Different Types of Text Worksheet

Every day children meet words in many different shapes — a story at bedtime, a shopping list on the counter, a road sign at the corner, a menu at a restaurant. Recognizing common types of text is one of the very first reading standards a first grader meets, and it gives a young reader a way to predict what a page is going to do before decoding a single word. This different types of text worksheet asks students to look at six familiar kinds of writing and name each one, building the genre awareness that later carries them into fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.

On this first grade genres worksheet, six picture cards each show one kind of text: a folded road map, a handwritten letter tucked in an envelope, a restaurant menu, an open storybook, a red road sign, and a checklist on a notepad. A word box at the top of the page holds the six matching words in big, readable type. Students study each picture, decide what kind of writing it shows, and write the correct word on the line inside the card. Because the words in the box are not printed in the same order as the pictures, children have to read and think rather than copy straight down the list. Use it as morning work, as a reading-center task, or as a quick check after a mini-lesson on genres.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 6 picture cards covering map, letter, menu, book, sign, and list

There are three reasons this different types of text worksheet helps young readers. First, it leads with pictures instead of passages, so a child who is still sounding out words can still succeed at the thinking part of the skill. Second, it uses text types students already meet outside of school, which makes the idea of genre concrete instead of abstract. Third, writing the word by hand rather than circling it links the label to its letters, so the vocabulary sticks and transfers to the next book they open.

Teachers and parents can keep the skill going all week. Set out a basket of real texts — a cereal box, a birthday card, a comic, a recipe card, a newspaper — and have children sort them into piles and explain their reasoning out loud. Take a genre walk around the school or the neighborhood and count how many signs, labels, and lists you can spot. At home, ask your child what kind of text they would use to invite a friend over, to remember what to buy, or to find the way to the park. Finish the week by letting each student write one short text of their own and tell the class what kind it is.

Related Resources

• Different Types of Text Graphic Organizer Worksheet
• Types of Text Worksheet
• Identifying the Genre of a Story Worksheet
• Story Elements Song (Have Fun Teaching)