Nonfiction Text Features

This week we started looking at elements of fiction and nonfiction.  Of course, as the students compared and contrasted the two types of books, the kids quickly noticed some of the text features.  I used this as a segway to introduce the text features that students in fourth grade should know such as graphs, timelines, and diagrams. 

Today, the kids went on a text feature scavenger hunt.  The students were to look in their own nonfiction books (that they had check out from the library or the ones that I had available in the classroom- I prefer students to have a book on a topic they are interested in learning more about).  I used The Shabby Chic Teacher's nonfiction text features unit (freebie-check it out)  to show examples of text features on the Promethean Board. 

Here are some of my kiddos on their text feature scavenger hunt. 

Check out my improvising...I didn't have any small post-it notes, so we had to use the larger post-it notes and tear them.  :)  Also, to save on post-its, the kids only marked each type of text feature they could find ONCE. 

After all of the kids have finished, the kids traded books with a friend and they checked their friend's work.  The kids LOVED this activity!  When the kids were leaving my class, they made comments like, "Mrs. Shelby, the activity today was SO much fun!"  That's always a good thing to hear!  :) 

So, that's what we have been up to in my fourth grade reading class.  Do you have any awesome strategies you use to review/teach text features?