Writing Reports

I hope everyone had a great Easter break!  We had our spring break this past week after Easter so just started back to school today.  We did not have any plans to go out of town but ended going to Florida for a few days for a friends funeral.  It was sad but also great to see old friends. We also stayed with my sister & mother while we were there so it was nice to spend time with them as well.

This past weekend I let my son have a sleep over both Friday & Saturday night with two different groups of friends.  There was Star Wars Monopoly Clone Wars, sword fighting in the dark, & slidding down the stairs in sleeping bags.   During the day they played in the creek & explored the woods behind our house.   So after two days of a house full of boys I was happy to take my nap last night ...woke up in time to watch Amazing Race.

Today it is back to school work & writing reports.  If you have ever read my other posts, or have a child who struggles to do any type of creative writing, you understand why I hate teaching on days like this.  This time hasn't been as bad because we have broken it down into bite size pieces.

First he decided what his topic would be.  He chose two different topics & then made two lists for each topic...what did he know about them & what did he want to learn about them.   His two topics were Mythological Creatures & the Alamo.  He decided he could find out more information specifically for the Alamo whereas mythological creatures may be to broad of a subject.

He then wrote out the things he knew about the Alamo on 3x5 cards....one fact per card.   If he didn't know the information he wrote a question on the card such as "Why did help not arrive" or "Who were the survivors"?  Then came the research to find the answers to the questions. 

After all the questions were answered he laid out his cards in a logical order in the way he felt they should go in the report & then wrote an outline.  Once the outline was finished he then wrote his report off the outline adding all the additional information he had learned or knew from his index cards.

I have found for him that the index cards help him tremendously when he writes.  All of his notes are on the index card as well as the source information. If this is a step you have skipped & have just done an outline & report, maybe this will help your child as well.