Detective Dewey's Field Guide — Find Facts with Text Features

About this activity

Detective Dewey's field guide sends children to find a fact using the book's own tools — a table of contents, headings, a glossary, a labeled diagram, an index, and a menu, all about playful made-up creatures with parts like the snood, frell, and tarn — and the child taps the part of the text that holds the answer. This free, interactive Grade 1 reading activity runs in the browser on any device, with nothing to install and no account.

The big idea is that nonfiction books are built to help you locate information without reading every page. To find which part of a creature 'helps it glow,' the child reads the glosses and picks the labeled part that glows, rather than guessing. Later rounds ask the child to choose the right feature for a job — the glossary tells a word's meaning, the contents shows the topic, the index gives the page — so they learn what each text feature is actually for.

It is aligned to Common Core 1.RI.5 — knowing and using text features such as headings, tables of contents, glossaries, and icons to locate key facts. No timer, no score — just calm, playful practice.

What's inside this activity

• Designed for Grade 1 learners (ages about 6–7)
• Common Core strand: Reading: Informational Text
• Aligned to Common Core standard 1.RI.5

How to play

Read the question, like 'Which part helps it glow?'

Read the text feature on the page — the contents, glossary, diagram, or index.

Tap the part that holds the answer; try again as needed, with no timer and no score.

What your child practices

• Reading a table of contents, heading, glossary, index, and labeled diagram to find a fact
• Matching a question to the spot in the text that answers it, instead of guessing
• Knowing what each text feature does — meaning, topic, or page number
• Using captions and labels on a diagram to learn what a part does

Learning goals

Use text features to locate key facts in an informational text — the focus of Common Core 1.RI.5

Choose the right feature for the job — glossary for meaning, contents for topic, index for page

Build the nonfiction navigation skills that make research reading possible