(upbeat music) Good morning.

It's me, Mrs. House, and I need your help.

I'm supposed to be writing a very important informational text today, but that sneaky Frisbee has hidden my keys, and I can't find them anywhere.

Without those keys, I don't know how to write my article.

What am I going to do?

Hmm.

Let's think.

Let's start with what an informational text is.

An informational text is something that gives you information about a topic.

Informational text are nonfiction and can be about almost anything you can imagine.

Animals, places, you visit, events in history, even people authors usually write informational texts to teach their readers about their topic.

I was supposed to write one today, all about my favorite place in the whole world.

Yellowstone National Park.

But I've forgotten how to write one.

And now Frisbee has hidden my keys and I'm not sure how to begin.

If I know Frisbee, he loves to play with his toys, so let's check in his toy box first to see if maybe he might have hidden my keys in there.

Let's look in here and see what we've got.

Um.

(gasps) I've got one.

I've found one of my keys.

This is a very important key to informational text.

This key says topic.

I'm going to put it right up here so that I don't lose it again.

Topic.

That was easy.

I already know what my topic is or what my article is going to be about.

And that's Yellowstone National Park.

It's my favorite place to visit, and I want to write all about it so that I can share facts about it so that readers just like you can learn about it too.

Now, that's one of my keys.

I'm still missing two.

Let's look in this toy box and see if maybe there's more in here somewhere.

Let's see.

Ah.

I found another one.

This one says Main Idea.

I know that a main idea is what the author's main purpose is.

It's what the passage or the article is all about.

I know that my topic, its main idea is Yellowstone National Park is a really cool place to visit.

I'm going to be writing my informational text all about that topic.

And my main idea is that you should probably visit it.

It's really cool.

Since my assignment is to write an informational text, I need to be sure that I'm writing lots of facts and not just my opinion that I think it's a really cool place to visit.

Even though it is really cool, I need to support that with facts.

All right, there's one more missing key.

It's got to be in this box.

Let's look again and see if I can find something in here.

Ah ha, I've got it.

It's the final key, and this is a big one.

This key says details and key details are the supporting parts of your informational text.

If you don't have those details, you really don't have anything at all.

The details are the facts, the descriptions and the instructions that authors write to inform their audience all about their topic.

The key details support that main idea, all about the topic.

So for example, in my article today, I could write that Yellowstone is actually a supervolcano.

It's one of the largest active volcanoes lying underneath the surface of Yellowstone.

I could also write that there is a huge geyser there named Old Faithful.

A geyser is actually a hot spring that pressurizes and erupts steam and hot water way up into the sky.

Old Faithful is probably the most famous geyser in America, and it erupts 17 times a day right there in Yellowstone.

Another fact or detail is that Yellowstone is home to lots and lots of bison or buffalo.

They are everywhere in the park.

They will walk right up to your car as you try and drive through.

It's crazy to think about sharing the road with a huge herd of buffalo.

I think that's a really interesting fact that I can include it in my article.

Well, we found all three of my keys to informational text.

I'm ready to go get writing.

Next time you're assigned to write an informational text, I want you to remember these three keys, topic, main idea and details.

And hopefully Frisbee is not going to sneak in and hide your keys too.

Science and reading skills, math and art, color wheels.

Let's go to class.

It's a blast.

You're a great student so we know that you can do it.

Rise and shine.

Get up off your feet.

Ah, ooo, ooo.

It's time to rise and shine.