Engage students in reading by having them share about the nonfiction books they read. In this activity, students write a summary—in speech form!—of a book that they read. For added fun, have them give their speeches to a partner—or even the whole class!

After reading nonfiction books, encourage students to share what they’ve learned by writing letters to a family member. Students will use this letter template to share the name of the book and a detailed summary of what they learned.

After reading informational books, have students share a summary with a partner. Then have them write out their retelling using this worksheet. Students will be masters of their topics when all is said and done!

As students read nonfiction books, have them keep track of the fun facts they're learning using this graphic organizer. After collecting five interesting facts in the bubbles, students can use them to write a summary of the book.

Use this writing prompt activity to assess your first graders’ abilities to write an opinion piece. Students are tasked with writing a review of a book or movie of their choice, making sure to include a summary, their opinion, and supporting reasons.

Engage students in reading by having them share about the nonfiction books they read. This activity will get students talking, listening, and writing! They'll take turns sharing about the book they've read before writing a summary of their partner's book.

Support students to construct summaries of informational books by using the sentence frames on this handy worksheet. Your students will get useful practice retelling what they've learned from their nonfiction reading.

In this classic fable by Aesop, the tortoise learns an important lesson when he catches a ride into the sky with a duck. Exposing kids to classic texts like "The Tortoise and the Duck" is a great way to give them important reading practice.