Engaging With Nonfiction: The Power of a Paper Plate
This simple activity gives old magazines a second life while encouraging nonfiction learning.
Magazines are a great resource for the classroom, as any teacher with a Scholastic News subscription knows. After your students have read each edition cover-to-cover, you may find old magazines piling up in the corner of the classroom, but there’s more you can do with them than simply read and discard.
Magazines can be a fun and effective way to teach your students all about nonfiction. When introducing your class to a more in-depth study on the genre, magazines are a great resource in learning how to pull facts from texts, and make real-world connections to what they read.
Elementary teacher Meghan Everette has an easy and fun activity she loves that gives old classroom magazines a second life. As she describes it, “one simple comprehension activity can take any magazine you have and differentiate it for any level with endless opportunities and the magic of a simple paper plate.”
This activity is an easy one! All you need are paper plates, poster board, old magazines, scissors, markers, and glue. You can use any nonfiction print magazine for this activity.
Cut the center from a paper plate to create a "door" that can be opened and glue it to the center of a sheet of poster paper.
Have students write facts about the subject of a magazine article on the poster paper surrounding the plate.
To finish the project, students should place a photo of the article's subject behind the door. This image can be cut out of the magazine or drawn by the student as the “answer” to the poster board’s clues, to be guessed and revealed after reading the surrounding facts.
Students can write about any topic that interests them or seek out magazine stories that fit your current curriculum themes. For added difficulty, have students write statements from the point of view of the subject. If the subject is a bird, for example, they might write “I am not a mammal,” or, “I have bright blue feathers.”
Hang the posters where other students can read the facts and try to guess what object is hidden behind the door before they reveal the answer. (No peeking!)
There are numerous ways to adapt this activity to maximize learning potential.
Differentiate: Give less complex topics to students who need more support. You can also have students work together in groups by their ability level or assign individual posters to more advanced students.
Use as a Review: Use magazines containing material previously covered in class and have students secretly create their posters. The other students will have to use their powers of recall to figure out the answers. (This is helpful for test prep, too!)
Students as Teachers: Have older students create posters for younger students using leftover magazines from the younger grades. Younger students will have their lessons reinforced while older students get a chance to play teacher.
Encourage extra research: Instruct students to use online and book resources to find new and unknown facts about a topic covered in the magazines. They should include the new facts in their poster presentations.
Go digital: Instead of using poster board and plates, challenge students to make an interactive slideshow with factual clues on each slide and the big reveal on the final slide. (Tip: The second-to-last slide should be blank so students have a chance to guess the answer before it is revealed.)
If you don’t have old magazines at your disposal, encourage students to research their chosen subject in nonfiction books instead! Whether you’re teaching about the amazing strides women have made in various fields or the science behind animal behavior, nonfiction books are the perfect way to explore various topics with fun narratives.
Shop nonfiction books below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.
Paperback Book Collection
National Geographic Kids: National Geographic Kids Collection Grades K-3
Presenting groundbreaking photography and research in a range of formats, National Geographic offers great nonfiction for readers of all ages and levels.
Using a unique mix of first-person narrative, hilarious comic panels, and essential facts, Dean Robbins introduces young readers to an scientific trailblazer.
Each spread will feature a photographic image of the animal and its hair on the left and an illustration of a child with that animal's hair on the right.
From the chameleon's eyes that can point in different directions, to the colossal squid's eyes that shine in the dark, discover what it would be like if you had these special eyes. Then, find out why your eyes are just the right ones for you!
Which dangerous animals would win in a fight? Find out in this awesome bind-up of five books in the popular Who Would Win? series. The collection features a range of mammals, sea creatures, reptiles, and birds to satisfy all kinds of animal fans.
This nonfiction reader compares and contrasts two ferocious animals: a coyote and a dingo! Readers will learn about each animal's anatomy, behavior, and more. Then compare and contrast the battling pair before finally discovering the winner!
Even as a child, Martin Luther King Jr. was shocked by the terrible and unfair way African American people were treated. When he grew up, he decided to do something about it - peacefully, with powerful words.
This collection of titles includes Nat Geo Kids: Weird Sea Creatures, The Magic School Bus®: The Human Body, The Amazing Life Cycle of Butterflies, and more.
This beautiful picture book, illustrated by Coretta Scott King Award-illustrator George Ford, and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Coles, tells the true story of six-year-old Ruby Bridges.
Check out how these amazing real life creatures match up. Who's the strongest, fastest, biggest and baddest-in a fight to the finish, who would win?
An illustrated rhyming biography of the African American woman and first Naval engineer to design a ship using a computer.
No one expected this autistic girl to speak, but Temple did and demonstrated her talent for visual thinking that's made a lasting impact on farm management.
This book describes the early lives and notable achievements of five black scientists: Susan McKinney Steward, George Washington Carver, Ernest Everett Just, Percy Lavon Julian, and Shirley Ann Jackson.
This awe-inspiring updated edition of the Book of World Records comes complete with new entries in pop culture, science, tech, nature, sports, medicine, and more. This 2023 edition also includes "Trending" sections for each category, covering all the new cool social media trends, incredible stats, and facts you need to know from the past year.
For six years Sophie Germain used her love of math and her undeniable determination to test equations that would predict patterns of vibrations. She eventually became the first woman to win a grand prize from France's prestigious Academy of Sciences for her formula, which laid the groundwork for much of modern architecture (and can be seen in the book's illustrations).
This collection of nonfiction books inlcudes titles like Kids Who Are Changing the World, Ultimate Reptile Rumble, and much more.
Although he is shorter than most of his classmates and everyone discourages him from trying out for the basketball team, eight-year-old Chris just works harder than everyone else so his size will not matter.
When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Persevering against the odds, William built a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps, and thus became the local hero who harnessed the wind.
At a time when being a woman and an African American limited what a mathematician might achieve, meet women who helped NASA win the space race. “An important story” -Kirkus
Larn about Malala's incredible recovery, and her journey to becoming a world-famous advocate of girls' rights and education, as well as the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner.
A picture book bio about the Afro-Puerto Rican law clerk who assembled an archive celebrating black culture.
Paperback Book Collection
Exploring Civil Rights - The Beginnings Collection Grades 5-8 (5 books)
With stunning photographs throughout and rich back matter, each book focuses on a specific year and chronologically follows the detailed events that occurred and the changes that took place.
This unique and powerful memoir, told in a vivid "oral history" format, chronicles the story of two sisters, one of them deaf, who survived the Holocaust together, and immigrated to America after the war.
This collection of nonfiction books includes titles like Child of the Dream, Bill the Boy Wonder, and more.
This is the amazing true story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program.
This collection of quality nonfiction titles was hand selected to provide you with the best books at the best prices.