Dear National Geographic, I Love You

Hey y’all! It’s Megan from I Teach. What’s Your Super Power? sharing one of my faaaaaavorite reading resources with you.

Isn’t it beautiful?  I started using National Geographic Explorer years ago with my second graders.  This is the classroom edition and not the regular kids edition.  I like it better than some of the other classroom magazines because it’s just articles.  That’s it.  Not little graphs stuck in, comics, random mini articles-just three good, solid articles.  That makes it perfect for reading groups.  And the photography is amazing.

I mean, look at these pictures.  What kid wouldn’t get sucked into these articles?

I order a set of 10 to use with my small groups (that’s the smallest number you can order).  I like them because I can use them differently with my small groups despite the differences in reading ability.  With my second grade friends, I give a lot more support.  We stop and discuss often and spend longer on an article.  With my third grade friends, we can get through an article more quickly and focus on some higher level comprehension skills.  I lead the discussion less and ask more open ended questions.

Each set comes with an extra copy for the teacher, a two sided poster, and an activity for each article.  There are great support resources online, too.  There’s an extensive teacher guide on the website and digital resources available for computers or iPads.

The best part is that the kids love them.  We are reading “Call of the Wildflowers” this week, and they’re already begging to read “Spinosaurs!” next week.  You couldn’t hope for a better response than that!