#1406. guided reading TURKEYS

4 Blocks, level: Elementary
Posted Sun Nov 21 06:55:17 PST 1999 by deb ().
Concepts Taught: fact or fiction

All About Turkeys
written by Jim Arnosky
ISBN: 0-590-51515-2

Rookie Read-About Science
Turkeys That Fly and Turkeys That Don't
0-516-06029-5

Another source of turkey information:
November: A month of ideas at your fingertips Mailbox TEC 194

First I read the Rookie Read-About Science book, Turkeys That Fly and Turkeys That Don't, to the children to build background. I only have one copy of this book so at this point I just read it to the kids. We then make a list on the board stating the differences between wild turkeys and domestic turkeys.

THEN I do a picture walk through the book, All About Turkeys. Read the first page of questions that the author wrote:

Have you ever wondered about turkeys?
Where are wild turkeys found and how do they live?
What do turkeys eat?
Where do they sleep?
How big can a wild turkey grow?

Then read the pages 2-4. Begin a "turkey facts" list on the board or on chart paper. Have the students tell you facts. I then have the child read where on the page they found the fact. This is too hard for my 2nd graders to read independently so I do this as a shared reading.

Continue reading together gathering turkey facts. As a writing focus lesson afterwards the children write one fact about turkeys and one untrue statement about turkeys. Then the children make a class book called "fact or fiction about turkeys." The kids love reading each others and trying to figure out fact or fiction.

Another writing extension is to have the kids make a turkey writing turkey facts on the feathers.