Biography Book Boards

I have not posted anything related to homeschooling in FORever! So I am hoping to easing myself back into it with this fun idea I came up with for a "Book Report".

Now my guys are both in 4th grade, and I am not going to sugar coat it...They kinda stink at anything English/Literature related. I also realized they had NO idea what a book report even is (hanging head in shame). So I encouraged them to pick a historical figure of their choice and do a "mini report" on it. My thinking was that I wanted to find out what they read about the book, but at the same time not overwhelm them with a paper book report that they aren't ready for.

I scoured Pinterest for alternatives to book reports and found TONS of fun ideas, and I will be implementing several over the next couple months. However since I had specifically asked the kids to pick a person to read about, I wanted something a little more geared towards a biography. So I kinda meshed a couple ideas together and here is what we ended up with:

Biography Boards!

These turned out SO cute, and I am happy to report that the kids liked doing them as much as I hoped they would!

Yup, School on the floor. 'Cause that's how we roll around here;)

Here is the skinny:

Each child was to put the name of their figure at the top of their board.

Gillyan picked "Leonardo Da Vinci" and Gideyon's choice was "Benjamin Franklin". Cracked me up how much their choices reflected their own personlity traits.


Then we used large index cards (for ease in the case of "redos", and for neater handwriting) to add some facts about that person.

The first card on the left contains "Basic Bio", the figure's Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death, and where the lived/were born. The first card on the right is that child's "Favorite Fact" that they learned while reading their biography.

The next 3 cards on the left contain "Fun Facts". These were to be facts that most people wouldn't know if they had not read a biography on the character. An example from Gideyon's : "Ben Franklin created some of the earliest versions of batteries". The 3 cards in a row on the right are "Famous Facts". These facts were to be facts that most people know with out reading a biography on the person. Example from Gillyan's:
"Leonardo painted the famous "Mona Lisa"".

Finally we completed the boards with big "Paper Dolls" of their figures, that the kids created on my Cricut! They chose all the colors, clothes, and accessories. I simply helped operate the machine.

Their Dad was super pleased with their effort and they proudly hung them on our dining room wall. Hopefully this will get them excited to "report" on their book reading for the future:)