Make Report Writing Easier with this Visual Format

As children learn to write, they are also learning how to tell stories. Often when kids are starting to write stories we encourage drawing a picture and writing about what is shown, whether they are retelling a favorite fairy tale or a story from their most recent vacation.

Pictures can likewise be helpful when early writers seek to give nonfiction reports on something they have learned about. You Clever Monkey has printable report writing templates for sale to use in your studies of bees, butterflies, ants and spiders.

But the same concept can be used for lots of report-style writing, whether you provide the pictures for the student to write about or have them draw something related to what most stuck out to them or interested them about the subject.

This is a great way to get over the “I don’t know what to write about” hurdle and to help kids gain confidence in how to put together simple reports.

[Photo via You Clever Monkey.]

When my daughter was younger she had a ton of LEGO bricks, and I’m honestly a little sad we got rid of most of them because there are so many fun things to do with LEGOs outside of the kits you bought them in.

I love seeing all the ideas people have for LEGO building challenges, and I have shared some ideas for LEGO games before, but I saw one on Pinterest the other day that I felt was worth a mention.

This one is for those ’80s and ’90s kids who spent sick days home from school watching “The Price is Right”: LEGO Plinko!

For those who don’t know about Plinko, the original was a giant peg board set up at an angle and the contestant would drop a flat disc at the top of the board. As it moved down the board it would hit the pegs and change the way it moved, and there would be different prizes in the slots at the bottom where the piece would land.

This version from Play Party Game works on the same principle, using LEGO bricks to make the game board and marbles in place of the Plinko disc since your game board isn’t flat.

You can really use whatever bricks you have for this build, and while it shows all the pegs the same size and evenly spaced, you can play with different configurations and see what happens. It’s engineering and a game!

And while you’re playing with your LEGOs, make sure to check out this post from Kids Craft Room that includes minute to win it style games you can do with LEGO. From speed sorting to tower building as fast as you can, these ideas are sure to get you thinking about different ways to play with LEGO.

And if you need even more ideas, check out my post with LEGO building challenges you can print out for kids (and adults!) to try.

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