The Tallest Sandcastle

Key details, Labels

Arts and culture

• Our short nonfiction feature, Picture This!, engages children with an amazing photo and interesting facts. You can focus on reading to get information from text and pictures.

Writing Block

• After reading and discussing the article, return to it later for your writing block. Use it as a model text. Children can make their own drawing of something in the class and label it.

• Play the online vocabulary slideshow. This article’s featured terms are sky-high, carved, and base.

Show a Video (7-10 minutes)

• Watch the anchor video “Sandy Science” to activate background knowledge and vocabulary.

Preview Visuals/Text Features (7-10 minutes)

• Take a close look at the photo. Ask children to share what they notice. Help them see that we get information from pictures as well as text. What do they notice about the sandcastle? What words would they use to describe it?
• Ask children to point out a label. How do they know it is a label? What does it look like? What do labels tell us?

• Gauge the readability of this text for your class. Students can whisper read, you can read aloud, or you can invite individual students to read labels or other portions of the text.
• Have a discussion about what children learned from both the picture and the words in the article. If they were the author, what else would they label in the picture?

Writing Focus: Key Details/Labeling (15 minutes)

• Children can read the labels and show their comprehension with the Sky-High Sandcastle skills page.

ELA Focus: Key Details/Labeling (15 minutes)

• This version of the Sky-High Sandcastle skills page allows you to provide the same content at a lower skill level.