How to Do a Book Report Tree
Children need hands-on projects that help them make sense of the things they are learning. This is especially true when dealing with reading comprehension. A book report tree helps students understand and organize the information about a book by providing a hands-on, visual way for them to group the different pieces of information. A single student can build a tree independently, or groups of students can build a larger tree for a wall decoration or bulletin board.
Things You'll Need
- Brown construction paper
- Green Construction paper
- Crayons
- Paper
- Book report forms
- Printer
- Computer
- Internet access
Instructions
-
Cause-and-Effect Tree
-
1
Cut a tree trunk and limbs from brown construction paper. Design the tree to fit your classroom space. A tree can be larger if it is taking up a full wall in the classroom, or it can be scaled down to fit on a bulletin board. Cut individual leaves from green construction paper. The leaves should be large enough to write effects on. Consider using a large leaf design that has few lobes, such as a maple or sycamore.
-
2
Have the students examine causes and effects in the story. Students should make a list of the events in the book that cause things to happen.
-
-
3
Write a cause on each branch of the tree. For example, a book about a volcano eruption might have "The Volcano Erupts" on a branch as a cause.
-
4
Write an effect on each of the leaves attached to a branch. For example, on the branch that says "The Volcano Erupts," a student might add leaves that say "People evacuated the mountainside," "There was a cloud of ash" and "Lava came out of cracks in the ground."
Character Development Tree
-
5
Create a tree just like the one made for the cause-and-effect book report.
-
6
Write a character's name on the trunk. Have the students select either the protagonist or the antagonist for the most comprehensive book report
-
7
Write a category for character traits on each branch, such as "Appearance" or "Talents."
-
8
Write traits on the leaves. For the "Appearance" branch, you might add leaves that say "brown eyes," "long red hair" and "dresses like a tomboy."
Class Book Report Tree
-
9
Create a construction-paper trunk for a tree large enough to fill a wall in the classroom or a bulletin board.
-
10
Print out a leaf book report form from the Scholastic website and make copies for each child in the class.
-
11
Instruct the students to fill out the book report forms.
-
12
Have the students color the leaves.
-
13
Write categories on the branches, such as reading level, topic, genre or any other classification. Let the students decide how they, as a class, want to group the book reports. Add leaves to the appropriate branches.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
