Week 4 DustEchoes
DustEchoes: Retelling a story using images and text
In this week's workshop, we are looking at Aboriginal stories online. They are in the form of cartoons, to easily engage younger students. In addition, this helps to minimize the effects of violence in the stories. The following is a simple procedure of today's workshop activity.
Select a story from the website
Download study guides (for teachers)
Choose an activity for students
Literacy: Retell the story by using snapshots and text using Inspiration (previous ICT lesson). By using the "Print Screen' function, students can copy snapshots of the story, crop the desired images (using Paint) and paste it into Inspiration.
This activity covers English/Literacy and computer skills.
This activity covers English/Literacy and computer skills.
*Teachers should screen material first, as some stories may contain inappropriate images for younger students!
Have a look at the example above!
Microsoft Excel - Maths
The second part of today's workshop focuses on a Maths' activity. The best part about it is the materials used - M&Ms! Before any food or fragrances are used for any purpose in the classroom, make sure that students are clear of any allergies - this could cause many issues!
We all know that M&Ms come in different colours and a great simple Maths activity is for the students to work with collecting data (colour) and graphing. A common program that can be found on most computers is Microsoft Excel - it offers a range of table formats and graphs for different purposes. The following image are some sample graphs from Microsoft Excel.
Another suggestion is to allow the students to explore legitimate homepages of companies, such as M&Ms'. Due to their children-friendly nature, their homepage caters to the younger population with games and interesting facts about their products. Often, students can learn some interesting new facts - nutritional information, colour charts, how their products are made, history of their products, etc. In addition, awesome pictures can be found for their own resources as well.
One thing to keep in mind when using any type of computer programs is that students may need a review of the basic knowledge and skills - such as highlighting, multiple selection, saving their work, etc. Ensure that students are familiar with those essential basics; therefore, their activities will seem less tedious and more fun!
