Posted by Cindy on February 8, 2010
WWI has been richly covered and lots of wonderful projects sit in our notebooks to prove it. The School History site was invaluable for me during this unit!! You can see some of the activities we chose to use from School History below.
This map shows the allies at the beginning of the war.
This is a diagram of trench warfare.
This is a chart of several important points of the war.
And this is a map of the new Europe established after the end of the war.
I bought the game A Journey Through Europe for $1.00 at a curriculum sale last summer. It was a great was to reinforce important places in Europe. I haven’t linked it because I don’t think it’s available anymore, but it would be a good one to keep in the back of your mind as you visit curriculum and yard sales.
Below are the resources that have been in my sidebar. I hope you find them useful!
World War I
I’m kind of bummed that our library has such a limited selection of age-appropriate WWI books. These books and DVD’s got us pretty far, though.
Great Websites
Thanks to Jimmie for making me aware of most of these links!
School History – This is an awesome site where I am finding most of our activities
Mr. Donn’s Lesson Links
Teacher Oz – Links to every aspect of WWI
Art of the First World War
WWI Timeline
Animated Map of the Western Front
Posted by Cindy on February 5, 2010
Lots of people over time have asked where I find ideas for the project choices I give my children. At this point, most of the ideas are dreamed up in my head, but it hasn’t always been that way. Some of the books I use include:
Better Than Book Reports is book is full of great ideas for projects as they relate to literature. I’ve found the project ideas easily transferable to research/history/science topics as well. The following three are very similar to this one, but I’m finding that they are probably out-of-print. I’ve linked you to their webpages anyway since they can all still be purchased through Amazon new/used sellers.
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Student Product Development & Evaluation was sent to me as a review product. Although not quite as visual, there are lots of very thorough ideas – especially project ideas for older children and teens. A large list of project ideas is given, with about 40 of those ideas fleshed out for you with book lists, websites and possible rubrics. This is not my favorite of the books I use for ideas, but it has it’s place, especially for the upper school years.
Easy File Folder Reports is simple for mom and children. Each topic has reproducible pages where your child fills out the papers during their research and attaches them to a file folder. Usually, a small hands-on project is suggested for a 3-dimensional addition to the report.
I know you hear about the NaturExplorers units all the time, but Melissa and I have purposely designed the writing and research activity ideas in the units to be project-based. In other words, with most of the writing and research suggestions, projects like creating file folder reports, dioramas, posters, charts, models and much more are part of the activities.
The following site is helpful, too.
More Ideas Than You’ll Ever Use for a Book Report
If you have any other resources for finding project ideas, please comment!
Posted by Cindy on February 3, 2010
Here’s one more really good question that has come in regarding unit studies specifically relating to projects…
“In regards to projects and presentations, how do you gently help improve the note taking, thoroughness of information and actual presentations? I know some of this will come with practice, but I’d like to improve on these things without stifling my child’s enthusiasm.”
Yes, better projects and better presentations come with practice. But, like anything else we teach, if we let too many things slide this time around, how will our children know what to improve upon next time?
During and just after presentations, I give lots of praise. Not fake praise that simply puffs my children up, but real praise. “I love the book you chose.” “It seems like you put a lot of time into your research!” “I can tell you really thought through the use of materials for your diorama.”
It’s hard to give presentations – even in front of your own family! During a presentation, your child is making him/herself very vulnerable and immediate criticism will stifle future presentations for sure.
Usually the next day, during our normal unit time, I’ll jump into any constructive criticism that needs to be discussed about the project or presentation. Again, I’ll always start with something positive before talking about the negative. Here’s how a conversation might go…
Dad and I were very impressed with your speaking yesterday. You remembered to keep your head out of your notes and look your audience in the eye! We could hear every word you said, too, which was a big improvement over your last presentation. Let’s talk about two things that stood out to me as needing a little work next time around.
Think about your poster. You spent a lot of time researching about Teddy Roosevelt, but I could tell you didn’t spend as much time making sure your poster was neat and organized. Do you agree? What do you think went wrong? Did I not give you enough time or did you get tired of the project and rush to finish it? What are some specific things you can do next time around to improve the visual appeal of your project?
One other thing I noticed was a big gap in the information you presented about Teddy Roosevelt. You told us a lot about his life before becoming president and several fun facts about his presidency, but I felt like the important work during his time spent as president was lacking. Again, it almost seemed like you started your project with a lot of gusto, but puttered out towards the end. Why do you think the second half of the report wasn’t as thorough as the first?
Every single time I’ve taken the time to gently discuss the major problems of a project, my children have improved on those aspects in following projects!
Here’s the catch, though!! Even if you see 10 things that really need improvement, try to focus on only one or two at a time. They can only process so much, and hearing about too many things at once will seem more like tearing them down causing LESS effort next time. As you talk about one or two main issues, you may be surprised to find your children paying better attention to the other issues that you didn’t even mention anyway!
One other thought that comes to mind is the use of a rubric to give your child a basic guideline of your expectations. Basically, a rubric tells your child what you expect from the project in order to gain a specific grade or score. See sample rubrics here. You’ll have to click on a link to see the particular rubric. Scroll down a bit to the “Research Process Rubrics” – they go along well with presentations. Take some time to go through the other subjects as well, then look near the bottom to find “Creating Your Own Rubrics”.
I don’t always use rubrics. Quite honestly, they take time to create and time is of the essence around here! But, when I have taken the time to create one, my children have ALWAYS done better on their projects. They tend to reach farther if they know where the higher goal sits. Something to think about for you and me!
