The Golden Rules for Homework

Librarians have been helping children with their homework for millions of years ;-) and lots of kids have benefited from their golden rules!  Trust us...it makes doing your homework so much faster and easier. 

• Prepare - Before you come into the library, make sure you bring your homework or assignment sheet, pen and paper to write notes and ideas, your library card and some money to pay for internet, printing or photocopying.

• Leave lots of time - If you wait until the day before the project is due, all the information may be out or you will feel panicked and do a poor job. Reference books will always be available for use in the library only and you can search online when the library is closed.

• Brainstorm - Write everything down that you can think of about your topic.  Let's say you were doing Ancient Egypt:

 

You could write all these keywords down: children, making food, pyramids, markets, rich families, growing up, drinks, shops, roles, grandparents, Nile, education, funeral, festivals, types of food, gods, mummies, tombs, making mummies, music etc.

• Choose any of these keywords to find information - Keywords are your searching / finding words. You can use them to search our online library catalogue or on our recommended internet sites. You could also use them to find information in the contents, index, and chapter headings in books.

  - Your keywords can also make a concept map and make for some really excellent questions to help you explore your topic a little further.  Below are some ways to use our keywords from our Ancient Egypt topic example...

• Make a concept map - Sort your ideas into groups, using our Ancient Egypt topic as an example:

1. Families: children, grandparents, rich families, growing up, roles
2. Food and Drink: growing food, types of food, farming, making food, shops, markets, drinks cost of food
3. Pyramids: mummies, funeral, tombs

• Write a question - An easy way to write a question is to join a keyword from your concept map. 

Try these out for size: how? what? where? why? or when?

1. How are pyramids built?
2. Who built the pyramids?
3. What is stored in the pyramids?
4. How are mummies prepared?
5. Why did the Egyptian people build pyramids?
6. How do we know about life in Ancient Egypt?

• Remember, if you can't find something, ask us for help! We love helping you with your homework, so if you haven't found what you're looking for, ask for help! Library staff at Waitaki District Libraries are great at helping you find all the resources and answers you need- including on-line information. You can even find NZ librarians on the Internet to help you!  Go to AnyQuestions between 1-6pm Monday-Friday.