Nonfiction Articles for Kids

This week, I'm changing hats from picture book writer to reading specialist because I wanted to share some really great resources I've found online. 

With the Common Core's push to have students interacting with more nonfiction than before, teachers find themselves in a predicament. 

Where do we get all this great nonfiction? Specifically short engaging texts?  The reality is, that just because the standards have changed and we are expected to be engaged in nonfiction texts, doesn't mean all the resources magically appear. And even if some were funded, we always find ourselves scrambling to match texts to readers. Are they engaging enough? Complex enough? Have a wide range of levels? 

Luckily, there actually are some great FREE resources out there!

Tweentribune

http://tweentribune.com/junior

http://tweentribune.com/

This site looks awesome and is through Smithsonian. Each article offers a critical thinking question at the end. Each article has a lexile where you can change the level. Students and teachers can create accounts. Students choose articles they want to read. They can answer three well-written comprehension questions at the end and create a comment about the article as well. Teachers can assign articles and view quizzes. You can view quizzes by students or print them all. And it’s all free!



Dogo News

http://www.dogonews.com/

This is a very kid and teacher friendly site. It has tons of articles and you can create your own class page. You can add your students and they can log on and read articles and answer questions. It’s a social network as well and they can interact with other readers. You can download the articles and use them for your classroom. And it’s all free!

 

Think Cerca

http://www.thinkcerca.com/

Another great site where teachers can assign articles with follow up questions. Good for test prep. Although there aren't many articles on this site.

 

Neslea

https://newsela.com/

This site offers the lexile of the article. And you can change the lexile to make it lower or higher.

 

Highlights

http://www.highlightskids.com/articles/archives

Collection of nonfiction articles you can read online.

 

National Geographic for Kids

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

This website has articles online you can read for free.

 

The Why Files

http://whyfiles.org/science-standards-grades-5-8/

Teachers and students can read articles online, or teachers can print them. They have a cool feature where you can delete text or images from the article directly on the site. And you can choose articles by standard.

 

Kids Discover

http://www.kidsdiscover.com/free-resources/

Features and Quick Reads are articles that are printable.

 

Sports Illustrated for Kids

http://www.sikids.com/

Students and teachers can read articles online or teachers can print articles directly from the site.

 

Time For Kids

http://www.timeforkids.com/

This is a classroom magazine, but they publish online current event articles as well that are free.

 

NY Times Learning Blog Grades 6-12

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/?_r=0
This offers online articles and numerous teaching resources. They provide text to text where they pair two texts and students can compare them. They also have student opinion articles where students can read and then respond with their own opinions.

 

NY Times Infographics
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/teaching-with-infographics-social-studies-history-economics/


The Washington Post Kids Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/

 

PBS News Hour Grades 7-12

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/

This website has articles with videos and critical thinking questions at the end.  These can be read online and printed.

 

Kids Health

http://kidshealth.org/kid/

Read online or printable.

BAM Activity: Health Related Articles for Kids

http://www.cdc.gov/bam/activity/index.html

Read online or printable.

 

NFL for Kids

http://www.nflrush.com/

Sports articles for kids to read online.



Fact Monster

http://www.factmonster.com/

Offers lots of facts and articles about numerous topics.

 

Printable Nonfiction Passages

http://teacher.depaul.edu/Reading_Passages_NONFICTION.html



Read Works

http://www.readworks.org/

 

For The Teachers

http://www.fortheteachers.org/reading_skills.htm#.VMUjEWTF_NX

Lexile Leveled printable nonfiction articles.

 

Text Set of Articles about Nonfiction Issues

http://readingandwritingproject.com/public/resources/booklists/nonfiction%20sets/High_interest_nonfiction_sets_-_edit.pdf

Could be used for making judgments and forming opinions, persuasive writing, or author’s purpose.

 

Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week.

Higher Level Nonfiction with instructed annotations and critical thinking questions.

http://www.kellygallagher.org/article-of-the-week/

http://www.kellygallagher.org/aow-archive

 

Jim Burke’s Digital Text Book

http://englishcompanion.com/resources/digital-textbook/

Jim Burke shares his collection of digital texts and links online that he uses in his high school English class.



Best Info Graphics

http://www.bestinfographics.co/
This website offers the best info graphics. 

Infographic Creator 
http://www.easel.ly/

Lastly, I used easel.ly to create the infographic above. It was really easy. Teachers could easily create infographics or  even students could create them too. It's a free subscription for the basic version and then you can upgrade for $2 a month to have more options. You basically just choose a preloaded template and alter whatever you want. 

nonfiction_articles_for_kids.pdf
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Mandy Yates is currently an elementary reading specialist and children's book writer. She has an MFA in creative writing from Spalding University and has been published multiple times in Highlights Magazine. 

She also assists Mira in teaching The Craft and Business of Writing Children's Books. http://www.childrensbookacademy.com/writing-childrens-picture-books.html, as well as The Chapter Book Alchemist  http://www.childrensbookacademy.com/the-chapter-book-alchemist.html .

Find some of her teacher resources over at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mandy-Yates.

And you can follow her on Pinterest, Twitter,and Facebook.