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Book Report Ideas

Aug18

Sometimes it is difficult to think of interesting ways to do book reports. Here are some ideas that I have done with my own children, with classes I have taught and ways to implement them.

  • Create your own book cover design and/or jacket with a summary and review of the book inside. Use actual library books as examples for this as it might be difficult for children to grasp this without seeing several examples.
  • Have famous people write a review of the book. For instance, if you were going to write a report on Cinderella you could have the wicked step mother say, “Don’t read this book! It is an inaccurate and unfair telling of the story from a spoiled girl’s viewpoint.” One of the mice that was changed into a horse to drive the coach might say, “This was the best day of my life! I was transformed into a magnificent beast and ran as fast as the wind!”
  • Describe the book’s main characters- who you liked/disliked and tell why. How could their character be changed in order for you to like them if you disliked them?
  • Design a wanted poster of the antagonist of the book. Add the following to the poster: Title, character, what is the crime or injustice, and plot.
  • Dramatize your favorite part of the book. Write it as a play, record and send your masterpiece to someone to watch.
  • Create a model or diorama of one of the important parts of the book. Invite a friend over to see it or take a picture and send it to a friend or relative.
  • Illustrate or paint the story depicting important parts of the book.
  • Rewrite the story’s ending.
  • Draw a map with all the places in the book where the story took place. If there are too many places, choose a favorite scene from the book.
  • Write a letter to one of the characters in the book asking pertinent questions in regards to the book.
  • Make a food dish from that time period. What would some of the characters choose to eat and why? For instance, you could make hard tack for Jim Hawkins, the narrator of Treasure Island or you could make your own version of Stone Soup and have it for dinner.

Here are some resources for you that can be found on the internet.

Just Readin’: Books for Middle School and Junior High

Aug15

Summer is such a great time to read! I am crazy busy during the school year and feel “guilty” if I sit down to read. However, during the sumer I allow myself time to kick back, relax and just do some readin’.

Among some of the books I have chosen to  read this month are middle school (4-6th grade) and  junior high (7th-8th grade) books. I scrapped quite a few that were recommended on websites. Twaddle (a Charlotte Mason term) is a word that best describes those titles and I ended up whittling the towering stack of books down to ones that I thought were either interesting, funny, or thought-provoking. All of these books can be found at the local library.

The Great Brain John D. Fitzgerald  *MS  This series is one of my all-time favorites. Tom, the older brother of the narrator, is always scheming to make money and in his little brother’s eyes he’s “The Great  Brain”. I have read them to students in third grade and sixth grade. These are books that are universally loved.

Far Flung Adventures: Fergus Crane, Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell  *MS  I loved this book! Very creative, funny and original. The illustrations are interesting as well.

Perloo the Bold, Avi  *MS Timid and fearful Perloo becomes an unwilling leader in this tale.

Because of Winn-Dixie Kate Di Camillo  *MS,*JH I enjoyed this book because of the transformation of the narrator. A great book to discuss.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond Elizabeth George Speare *JH Don’t let the title fool you, there aren’t really any witches. This is  a terrific read.

Calico Captive Elizabeth George Speare *JH Based upon a true story during the French and Indian War.

Bronze Bow Elizabeth George Speare *JH A Newberry award winner of a story of a young man whose life is changed after hearing the teachings of Jesus.

The Westing Game– Ellen Raskin  *JH A mystery with a twist that will keep readers engaged in trying to figure out “who dun-it” or didn’t!

Watership Down– Richard Adams  *JH An adventure story of courage and fortitude. This would be a great book to discuss character issues with your children.

Maniac Magee Jerry Spinelli *JH A Newberry Award winner about a young man who doesn’t see “color” in a town that is divided. I ended up crying although I didn’t expect to do so.

*MS= Middle School

*JH= Junior High

I realize that many middle school students can read older level books, but it doesn’t always mean that they understand the complexity of a story. Therefore, I listed some titles as junior high rather than middle school.

Career Explorations

Aug11

I love the fact that with home schooling we can customize our children’s education to fit their needs. High school can be used to investigate options for careers to help your student take the next step toward adulthood. I have a friend who taught a class at one of our local home school co-ops and she has given me permission to use an article from her blog about this topic.  I have edited it somewhat and added a few of my own examples. I have provided a link to her blog at the bottom of the page if you’d like to read it in its entirety.

Career Exploration is a Process, Not a Point
Learning the process is the goal in teaching a Career Exploration class. Express to your student that he or she may not know specifically what they want to be, but the class will teach them a process that allows them to search and plan better.

The 4 Step Career Exploration Process:

  1. Investigate-Discover your personality, abilities, skills and priorities
  2. Match possible careers to your personality
  3. Research potential careers to see if there is a fit
  4. Prepare a plan to pursue your career choice

By way of example, Ian found out when he took the interest survey that a possible career choice would be in radio. He volunteered for 6 weeks at a local radio station and decided that it would not be a career path he would likely follow.

Helpful Resources
The most helpful tools for teaching the Career Exploration process are a collection of several on-line interest surveys and personality quizzes (see Resources). Many are free or charge only a small amount. These surveys will direct your student to several career choices to research further. We used the least expensive and quickest quizzes in our class, the Jung Typology Test from Humanmetrics.com and the CareerKey.org test for $9.95. Some students took the longer tests, such as Career Direct and The Call. Each costs around $80 and is very thorough.

After picking four to six possible careers, a student should carefully research them. They should investigate the working conditions, skills needed, pay rates and future outlook for their chosen fields. For conducting research on-line, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a valuable site (see Resources). Consider having your student interview someone in their chosen field. They will greatly benefit from doing this as it either changed their minds significantly, or confirmed their career choices.

