know about Christmas Songs” is a set of five different informational texts. Each one features a little-known fact about a particular song.In many cases, events from American history were involved in shaping the song, and sometimes, the song shaped history. Think of this product as a history/music/reading resource.
The articles, each two-pages of text with 10 CCSS-aligned questions, are written for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders although some younger and older students will also enjoy the material.
Songs features in this set are:
“White Christmas”
“Jingle Bells”
“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
“The Chipmunk SongAnswer Keys are included.
25 total pages of text counting Answer Keys.
View Sample Pages
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Informational Texts: A Christmas Duo
$6.50Add to cartPoinsettias and mistletoe—two familiar Christmas plants—take center stage in this duo of original Informational Texts.
“The Red Flower from Mexico,” traces the poinsettia’s journey from a wild shrub growing in Mexico to the most popular potted plant in the United States and Canada.
“Kissing under the Hemiparasite” takes a look at mistletoe’s ancient reputation as a magical plant and its perceived mystical qualities that somehow managed to jell into our modern kissing-under-the mistletoe tradition.
Each article is accompanied by a variety of 15 CCSS aligned question. Full answer keys, including short answer questions, are provided.
Both articles are written for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, although some high school classrooms and gifted 4th and 5th graders will also enjoy the contents.
Great seasonal resource for teaching Informational Text reading skills or for skills assessment.
View SAMPLE PAGES.
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Informational Text Pack for January: Drinking Straw Day
$6.50Add to cartThis Informational Text Pack celebrates Drinking Straw Day. Yes! No kidding!
Though not an official, Congressionally sanctioned, national celebration, January 3 is set aside as Drinking Straw Day—a time to acknowledge the importance of this little necessity. It also commemorates Marvin Stone’s patent for the world’s first paper drinking straw, which was granted by the U. S. Patent Office on January 3, 1888.
Get your students in the Drinking-Straw celebration mode with the three articles in this file:
(1) “Drinking Straw Day” chronicles the rather surprising history of the drinking straw with a focus on the two inventions that brought it to its modern form. This article has 15 CCSS Aligned questions.(2) “Addendum 1: Patent No. 375,962” presents the original diagram drawing and specifications included in Marvin Stone’s paper straw patent from 1888. The 10 companion CCSS aligned questions require students to study both the diagram and the specifications. Several questions refer to information in “Drinking Straw Day.”
(3) “Patent No. 2,094,286” includes the original diagram drawing and specifications from Joseph Friedman’s flexible straw patent in 1937. The 10 CCSS aligned questions for this document refer to the diagram, the specifications, and information from the other two documents.
A set of “Drinking Straw Facts” and another group of “Facts about Patents” are included as a little something extra that teachers and students can use as they see fit.18 pages of script. 20 total pages including cover and Credits.
Full Answer Keys are included. (Specific CCSS are listed here, and not in the questions themselves)
Download the preview pages HERE. (Use the back arrow to return to this page.)
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Informational Text Pack for January: Peanuts and Peanut Butter
$6.50Add to cartThis Informational Text Pack begins with “January 24th: National Peanut Butter Day in the U.S.”. The article focuses on one of our favorite foods and traces its development from its South American roots, through its growth in popularity, to its debut as a homogenized smooth or crunchy commercial product. It also introduces students to “arachibutyrophobia,” the terrible, awful, debilitating fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of one’s mouth.
The second article “How the Peanuts Gang Got Its Name” takes a look at how Charles Schulz was forced to give up the original name he attached to his famous cast of characters and accept one he never warmed up to—“Peanuts!”
Each text is two pages long and comes with a set of 15 CCSS aligned questions.
Full answer keys, with specific CCSS alignments listed for each question, are included.As a bonus, I have added a two-page list of left-over peanut and peanut butter facts that students can use to write their own informational texts. Or, teachers can easily transform them into task cards.
Download the sample pages HERE. (Use back arrow to return to this page.)
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Informational Text Pack for February: Hearts and Ferris Wheels
$6.50Add to cartTreat your students to a new view of February 14th with “Hearts and Ferris Wheels.”
This Informational Text’s first article, “Getting to the Heart of the Matter,” starts in ancient Egypt for the beginnings of the mix-ups and misconceptions about the human heart that were finally unscrambled less than 500 years ago. Still, they keep hanging around in our language as idioms, which we dust off and wear out each Valentine’s day—bless our hearts!
Bet you didn’t know that February 14th is also Ferris Wheel Day! “The Engineer with Wheels in His Head” tells the story of the world’s first Ferris Wheel, built by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (born on February 14th) for the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 (aka The Chicago’s World Fair.)
Each text is accompanied by 15 CCSS aligned questions. Full answer keys are included. CCSS alignments are listed in the answer keys, not the questions.
Download the sample pages HERE.
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Informational Text Pack for March: Umbrellas and Barbie
$6.50Add to cartIn honor of March’s U.S. designation as National Umbrella Month, the first portion of this text pack is about this very necessary item.
Barbie, the first teen fashion doll, made her debut on March 9, 1959, at the New York Toy Fair. Since then, she has reigned at the world’s most popular doll. To commemorate her 50+ years of extreme fame, controversy, and legal entanglements, the second article tells the story of Barbie Millicent Roberts.
Each article is three pages of script with 15 CCSS aligned questions. The target skills are listed in the answer keys, and not with the questions.
This file is 17 total pages, including 12 pages of script, 2 pages of answer keys, a table of content, a cover page, and an e-bibliography with clipart art credits.
Full answer keys are included.
View Sample Pages HERE. (Use the back arrow to return to this page.)
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Informational Text Pack for April: Frogs and Kites
$6.50Add to cartIn the U.S., April is both National Frog Month and National Kite Month. Thus, the unlikely duo of frogs and kites is the subject of this Informational Text Pack.
“Frog Background Check” takes students into the world of frogs and highlights some of their most unusual talents and habits, such as shedding and eating their own skins. Though written to appeal to a student’s sense of humor, this text’s goal of instilling an appreciation for these little critters is 100% serious.
Generally thought of as no more than a toy, kites take center stage in “Go Fly a Kite.” This article features a brief history of kites and how they have been a vital factor in several important human accomplishments.
Each text is accompanied with a variety of 15 CCSS aligned questions.
Full answer keys included. (CCSS skills are listed here, not in the questions.)
View Sample Pages HERE:
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Informational Texts Pack: Feet and Shoes
$6.50Add to cartFeet and shoes are the topics of this Informational Texts Pack. Titles of the four original articles are
Arguments for Feet Appreciation
Where Did You Get Those Shoes?
Extraordinary Feet
Speaking of Feet. . .The goal of this teaching resource is to inform and to entertain—lots of humor to keep students interested, especially “Speaking of Feet. . .” For the teacher, there are 10 CCSS aligned questions in a variety of formats for each of the four articles.
The Teacher’s Resources section offers one or more complete writing prompts for all four texts, links to internet sites and YouTube videos for more in-depth study, research topics, and the e-bibliography used in writing the articles.
Full answer keys with specific CCSS alignments are included. Twenty-five total pages.
View SAMPLE PAGES.
