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As I start to choose our books for the coming school year (don’t worry, I’ll share everything we get, just like last year) I’m considering how I’d like to adjust and add to our learning process. Homeschooling is such an ever-changing and growing experience! I love that we can make it fit our season and customize our routine to each child’s interests. Squeaks, in particular, has really become interested in creative writing and I love it. I’ve stated to evaluate how best to organize her homeschool language arts experience, and I think trying a new book report routine might be fun!
This past year was the first time we added assigned reading to Squeaks’ language arts rotation.
She enjoyed several chapter books and we ended up using my Writing Journal (a free resource to those of you who receive my newsletter) as a kind of book report notebook. She would read for a while, usually ten minutes or so, then narrate back to me what happened in the story. Finally, she’d sit down with her Writing Journal, draw a scene from the section she just read, and write a paragraph or two. I’d go through and correct punctuation and spelling with her afterward.
You might also enjoy reading this post: Five Benefits To Teaching Cursive
This process was fine to start with. It strengthened her narration skills, her writing, spelling, and grammar. However, it started to get a bit time-consuming. Having her draw and write after every single ten-minute reading session filled up her Journal fast! Even though she read a solid number of books this year, she only ended up journaling one of them (Cricket In Times Square, which she enjoyed!). I’d like to simplify and add a way to wrap it all up at the end of this year.
A book report!
We’ll continue to do narration and use the Writing Journal. I’ll only have her write when a chapter has actually been completed though. Then, at the end of the book she can go back and look at the journal to help her work on the book report.
To help Squeaks enjoy the process, I created a fun book report set!
These resources will help her condense her thoughts, and even transition into some creative writing if she’s inspired. No matter what type of book she decides to do her report on, we’ll be prepared.
I plan on giving her a variety of books to choose from with options in fiction, non-fiction, and even biographies. It’ll be fun to learn about different writing styles and types of books, and help her narrow down what she’d like to read. I’m also adding a lesson on the parts of a book with the help of a vocabulary page (included in the set). These pages have everything I could think of the encourage her to explore reading and creative writing.
Included in this set:
- Fiction, non-fiction, and biography book report pages
- “Types of Books” vocabulary page
- “Parts of a Book” vocabulary page
- Design your own book cover activity (I know she’ll especially love this and will ask to print it again and again!)
- List of 40 creative writing prompts (I’m adding these prompts to the free Printable Library for newsletter friends as well! They’d go perfectly with the free Writing Journal!)
I think this is going to be a really fun addition to Squeaks’ Language Arts this year. I hope you enjoy it too! If you’re looking for some fun chapter books, you can see a selection of books we’ve enjoyed here.
Get your Book Report Set HERE!
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