BIOGRAPHY REPORTS

I know. Amazing. An actual posting about my job. Around this time every year my students complete biography reports of a famous American. This involves reading a couple of books on different people for about 2-3 weeks and then deciding who to write the report about. But it doesn't just involve a book report. My students were asked to make a puppet using homemade materials and then come into class in costume (or at least try with the costume) and give an oral report in character.

My students chose some past presidents including Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Teddy Roosevelt. I had a few First Ladies including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Eleanor Roosevelt.

I had astronauts such as John Glenn and Neil Armstrong. We had Olympians Kristi Yamaguchi, Babe Didrickson, and Jim Thorpe. We had escape artist, Harry Houdini. We had famous Native Americans (including Thorpe) like Crazy Horse, Sacagawea, and Sitting Bull.

We had literary types like Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Revolutionary heroines such as Molly Pitcher and Betsy Ross. Once again I had students choose American icons Henry Ford, Elvis Presley and Walt Disney.

This Wednesday we will have our grade level assembly and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the other oral reports from other classrooms. If nothing else, doing a report like this has reminded me to appreciate all of the pioneers of our country and the importance that Americans have had in the history of the world.

Enjoy the slideshow!