Katie

Greving
Chinn Elementary First grade
Fiction vs. Nonfiction Unit
What is Fiction?

Date: Thurs. Oct. 17 Tues. Oct. 22, 2013
Materials needed:
The book Whos Afraid of the Big, Bad Book by Lauren Child
An example of a fiction and nonfiction book from Chinns library
Student worksheets
Crayons

Introduction:
Were going to be starting a new unit today! Were going to be learning
about fiction stories and nonfiction stories and how we can tell the
difference between the two of them.
For the next 6 times that you come to the library, Ill get to teach you,
and well do some fun activities together.

How many of you like stories with Piggie and Elephant? Lego Ninjago?
Max and Ruby? Disney characters? All of those books are fiction, and
they have fictional characters in them.
o Does anyone remember what the word fiction means?

Instruction:
Fiction stories are the ones that are make-believe, but couldnt really
happen. Piggie and Elephant talk in Mo Willems books But can pigs
and elephants really talk? Is there really such a thing as Lego ninjas?
o What are some other fiction books you can think of?
Introduce the book Whos Afraid of the Big, Bad Book? by Lauren Child. As I
read, listen for characters who arent real or things they do that could
never really happen. Read the book aloud to the class.
While reading, ask:
o What fictional characters have we seen so far in this book? Is
that character a real person, or did someone imagine him/her?
o Could (almost any activity mentioned in the book, like Harold cutting
a hole in the book or drawing a real chair) happen in real life?
After reading: Was this book fiction or nonfiction? How do you know?
Call on multiple students to give examples from the story.

Activity:
In your library, the fiction and nonfiction books are labeled with
different colors. Hold up an example of a fiction book and a nonfiction book,
and show the green and yellow dots. Point out that fiction books have yellow
dots, and nonfiction books have green dots.

Introduce the worksheet to the class. Were going to use the same colors,
yellow and green, to color our worksheet. Well color the fiction
characters the ones that are made up in yellow, and well color the
nonfiction characters, who really exist, in green.
Ask the helper tables to pass out crayons. Call students by table to go back to
their chairs. Pass out worksheets, and ask students to get out a yellow and a
green crayon, but not to color yet.
Ask the class not to work ahead, but to color the characters when I color
them. For each picture, ask the class: Is this character (or activity) fiction
or nonfiction? How do you know? Ill display my worksheet on the
SmartBoard using the ELMO, and well work through it together as a class.
Ill collect the worksheets and dismiss students to line up around 3:18.

Assessment:
Informal. Because we will do the worksheet together as a class, I will rely on
students responses to questions throughout the lesson to gauge their
understanding. I will call on as many different students as I can in the course
of the lesson.