It would be beneficial to have your scholar  pick one book from topics that included career exploration, high school planning, college preparation, or study habits. Do What You Are and What Color is Your Parachute? For Teens are two books that are helpful in making career investigations. In the book, Do what You Are, the reader takes a personality test and then researches matching career choices. What Color is Your Parachute? For Teens has students consider interests, skills, personality types, and work environments to identify potential dream jobs.

Having a Goal
The last step for students in the Career Exploration process is creating an education and experience plan to meet their goals. Students need to think about what classes and part-time jobs they can pursue today to prepare them for their futures. If a student has a goal in sight, schoolwork and part-time jobs become more meaningful. Information can be found in several home schooling books on high school planning.

Your student should also learn the graduation requirements in your state, and also what most colleges expect. All of this information is on-line, and the College Board web site is also helpful. After undertaking these steps, your student can create a high school plan that is unique to him or her. Is your student crazy about math? Be sure to look at the college majors that concentrate in that area. Do you have a child who is talented in art? What kind of opportunities can be found while in high school? Perhaps your church has a VBS that needs an art coordinator or a summer camp that needs a craft counselor. (cooky name, but we had one at our camp)

Life is an Adventure
The Career Exploration experience may trigger something dynamic for your student. A metamorphosis can occur as students begin to chart a career path with manageable steps to get there. Encourage your high school student to consider carefully how they manage their time, what kind of classes they select and what kind of part-time jobs they work. Each decision in life can open doors that will lead them on the path to their goals and dreams. I hope enjoy guiding your student to investigate his/her personality, match them with potential careers, research occupations to find a good fit, and then execute a plan to reach their goals.

Resources for Career Exploration

Books:

Web Sites:

Carol Topp (CarolToppCPA.com) has had several careers including wife, mother, Industrial Engineer and now Accountant. She is currently enjoying a season of home schooling and running a home-based accounting practice. She encourages teenagers to investigate careers though starting a micro business at MicroBusinessForTeens.com

Lesson Plans: journal entries (Part 4)

Aug4

I used  a journal format as my means of record keeping when I was teaching kindergarten. This was helpful with keeping track of the school year and traditional lesson plans weren’t the best way of recording our year. I had a yearly overview and curriculum that I used, but didn’t write out any formal plans as I discussed in my previous posts. There are a wide variety of journals and I picked a style that was most comfortable for me.  Here is an example of what I did:

Monday, August 22

Reading– Today Malcolm and I worked on singing the ABC’s. I had him write the letters in rice. (Note: This is done by having a plastic, resealable container of rice that little hands and fingers can write  their letters instead of paper and pencil.) I read aloud Ten Terrible Dinosaurs, by Paul Strickland

Writing– He wrote his name and the word policeman when he drew his picture for Social Studies. We are starting to make a book of community helpers.

Math-Sorting/ Counting/Graphing- Malcolm sorted M&M’s into colors and we counted how many of each color were in the bag.We made a graph for each of the colors and as a treat ate ALL of them! 🙂

Social Studies- Community Helpers We read People at Work, by Bobbie Kalman and Malcolm drew a picture of what he might like to do when he grows up.

Art-He drew a picture of a policeman.

Science/Health– We read My Five Senses, by Aliki  Malcolm had to guess five different items by smell only. I put them in plastic snack bags and had him close his eyes and guess what the items were. cinnamon, cotton ball with vinegar, cotton ball with cologne, a stick of spearmint  chewing gum, a fresh lemon slice. We discussed colds and how you can prevent them such as, eat healthy foods, get plenty of rest, wash your hands, sneeze into a tissue or the crook over your arm, etc.

Junior/Senior High

You can also have your junior and senior  high students keep a journal or blog of their studies. You can check progress this way and  be independent, while still having your input and guidance. One of my sons visited coffee shops since he is interested in having his own one day. He kept a blog about where he had been, likes/dislikes, what he had to drink, house specialties, and photographs of the shop.

I hope this series has helped you with your lesson planning. I pray your school will be filled with many days of laughter and awe-filled days as you teach your child(ren).

Lesson Plans: using library books (Part 3)

Aug1

Planning with Other Types of Curriculum

It’s just as easy to write out plans for other types of curriculum as it is with textbooks. The resources I have used in years past have been primarily library books and DVD’s. I have also used online courses, co-ops and educational programs where I dropped off my sons for a class, and have  had family,friends, and local parks teach classes to my sons as well.

Planning for  the Year

The first thing I do is decide what topics we are studying.  I then look for resources that go along them. For example, when we were studying Ancient Rome and Greece I had my son take a month-long online class on the Emperors of Rome.  At other  times I had my sons take online writing courses. Here I didn’t have a say as to when we were going to do it, I just worked my other plans around those classes. I would plug them into the schedule so I didn’t plan other things in that time slot.

I have written out an overview using multiple resources that you can view here Overview of Year Other Curriculum Note that all of the books and resources I have listed can be found at the library or online.

Planning for the Week

After I have made a tentative yearly schedule I believe the month is filled out well enough to give me a general idea of what should be covered so I don’t make a monthly schedule. I believe in less is best when it comes to paperwork.  I plan one week at a time, perhaps two if I am fairly certain things are going to be “normal” around my house. Here is a weekly lesson plan based upon the yearly overview listed in the above paragraph. Weekly Lesson Plan

Remember, do one thing at a time. Planning provides huge dividends and provides you with direction, a sense of accomplishment, and will give you more free time in the long run.

Part 4  Journal Entries The last in the series about lesson plans.