8 yr olds presentation

[Othersideofthechannel]

What would you expect an 8yr old to do if he was asked to do a presentation on the solar system to the class and was given 3 months to prepare it?

The reason I ask is because DS has to do this with another classmate and his mum and I have very different ideas about what they could achieve.

Sorry, I should have specified that the instructions told us to an 'old fashioned' presentation with models. Computers not used for the actual presentation.

We have made a pretty good model after a brainstorm and they worked out how to divide up the subject matter between them.

But I'm more concerned about the bits where they have to talk about what they have found out and think their classmates should/would want to know...

I would expect it to be a glorified 'show and tell'

A home-made model/ props would be good - poster/diagram etc

Then I'd expect the children to 'share out' the presentation - probably having information on A4 cards to read out? Not more than about 5-10 mins in total...

Classmates would like a fun presentation with lots of little memorable facts.
At our school the kids would probably have got extra marks for making it interesting e.g. with a song, or relevent jokes/ things to help remember the facts.

Actually the presentation is on Thursday and today was the 'rehearsal'. They have been working independently (each on 4 planets). So they said their bits in turn to check it was about the right length and that any complicated terms could be explained by each.

DS has about 10 sentences on each of his planets, what he felt were the most important/understandable facts from all the things we found out about each planet.

Is this about right?

I think the standard may vary depending on whether your child is at s state or independent school. Ime, private schools seem to expect so much more on these things! If you're state then I think your plan sounds fine.

One tip I've found for getting them to research St this age is when you type in the topic on google also try typing in primary school. Often it will then take you to other primary school websites and their work on the topic, so you know it will be age and stage appropriate, often with lots of pictures and just a sentence or two underneath!

I've explored the website www.learninglogs.co.uk with my class before setting optional project homework. The site is full of examples of different ways of presenting information; from board games to spidergrams, from written facts to information posters.

Having looked at this in class time they've then had 6-8 weeks to respond to a learning objective that they have chosen (out of a couple of options that the class have suggested) e.g. "I can find out about Victorian clothing/fashion". The products of this have been amazing and all the children have enjoyed looking at each others' work.

Thanks. I will follow through these ideas.

Probably best not to change much now, it's so close. Great that they've practised, and the best you can give him/them now is glowing feedback so they're bursting with confidence (!) when they do it.

I used to hate things like that when I was at school.. but I bet they'll be great.

In the eyes of the teacher, enthusiasm for their subject and pride in their achievement will count for just as much if not more than complexity of models/clever tricks etc.

Good luck to 'em!!