Locating Nonfiction Text Features Worksheet

Nonfiction books do not just talk to readers in paragraphs. They also use titles, headings, bold words, captions, diagrams, and glossaries to organize information and point readers to what matters most. Learning to name and locate those parts is what turns a student from someone who reads every page in order into someone who can find an answer fast. This Locating Nonfiction Text Features Worksheet teaches third graders to recognize six common nonfiction text features and to explain what each one does.

Six numbered boxes on the page were all cut from the same nonfiction page about honey bees. One box holds the title, another holds a heading, another a sentence with a bold word, another a labeled diagram, another a picture with a caption, and the last a short glossary. Students study each box, choose the matching feature name from the word bank, and write it on the numbered line below. A final question asks them to decide which feature would help them find the meaning of a new word and to explain their thinking in complete sentences. Use this 3rd grade text features worksheet during a nonfiction unit, as a guided reading warm-up, in a literacy center, or as review before a reading test. It pairs well with any nonfiction book already in your classroom.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 6 numbered text-feature example boxes, a 6-word word bank, 6 answer lines, and 1 written-response question

This Locating Nonfiction Text Features Worksheet helps children in three ways. First, it makes an abstract vocabulary list concrete, because students see a real example of every feature instead of memorizing definitions. Second, it builds the habit of using features as tools: once a reader knows a glossary defines words and a diagram shows parts, that reader stops rereading the whole page hunting for an answer. Third, the closing written response moves students past matching and asks them to justify a choice, which is the kind of thinking a reading assessment expects at this grade.

Teachers and parents can keep the skill going long after the page is finished. Hand out a stack of magazines or nonfiction library books and go on a text-feature scavenger hunt, tallying how many of each feature the group can find. Ask students to add a caption to a photograph, or to turn one paragraph into a labeled diagram. Have children write a short glossary for three words from a chapter they just read. Play a quick game where you call out a feature and students race to point to one in a book on their desk.

Related Resources

• Nonfiction Text Features Worksheet
• Text Features Scavenger Hunt Activity
• Using Non-Fiction Text Features Worksheet
• Context Clues Song – Have Fun Teaching