Text Features & Graphic Features

​📘 “Text Features & Graphic Features: Tools That Help Us Understand Nonfiction!”

Bold Words • Headings • Captions • Sidebars • Lists • Timelines • Graphs

Text features are parts of a nonfiction text that help you:

✔️ Find information
✔️ Understand important ideas
✔️ Learn new words

Examples: headings, boldface, sidebars, captions, lists

What Are Text Features?

Boldface & Italics

Boldface Words:

• Dark, thick words

• Show important vocabulary

• Help you notice key terms

Italics:

• Slanted words

• Show new vocabulary or special meanings

• Can also show titles

👀 Example:
The habitat of an animal is where it lives.
Many animals live in rainforests.

Headings

Headings are titles of sections.

They tell you what the next part will be about.

✔ Helps you find information quickly
✔ Helps you understand the main idea of a section

Example heading:
“How Sharks Find Food”

Sidebars

Sidebars are little boxes of extra information on the side of a page.

Sidebars can show:

• Fun facts

• Extra explanations

• Vocabulary

• Small charts or pictures

📌 They help you learn MORE about the topic.

Captions

Captions are sentences under pictures.
They tell you what the picture is showing.

Captions can:

• Explain the image

• Tell you who/what is in it

• Add extra facts

🖼 Example:
A caption under a volcano image might say:
“Lava flows down the volcano during an eruption.”

Bullets & Numbered Lists

Lists help readers see information quickly and clearly.

Bulleted lists show ideas that don’t need to be in order:

• Bears

• Wolves

• Deer

Numbered lists show steps or things that must be in order:

1. Turn on the oven.

2. Mix the ingredients.

3. Put the cake in the oven.

Graphic features help readers see information in a visual way.

Graphic features include:
📅 Timelines
📊 Graphs
📈 Charts
🗺️ Maps
📷 Photos

Graphic Features

Timelines

Timelines show events in order from first → last.

Timelines help you:
✔ Understand history
✔ See how things changed
✔ Find dates easily

Example:
Timeline of a Butterfly’s Life

Graphs

Graphs show numbers and data in pictures.

Types of graphs:

• Bar graphs (compare things)

• Line graphs (show changes over time)

• Picture graphs (use pictures to show amounts)

Graphs help you:
✔ Read information quickly
✔ Compare facts
✔ Understand data visually

Match

Match each text feature to its description:

• title of a section

• words under pictures

• box with extra info

• important vocabulary

• events in order

Heading

Caption

Sidebar

Bold Word

Timeline

• Heading

• Caption

• Sidebar

• Bold Word

• Timeline

Multiple Choice

What do boldface words show?

• jokes

• very important words

• words you skip

• the shortest words

Multiple Choice

What do headings help you do?

• know the topic of the section

• find pictures

• find page numbers

• decorate the page

Multiple Choice

A caption is…

• The title of the book

• A sentence under a picture

• A fact in a sidebar

• A list of steps

Multiple Choice

Which one is a sidebar?

• A slanted word

• A picture on the page

• A special box with extra facts

• A list of names

Multiple Choice

When would an author use a numbered list?

• To show steps in order

• To show food animals eat

• To show a picture

• To mark a title

Multiple Choice

Read the sentence:

Heading: “How Bees Collect Nectar”
Bees fly from flower to flower gathering nectar to make honey.

What does the heading tell you?

• What the section will be about

• What a bee looks like

• When bees sleep

• How bees sting

Multiple Choice

What does a timeline show?

• Which animal is fastest

• Events in order

• A list of characters

• What something looks like

Multiple Choice

Which feature helps you understand a picture?

• Bold word

• Timeline

• Caption

• Bullet list

Multiple Choice

What does a graph help you do?

• Spell new words

• Compare numbers

• Read dialogue

• Find the author