Monday, November 5, 2012

Reference Lessons Updated

Today is my baby's third birthday, so I thought I'd post a few freebies in honor of his special day.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed reference books with second through fifth grade classes.  (You can get a free, updated copy of these lessons by clicking on the pictures above or by clicking HERE for the 2nd-3rd grade lesson or HERE for the 4th-5th grade lesson.)  I had already been over these books with them last year, so I knew they all should at least have heard of these books before, but I wanted to expand on the lesson a bit more by giving them some hands on practice choosing and using the correct reference book.

 


With second and third graders, I choose to use a dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas and glossary in the back of the atlas.  Students had to work together to find the answer to five different questions using these four resources.  You can get a free copy of the PowerPoint and activity HERE or by clicking on the picture below.



With fourth and fifth grade classes, I chose to use an atlas, almanac, encyclopedia, dictionary and thesaurus.  Again, students had to work together to find the answer to five different questions using these five resources.  You can get a free copy of the PowerPoint and activity HERE or by clicking on the picture below. 



How do you teach reference skills?


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7 comments:

  1. By AmyNovember 5, 2012 at 4:06 PM

    Thank you!!! So generous of you!! I do a mix of activities every year, many of them found on the InterWebz ; ) For example, replacing words with synonyms from the thesaurus in the book Livingston Mouse or having students construct their own words using prefixes, roots and suffixes and then writing down the guide words for their "fake" word, or sharing fun facts from the almanacs. One thing I have found is that kids LOVE reference books!!! They are pretty excited about the activities we do - it's great to see them have so much fun with these printed materials.

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    1. Jo, aka, The Book BugNovember 6, 2012 at 4:36 PM

      They do love reference books, don't they? Especially those World Record Books. I am glad that they can still get excited about printed materials when these same type of sources can be found so easily online. =)

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  2. AnonymousNovember 6, 2012 at 9:10 AM

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. These power-points are the perfect way to introduce and review reference skills. I will also use the games Name the Source and Answer This from Upstart.

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    1. Jo, aka, The Book BugNovember 6, 2012 at 4:37 PM

      You are very welcome. I'll have to check out those games from Upstart...hadn't heard of them. Hope your kiddos enjoy! =)

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  3. UnknownJanuary 28, 2013 at 9:22 PM

    I can't wait to try this activity out with my classes. We just started working with almanacs. Thanks for all of these great resources. This blog is amazing!!!!

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    1. Jo, aka, The Book BugMarch 14, 2013 at 4:00 PM

      You are very welcome, Colleen. I hope you continue to find things that are helpful to you! Thanks for reading. =)

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  4. RWilsonOctober 31, 2016 at 8:09 AM

    I love your blog!! Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful resources and activities. :)

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