What the lesson is about

This collection of resources, from TESiboard, contains interactive explanation texts which cover a variety of topics. Explanation texts are similar to information texts, but explain a process in a step-by-step, sequential manner.

Getting started

There are six different texts in the collection, including cross- curricular topics, such as The Lifecycle of a Butterfly, which can be used for science or English lessons. Each TESiboard interactive non-fiction book has two versions for differentiation: the “listen and read” books have simpler text and full sound support for younger or emerging readers; the “read alone” books have more detailed text and are suitable for more confident pupils.

Primary-level children can use the books as a model for non-fiction writing or as a source of information for a science, geography or history topic.

Taking it further

Accompanying the explanation books are lesson plans for you to use when teaching the topics, as well as an editable Word document containing images from the books, to support non-fiction writing, sequencing tasks and for displays.

There is also a Cyclical Sequencer activity, which has similar images and information to that in the explanation books. Pupils read or listen to each stage in the cycle, then put them into order. They can play back their sequence and print off their page. The simple version of the sequencer has fewer stages and easier text. The complex version has more stages to sequence and space for pupils to write their own text.

Where to find it

tes.co.uktesiboard-explantexts.