I would like to assign a fun book report for my fourth graders. Does anyone have a good suggestion for a project that your kids really enjoyed? Thanks!
Ohhh, there's a teacher's website that had a really good book report form and project from this website...I think it is Mrs Renz's class website, but I'm not sure. (She has put together some AWESOME stuff!) Students put together a "sharing" bag with items in the bag relating to the story and students share their bag with the class. The students write a report about why each item is in the bag and how it relates to the story they read. My daughters have also enjoyed creating a new adventure for the story characters and making dioramas about their book as well. Also, Book Reports for the Bored has a while list of ideas... http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/4336/bookreports.html
Book boxes are always fun...I've seen them done 2 ways....I did one in my kiddy-lit class where we had to pick 5 items from the story and put them in our box that was decorated like the book and tell the class about the book by showing the objects and telling how they were important in the story (I did the book Holes....Put a shovel in, toy lizards, a peach...) I've also seen them done so that the kids make a 3-D scence in the box of their favorite part of the book and write a paragraph telling about it. Right now I'm having my 5th graders do a picture book of the story that they read in Guided Reading...One group is doing Hatchet and the other (when they finish) will be doing Tuck Everlasting. They have to draw pictures of all of the important events in the story and put 1-2 sentences on each page so I know what's going on. They love it!
Last year I taught third grade. I gave the students a choice of three different book report projects to choose from. This is one that many choose and some sample pictures. Book in a … Choose any container for your book project. Decorate the container with details appropriate to the book. We should know something about the book by examining the outside. Be sure your name and title of book are labeled. The inside of the container should include the following materials and activities pertaining to the book 1. Five questions about the book. 2. Five vocabulary words with definitions 3. Three items that depict the story in some way. These items may be actual items.
You could have them act out a commercial advertising their book complete with props, etc. Require whatever info you want, it is their job to incorporate it. Or maybe a movie trailer??
Write a letter to the main character giving advice. Write an alternate ending for the book. Make a timeline of important events. Write poetry using key words from the book. Make a collage using geometric shapes or freeform shapes to stand for the characters and which shows the relationship of characters to each other. Make a board game (my kids' favorite) where the cards include the key events and elements of the book. (Ex: Nick decided that all pens should be called frindles. Move 3 spaces forward.)
http://www.redmond.k12.or.us/mccall/renz/bookprojects.htm This is Mrs. Renz's site. I have done her Memory Bags (huge hit!), story skeletons, and flip books (another big hit). The kids really get into doing a monthly book project - I have 2 kids who had never read a chapter book before - they've finished 3 already this year! Use the links at the bottom of the page to go back to previous years for more ideas. We'll be doing the sandwich one in January.
