Reading Non-Fiction Text Features

What is non-fiction?

Non-fiction texts give you real facts and information. Think of fact books, websites and magazines about animals, space or history. 📰 They use special parts called text features to help you find facts fast.

Headings 📌

A heading is a title for a section. It tells you what that part is about. If you want to read about a shark's teeth, you look for the heading "Teeth" and jump straight there.

Captions 🖼️

A caption is a small bit of text near a picture or photo. It explains what the picture shows.

A baby penguin keeps warm under its parent. 🐧

That caption tells you what is happening in the photo.

Diagrams and labels 🏷️

A diagram is a drawing that shows how something works or what its parts are. Labels are little words with lines pointing to each part.

A diagram of a flower might have labels for petal, stem and root.

Labels help you learn the name of each part without a long explanation.

See them together

Imagine a page in a fact book:

Feature	What it tells you
Heading: "All About Bees"	the topic of the section 📌
Caption: "A bee collects nectar"	what the photo shows 🖼️
Diagram with labels	the parts of a bee 🐝
Glossary	the meaning of "nectar" 📑

By using these features, you find facts much faster than reading every word.

A handy habit

Before you read a non-fiction page, look around first. Read the headings, glance at the pictures and captions, and check the diagrams. This gives you a quick map of the page. 🗺️

Play and practise

Play the matching game to pair each feature with its job. Then flip the flashcards to remember what each one does.

Keep going

Try these next:

• Find facts quickly: Skimming and Scanning
• Look up tricky words: Using a Dictionary and Glossary

Now you can read non-fiction like an expert explorer! 🌟