Elementary Book Reports

[Tassy]

My 3rd grade son asked to "be assigned" a book report. I googled ideas and they were alright but I thought you guys would have some great ideas for a more exciting, creative, homeschooly project.

TIA!
Tassy

[One_Girl]

You could have him draw a picture that describes the overall theme of the book. I have also seen reports where kids fold the paper into a certain number of squares and they draw a picture to go along with each chapter and write a one very short summary of the chapter. If he reads a biography it might be fun for him to do an oral presentation about what he read as the person he read about.

[Rico'sAlice]

Originally Posted by One_Girl

If he reads a biography it might be fun for him to do an oral presentation about what he read as the person he read about.

We used to do that one in school for fiction books as well, dressing up like a main character and speaking from their POV. Or sometimes non-main character (the dog, the "bad guy") to give the story from a different POV.

[AAK]

Dioramas can be fun too. We used to use a shoebox on it's side and create our favorite scene from the book in it. Of course, depends on the kid (it can be lots of fun OR torture )

Amy

[mamaXmia1090]

My son is in third grade also, and while he never asked for reports, we gave him a few anyways. None too hard. Once, we had him decide what character from any book he ever read he would like to be and why.

He does the best on the ones he chooses himself. He is obsessed with Egypt, so he did one on mummies and one on the pyramids. We are thinking for next year we will get him to focus more on a more select subject in Egypt, such as a person, King Tut for example. His topics have been a bit broad lately so we think maybe we will have him focus on King Tut's life.

So I suggest having him help pick out a subject in which he is interested.

[prairiebird]

I wonder if there's something about that age. My 3rd grader asked the same thing a few days ago too. I was just about to post a thread with basically the same question you're asking!


I actually have a problem restraining myself because I went to school to be a teacher (and my husband is a teacher) so we have a tendency to lean too much toward the school-at-home process.

[ikesmom]

We started with a book called "Better Than Book Reports" its a Scholastic workbook guide. My ds liked that it was not too repetitious and didn't require too much writing.

[Tassy]

PrairieBird- I used to be a teacher and have swayed SO far in the other direction that it makes me a little uncomfortable that he asked! He wanted me to plan a 6 hour school day for him. I didn't quite know what to say. He seriously made it through 5 of them! Then he traded the last hour I had planned for language arts (seriously!) for yard work with his dad. I am hoping that doesn't happen again anytime soon!

thanks a lot for the book suggestion and for all of the ideas guys