HANDS-ON RESEARCHING

Ben and Polly started some hands-on research today.  Ben's computer skills are really good and he has done a number of research projects that have required him to use the computer.  He needs typing skills (term 4 for both kids), but generally he knows his way round the computer pretty well for an 8 year old.  Pollyanna, on the other hand, has very limited skills in this area, so today was her first time using the computer as a research tool.  She did really well and typed in the two questions she wanted to answer and then I helped her read the information she found so she could determine what information was important to her.  For a first attempt she did really well.  While Polly was on the computer, Ben was using his vast reading skills and using the index in the library books we had on space to help him answer a couple of his questions.  The kids had a very productive morning researching :)

SPACE ALPHABETS

Today we had fun in English learning about research.  Its one of those things that isn't usually taught well at primary school but is so helpful to kids who can understand the concept at a young age.  So today we started off by talking about what you do when you don't know the answer to a question.  Any of course the answer was use things to find out and you do that by researching.  The kids then helped make a big list of resources you could use to find answers to different sorts of questions.  They did a fantastic job and we then used this learning to research an A to Z list of space words using books as our research tools.  I found a ready made one on the starlabs website, which also has lots of other great resources to use for any space learning!  The picture today is of Ben using the books to find words for each letter of the alphabet.  True to form, Ben found it hard to go to morning tea and leave this worksheet to finish after a bite to eat .... a clear sign it was a great task for my little home schoolers!