Writing across subjects (Science and History)

[Roadrunner]

I have a fourth grader at home, but capable of writing research reports. It's always hard for me to come up with topics though. Can you help me brainstorm some simple topics for small research reports (4 to 6 paragraphs) for science and/or history intended for 5th or 6th graders? 

 

He is begging for more assignments like this, but I think I am over thinking the topics. 

 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

What are you studying? Meaning, are you looking for questions for any specific historical era and/or science topics?

 

What are his main interests in history and science?

[madteaparty]

The only place where I've seen assignments like these is the Galore Park language arts program. I recall DS doing a write -up about Greenwich, world war 2 and something else last year. I realize this does not solve your across the curriculum issue; for that I've had to invent my own, such as "I'm off to work, read this and this, watch that, write me 3 paragraphs" type thing.

[Roadrunner]

What are you studying? Meaning, are you looking for questions for any specific historical era and/or science topics?

 

What are his main interests in history and science?

We have entered the Middle Ages! So far we covered Islam, Franks, and Vikings. 

 

We are doing BFSU 2 for science, so over the next couple of months we will be doing chemistry thread. We already completed Earth Science portion, so maybe we can write some from there? 

 

I don't know why it's so hard to come up with assignments. 

[Roadrunner]

The only place where I've seen assignments like these is the Galore Park language arts program. I recall DS doing a write -up about Greenwich, world war 2 and something else last year. I realize this does not solve your across the curriculum issue; for that I've had to invent my own, such as "I'm off to work, read this and this, watch that, write me 3 paragraphs" type thing.

 

I can't possibly buy another writing program, or can I? :) 

 

My older really likes "larger" assignments. We worked through 8's new program today covering the nouns. At the end of the noun section the kids are encouraged to write something of their own. It's 8:30 PM right now. We just came back from soccer, and they went straight writing their  Bushy "fan fiction." Seriously. My older is on page 6 (handwritten) of his work. 

 

He gets equally excited about other "big" assignments. The problem is he is young, so anything that needs deep analysis is out of question. I think he would tackle anything about outer space, or animals, or history. 

[madteaparty]

My DS writes like that in spurts too, hours at a time, but it's all creative fiction and I haven't dared mess with it...

[8filltheheart]

We have entered the Middle Ages! So far we covered Islam, Franks, and Vikings.

 

We are doing BFSU 2 for science, so over the next couple of months we will be doing chemistry thread. We already completed Earth Science portion, so maybe we can write some from there?

 

I don't know why it's so hard to come up with assignments.

One idea my boys liked when they were young was putting together newspapers. They would pretend they were time traveling journalists, and they put together newspapers of the "current events." Somewhere I have a newspaper describing the installation of an aqueduct, an interview with a soldier who was with Julius Caesar, an advertisement for a toga shop, and a bunch of other articles. They did it for all sorts of time periods.

[Roadrunner]

One idea my boys liked when they were young was putting together newspapers. They would pretend they were time traveling journalists, and they put together newspapers of the "current events." Somewhere I have a newspaper describing the installation of an aqueduct, an interview with a soldier who was with Julius Caesar, an advertisement for a toga shop, and a bunch of other articles. They did it for all sorts of time periods.

 

This is a fantastic idea! 

 

It's 9 PM and they are still at it. :) 

[Chrysalis Academy]

You could have them do reports on things that interest them - the planets, countries of the world.  Just very straightforward, informative reports.  You could give them a list of questions they need to research, or even give them an outline with the topics they could include if they aren't ready to generate that on their own.  A report on each planet, put together into a book, might keep them busy for weeks!  They could even include a chapter on the "controversy" over Pluto if that interests them - it's something my younger can't let go of, and she has plenty to say about it!!!  ;)

[Roadrunner]

You could have them do reports on things that interest them - the planets, countries of the world. Just very straightforward, informative reports. You could give them a list of questions they need to research, or even give them an outline with the topics they could include if they aren't ready to generate that on their own. A report on each planet, put together into a book, might keep them busy for weeks! They could even include a chapter on the "controversy" over Pluto if that interests them - it's something my younger can't let go of, and she has plenty to say about it!!! ;)

We have successfully done one write up of a galaxy. Maybe we should create "space magazine" this year!

 

What about history? Other than biographical sketches, I am co king up empty handed.

[Momling]

In fifth grade we did lots of paragraphs in history -- usually biographical, but sometimes describing an event or theme or artwork (The role of medieval women, the crusades, the plague, the ceiling of the Sistine chapel)  The rules were;

1. they should research and use facts, but needed to restate them rather than blatantly plagiarize

2. they must start their paragraph with a sentence that embodied why the person or event was famous/infamous/evil/inspiring etc...  So a topic sentence like "Charlemagne was born in the year 742." was generally not okay, but something like "Charlemagne is known by many as the greatest emperor of the middle ages." at least got the kids writing in the direction of "why might people think he is famous" rather than "why was he born in 742". 

3. The final sentence also needed to go back to the "why was he/she/it is famous" to tie it together. 

 

Focusing on paragraphs in 5th grade made it easy in 6th grade to slide into short 5 paragraph type essays.   I much prefer reading tight, well-organized short writings than rambling multi-page monstrosities as they sometimes do in public school. We also used the binders and cardstock from History Portfolio and the girls glued in their paragraphs and other writings into it.  Having a portfolio helped them to make the writing neat and something they were proud of.

 

We chose topics based on whatever topic they were working on in history.  I had them do a paragraph maybe every 2 or 3 days.... so I might have had them read from the textbook, watch a documentary, then write a paragraph, then add in pictures or lists or documents or something interesting on the topic in their portfolio.  In the end the portfolio looks like a textbook or something they created themselves. It's kind of cool.

 

 

 

 

 

[madteaparty]

We chose topics based on whatever topic they were working on in history.  I had them do a paragraph maybe every 2 or 3 days.... so I might have had them read from the textbook, watch a documentary, then write a paragraph, then add in pictures or lists or documents or something interesting on the topic in their portfolio.  In the end the portfolio looks like a textbook or something they created themselves. It's kind of cool.

 

This is exactly what we did but not the portfolio part. What did you use to keep it all together. This is a great idea.

[Roadrunner]

We are working through 8's new program and it's perfect for teaching topic sentences and paragraph writing. I am going to add in more assignments.

Right now I asked him to write one paragraph about Muhammad (our history topic). He is on page four. I think I am just going to pick one paragraph out of it and have him rework it. This kid doesn't want to stop.

[Momling]

This is exactly what we did but not the portfolio part. What did you use to keep it all together. This is a great idea.

We started off about four years ago using this: http://www.homeschooljourney.com. Almost immediately I realized I wanted to design my own portfolio and have kids work on topics I think are important so I stopped using the teacher pages for ideas. Now I just order blank portfolios with card stock frames. We really kind of like the horizontal binder. You could get the same effect from a scrapbook kind of binder with card stock or a regular three ring binder.