Instruct the children to take out their compiled notes from a previous lesson. Hand out a small stack of index cards. Begin by having each student study their notes and write down on each index card one piece of information from their notes that they think is important to remember. Once all the index cards are used, each student should stack their cards on their desk.
Tell the students one at a time to read their index cards and compare them. After all the material has been covered, make sure all bits of information have been added to the index cards as needed. Explain that these will be referred to as the "main ideas."
Hand out several sticky-backed notes to each student and have them attach one note to each index card. Instruct the students to write on each sticky-backed note a few small phrases that describe the information on the index card. For example, if an index card has "The Civil War began in 1861 and lasted until 1865" on it, the note can have a list such as "1861," "1865" and "lasted four years" These notes are called the "details."
Instruct the students to take out a sheet of paper and write down each main idea from the index card on the paper one at a time. They should leave space after each and number them with Roman numerals, such as I, II, and III. Have the students write under each idea the details from the sticky-backed notes and label these with letters such as A, B, and C, until the paper looks like so:
I. Main Idea
A. Detail
B. Detail
C. Detail
Now your students have an easy-to-follow outline of their notes for a particular lesson, ready to refer to for studying before tests.