Writing Rebus Stories

Need a literacy activity for primary students that is extremely adaptable? My first and second graders enjoy writing rebus stories. After creating one as a group on our Promethean board, all students successfully write them independently.






I start with a collection of images that have obvious connections. I send the screenshots to my students' desktops in a folder.

Students then write a very short story using each image at least once. As they do their word processing, they simply drag the screenshot into the sentence in place of the word. Clip art, line drawings and photographs work for these.

These can also incorporate other skills, such as matching concepts or finding relationships between objects. It is an easy way to encourage storytelling, crafting sentences, spelling and using capitalization and punctuation. Students enjoy rotating to each other's computers to read all the stories.

Explore an Idea and Create!

I like pairing a concept lesson with a chance for students to create. Recently, my first graders and I watched the Colors movie on BrainPop Jr. (If you don't know BrainPOP, check it out at brainpop.com. BrainPOP Jr. is for primary students.)

In a brief discussion before the movie, I discovered that none of the students knew what tints and shades were, so that became our focus. After viewing the movie, we discussed the concepts. I showed them artwork I had created in which I experimented with shades and tints of blue.

I also modeled in Tux Paint how they could select shades and tints of a color. There are several other drawing programs available, such as Seashore, that also have the full spectrum of colors.

This was a rewarding activity. Some of my students have already become reluctant artists who feel they "can't draw." I purposely modeled my "blues" as a very random collection using various tools. All students were able to create an interesting final product.

Where in the World was Ms. K-A?

I have been experimenting with various methods to help students search more effectively. I had a lesson  this week that was successful. The task was to find the location where I had taken a photograph or was the subject of a photo. I created this task in our Moodle course:

The link was to a Google Apps Form I created. Students simply entered the answer after completing the search. I asked them to screenshot the information so that they could not simply get the answer from a neighbor. I also used the screenshots later to discuss effective keywords.

I created a Google presentation of photographs which had captions. These provided the search terms. We reviewed using only the most important terms, leaving out words such as "in the." I have been amazed at how difficult it has been for my students to pare down their search terms. They often type in a complete question, which I strongly discourage.

There was a lot of "buzz" about the photos, which was fun. I heard students guessing locations with each other as they searched. 

I was able to check and give feedback immediately after they submitted their answers. As I spot checked their screenshots, I was able to help them modify their search terms if needed. Most students were very successful, correctly identifying most of the 12 locations.

I want to take this idea to the next level, in which students create the photo clues for each other.

Expand Horizons with Photography

I started a new routine in my computer lab this year.  As classes come in, I display a photograph on the interactive whiteboard.   When students are seated, I give them a minute to look and think.  I then welcome them to comment or ask questions about the photograph.

We spend less than 3 minutes discussing and looking for clues that may tell us where the photo was taken.  Each image has elicited interesting ideas and concepts, ranging from climate to vegetation, to natural phenomena.  I have been able to introduce vocabulary, such as "rural" and "polar" in context. This routine has given me glimpses of my students' knowledge and knowledge gaps in geography. I can also quickly shift to a world map when explaining locations.

Students are excited when they guess the location.  It has been rewarding to watch them enter with an look of excitement about the image they are seeing.

I use some of my own photographs from travelling.  I also find great photos from these sources:
National Geographic, Lonely Planet and BBC Travel.

My younger classes simply discuss an image, naming what they see and asking questions. It provides oral language practice and sparks curiosity about our world.  National Geographic Photos of the day usually have accompanying information giving context to the photograph. I sometimes use it to tell the story of how the photo was taken.