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.

Integrating Scratch!

Scratch is a programming language developed at MIT for young people to use to create interactive stories, animation and more.  It is free to download.  I recently discovered it through district colleagues in my PLN.  I have introduced it to my students in grades 3-6.

I developed a unit for my third graders that integrates Minnesota history and geography with the technology components of Scratch, Photo Booth, various websites and videos, and ActivInspire Flipcharts using a Promethean (interactive) Board.  Each third grader created an animated tour of Minnesota.  I created lessons about historically significant locations in Minnesota such as Pipestone National Monument, the headwaters of the Mississippi River and the Iron Range.  Each lesson utilized our interactive whiteboard.  Students manipulated diagrams, analyzed text and viewed photographs, videos and maps.  Here are some examples of my flipcharts.

 

The Scratch workspace looks like this:

Users write programs for their moving objects, called sprites, on a stage that can have any kind of background.  The program comes with a wide variety of sprites, such as animals, letters and people; there are various categories of available backgrounds.  My students created their own.  They imported screenshots and photographs.  They also used photo editing tools to create text sprites and their face using Photo Booth effects.

After I modeled the processes of writing programs by dragging in command bars, students wrote their programs.  They moved their "face sprites" around the state.  At each location, they gave information through the use of speech bubbles.

This is one of the programs written.  Locations are given using coordinates on a grid.

As new places were studied, students created new sprites and edited the stage background.

This two-week project was very engaging.  Students were enthusiastic and eager to keep adding information to their tours.  Some students had visited the sites, so there were opportunities for them to share experiences.  Math was incorporated informally as we estimated driving times.  Students talked about making plans to travel to the places we learned about.

I definitely plan on using Scratch next year as I refine my plans.  I am currently planning a similar project for fourth-graders in which we will study the early history of the United States.  Their tours will show the expansion of the country.

Scratch is easy to learn how to use.  The website, scratch.mit.edu, gives examples, guides and tutorials.  Users can also upload their creations to the gallery.

Spring Break...time for blog posts!

It's hard to believe that Spring Break is here!  I only have 12 weeks left of my first year as a technology specialist.  I have been so busy creating units and teaching, that I have neglected this blog.  Time to play catch up!

A Promethean interactive whiteboard was installed in my lab in October and I have definitely become dependent on it.  I use it for modeling in my mini-lessons, for which my students sit in rows on the floor at the beginning of class.  Using the board is a great way to show my students how to navigate Google Earth, manipulate an image in Comic Life or Glogster, or use the formatting toolbar in Word.

With my Kindergarten though second-graders, we use the Promethean board to do activities together.  We play educational games on websites such as PBS Kids, TVO Kids and Starfall.  I also create activities on flipcharts.  We sort concepts, create timelines and label objects in photographs of scenes from around the world.  During these sessions, my students have the pen 90% of the time.  I use my class lists to determine whose turn it is, having students "pass the pen" to their classmates.  This ensures equal access to all.

I appreciate the ability to explore technology as a group using the Promethean board in contrast to having students work independently at their computers.  I believe it helps in building community and allows us to learn more from each other.