Project Ideas
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Year 1
Science KS1 - year 1
Unit 1A: Ourselves
Section 8: How animals move
NC: Sc2: 1a,b,c / Sc1:1, 2g
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/science/sci1a/sci1aq8?view=get
Overview:
Use the platform to host embedded videos showing how animals move. Children are asked to watch the videos and can respond by answering simple questions in a wiki style page.
There is a simple test that children can take to identify the movement styles of different animals. This requires reading, but simple tick box answers.
Due to the small amount of navigation and reading, this will require some adult supervision.
Preparation time: 3 hours.
This is assumes that you have all the images you need, and know which videos on line you want to use. You can easily spend many many more hours looking for and editing images for the links, and finding cooler videos of animals doing crazy things.
If you don’t have time to find and edit the images, then text links can be used. Looking for videos will depend on which sites aren’t filtered by your internet provider. I have only used YouTube for one video (the spider), as I know that the LA sometimes filters access to it.
In the classroom
After all the children have been added as members of the Animal Movement community, they simply need to click on it, and the activity will be displayed. As there are various skills needed for this that the children may not have (web navigation, clicking on play button, and reading instructions!) it may be appropriate to have small groups of children access the content with an adult. That said, there will be plenty of children who will just need to be pointed in the right direction, and no more input will be necessary.
The quiz can be accessed from the side bar, or the bottom of the community page. As the quiz has explicit written instructions, the child may need it to be read out.
Watch out for
Some videos have adverts that appear at the end (or even part way through) which could take the child away from the platform – so some level of supervision may be useful to keep the children on task.
Different videos have different play options. Some may autoplay, others might have a big play button, and some a smaller one in the bottom left.
Year 2
Geography KS1 – year 2
Unit 5: Where in the world is Barnaby Bear?
Sections 1 helps with 2 and 3, and can be extended to 4.
NC: 1a, 2c/d, 3a/b/c and 4a
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/geography/geo5/05q1?view=get
Overview
There are two parts to this project; one is a very simple way of using the platform to allow Barnaby Bear to update his blog, and the other takes this information and displays it through a community using embedded maps from Google.
Part One: Setting up a Barnaby Bear user, preparation time: 15 mins.
The idea is that when children/staff take Barnaby on a trip, they can communicate details of his trip by updating his blog within the platform. This way children can also communicate with Barnaby via email.
Simply create a pupil called Barnaby Bear and add him to the year 2 class communities. Extra time can be spent creating a nice profile picture for him.
Before he goes on a trip, change his password, and let the child/staff remember it along with his username, so they can update his blog while they are away, or when they get back. They can also upload pictures to his work section, which the teacher will be able to share with the class. If necessary ask them to send an email to the teachers to let them know when a blog entry has been made.
Part Two: Creating the Barnaby Bear Community, preparation time: 1 hour, and then ongoing.
Here we can present the details of Barnaby’s trips, and create a page for each trip containing pictures and an embedded map of the destination. To set the map up, simply create a Google map, add a place mark and then copy the embed scrip from the “link” button at Google maps into the source of the page. Your Google map can contain as many destinations as you like, or you can make a new one for each trip with the school and the destination place-marked.
After the initial page is created, the other pages can be added as Barnaby travels around the local community/county/world.
In the Classroom
Children will be able to read the blog entries as a whole class, and perhaps reply as a whole group. Individual children will be able to email Barnaby and comment on his blog. They will also be able to navigate around the Google map to see if they can relate where Barnaby is to where there school is.
Watch out for
When embedding maps it can be fiddly to get them to display at the correct scale. Also the person in charge of the community page must keep it up to date with Barnaby’s latest exploits – which will require getting pictures from Barnaby’s account, and uploading them to the community.
Year 3 - Riddles
Literacy KS2 - Term 3, Poetry Unit 3
Framework Objectives: T6 / T15 / T21
http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/18389
Overview
Show children examples of riddles using a created community, and allow children to comment and discuss the riddles via the forum. When children have written their own riddles (possibly helped by stimuli on the community page) they email them to a partner class to complete, or they publish them on their blog for other students to comment on. They can also perform their riddle and record it via a webcam, and email it for another child to watch and respond to.
Preparation time: 20 minutes.
Simply create a community called Riddles, and add the classes involved as members. Then use Page Creator to add riddles and stimuli to the front page, and create forums for the children to add their comments to.
In the Classroom
Children can read through and comment on the riddles. They can then write their own riddle, and email it (using words or performing it on a webcam) to a partner class for them to answer.
Watch out for
As there will be many comments on the forum, it may be worthwhile allowing them to be published without moderation to save teacher’s time. In order to stop inappropriate comments, ask a few key children to keep ‘em peeled and report any misuse to be deleted by a teacher.
Other Ideas
Visit our Activities section for some more ideas on incorporating the use of blogs, forums and wikis into the classroom.
