Hello all! My kids and I have struggled with writing reports on states etc. They have never seen one written by anyone else thus they do not have a clue when I try to explalin it. We have done reports on states from 3rd grade on in AO History and Geography so as we gather the information I have gotten them a duo tang type folder to put the information in. I have in the past had them draw pictures and explain what it is for state birds, flags, etc as per Teacher Book instructions and the kids actual assignments. Does anyone have a guideline that works for them on organizing the report information? I want them to learn it right, someday they may have to put together a proposal for something and I want to know that they can fall back on what they have learned back in school as ideas. After all isn't that what schooling is all about preparing them for life? I also need help in the book report form department. I have tried variations and think I may have gotten one right with DS finallY! We have done oral reports, and act out reports in the many years past with the other two, but I found I need them writing more and book reports are one way to add to that. :roll: hmmm, I think thats enough questions to get some response to my questions.... thanks all who answer and any ideas you can get to me! God bless you! Be blessed not Stresed! Teacher Mom
Here are some sites I have that might be helpful: http://www.infoplease.com/homework/writingskills1.html http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/4336/reports.htm http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/hh/rapidresearch/0,19469,73271,00.html
www.enchantedlearning.com has some things for state reports. I don't know if that is free or not. I ended up joining them this year because I use them so much. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/report/state/ is the actual page. They also have lots of other writing activities and forms.
Oh, also I've done searches online to find examples of reports to show dd. That is really how I found the states report on enchanted learning I think. So, if you are doing a book report or research paper you can do a search and might find some examples.
Well first off i would write out a report (if i was a teacher) that would suitable to grade your kids off of. If i was writing the report first, i would probably start off by how the State was founded and who founded and when they founded it. After that i would go into detail the geography of the state, important landmarks, popular lakes, rivers, mountains, and so on. Some other ideas would be; Famous People From that State State Song State Bird State Plant State Seal Popular Sports Teams if your kids are into pro of collegiate sports A good source of info would be an encyclopedia which of course can be found at your local library. And try google searching just the state's name. I hope that helps, i have more info, my fingers are just getting tired from typing all day. :shock:
Wow ! This is great I have printed up some guidelines for them to use, different ones for different ages of course. And I am still looking! So if I google Kids Reports, will I get a report that a kid made? Do you think? I guess I may just have to do like Brad suggested... it has been in the back of my mind, I can just write up a Mock Report- to give them the idea of what I want to see when they are finished. That could work! I loved doing reports as a kid, it was much more fun than the work they assigned us that we didn't get to do the research on our own. Maybe my parents should have home schooled me! keep those websites coming, I am adding the ones I think will help to my favs thanks!
I'VE GIVEN UP!!! Rachael is a pain in the rear when it comes to writing reports, so next year I've signed her up for a writing class. I'm so frustrated about it!!! Hopefully by this time next year, she'll be doing MUCH better!
I even got a great lay out for writing a News paper Article from one of those web sites! Thanks so much! My ds Johnny was writing his own paper this morning on the computor for his own idea of recess, so I told him I would count it as fifteen minutes of his language arts today he was so having fun with it. I printed up a guideline and sat here and read it over, then passed it to his sister as I told him to. He thought it was 'cool! How did you get this?"
Well i enjoy writing a lot and dont mind researching. If you would like, i will volunteer some time to type up a "mock report" about one of the states. Just let me know if you would like that and i could probably get to it sometime next week, possibly earlier.
Syele... Those sites were awesome! I've been looking online a lot lately for just that thing! Thanks for sharing those with us. My 9yo just finished her first real research paper and those websites helped us out!
I wish they had a writing class around here. This is not my strong point, but I'd like my kids to learn more than I know!!! Brad, if you send your mock report e-mail, I'd like to see that! I am working with my younger two on our state history right now, since we finished the Modern History that we were doing with SOTW. I'd like the older one, especially, to do some reports, but he's not one that takes to writing much either. I'd like to get my 9-yo writing more. We do summaries and have done a couple of basic research type reports, but not enough! So....
That shouldnt be a problem. I'll save it as a Word Document and a WordPad Document also. Any recommendations on a state that you would like me to write about?
Rachael will be twelve in about two weeks. She's officially finishing up "6th grade", if anyone were to ask me! I am lucky in that there's several homeschooling co-ops in the central Ohio area for older kids. I asked a friend about this writing class because I had heard about it from various friends for the past few years. She told me about a "What's Happening" list for middle and high school some woman keeps. People inform her about what's going on, and she forwards it to everyone on her list. I guess she co-ordinates registration for this writing class. The teacher is a retired English teacher, and my friends whose kids have taken his class say it's wonderful.
Jackie, I'd have my ds join that writing class, but it'd probably a bit too long of a commute each time! There's a lady here that does some English and Science classes---but for highschool age kids. Another lady does different science classes that my boys took and they were GREAT! But that's for middle school age, and we already took that. I REALLY want to find a writing class though, so I'll keep asking around....
NOT Washington state, cuz I don't want them to sort of copy the info., ya know? (Since that's where we live.) You may know the most about Indiana, since that's where you live. We don't know much about that state, so that would be interesting to learn more about it by what you write. Otherwise it doesn't really matter. Thanks Brad, that's GREAT!
