Activities

"Internet Photo Essays" Project

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Goals: 

Project participants will accomplish the following goals:

    • Increased ability to understand and present information on social issues from expressive and analytic perspectives
    • Increased ability to perform in a collaborative work environment
    • Increased ability to present information in multimedia formats
    • Increased skill in using multimedia authoring software and the Internet

"Our Neighborhood" Project

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The "Our Neighborhood" project introduces kids to structured ways of thinking and expressing ideas about the people, places and things that matter most to them. The lessons build on the information and experiences that the children and the instructors already have about the culture around them. Click below to see the lesson plan for each of the eight sessions.

Goals: 

Children doing this project will achieve the following goals:

    • Increased vocabulary as they describe and come to understand some of the people, places, events and things in their family, peer group and community
    • Increased ability to perform such social skills as sharing, listening, taking turns and helping others
    • New factual and qualitative information about the people and places in their neighborhood that are important to children
    • Increased ability to present concrete and abstract information in multimedia formats
    • Increased skill in using multimedia authoring software and the Internet

"The Soil Around Us" Project

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"The Soil Around Us" project introduces collaborative reading, writing and groupwork processes, such as brainstorming, labeling, mapping and storyboarding. Computer-based activities emphasize multimedia skills, such as creating and editing drawings, photos and text, and introduce basic Internet navigation skills. Click below to see the lesson plan for each of the eight sessions.

Goals: 

Children doing this project will achieve the following goals:

    • Increased vocabulary as they describe and come to understand terms and concepts related to soil and underground life
    • Increased ability to perform such social skills as sharing, listening, taking turns and assisting others
    • New factual and qualitative information about soil and underground life
    • Increased ability to present information in multimedia formats
    • Increased skill in using multimedia authoring software and the Internet

A Video Project on Idioms: A Simple Introduction to Video and Multimedia Software

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In this project the kids will do a quick video in which they act out an idiomatic phrase, then incorporate the video into a multimedia guessing game.

Recommended Time: 

Plan on working on the various elements of this project in three sessions of about 30 minutes each: Steps 1 and 2 in the first session; Steps 3 and 4 in the next; and Step 5 in the last session. Younger children may require more time on modeling and practice for various segments.

Goals: 
    •  To teach kids about idioms and how important they are to the way we communicate
    • To get kids comfortable with video before attempting a broader, storytelling video project
    • To reinforce basic photography skills
    • To introduce or reinforce the use of multimedia authoring software.  

Acting Out the Story: A Reading and Playing Activity for Younger Children

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This simple activity can help make reading into a more fun and participatory experience for children ages 3 to 7. In it, you'll make puppets the kids can use to act out a story you read aloud to them.

Recommended Time: 

10 to 15 minutes

Goals: 

To help keep young children engaged in reading.

Bird & Butterfly Garden

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CREATION: Bird and Butterfly Garden, Spring - Summer 2000

NAME OF CENTER: Eden Housing Resident Services Computer-Assisted Education Programs

LOCATION: San Francisco Bay Area

CONTACT: Scott Rains

Build Your Own Zoo: An Inspiration Project to Introduce Presentations

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Inspiration is a software program that helps people organize their thoughts and make simple presentations. In this project, you'll introduce kids to the basic features of Inspiration and have them create a web map to present ideas for their own zoo.

Recommended Time: 

Two hours total, or can be staged in parts over several days

Goals: 
    • To teach kids about the importance of planning
    • To learn more about webbing and graphic organizers
    • To learn how to use Inspiration software
    • To build vocabulary and work on sentence writing skills.

Categorizing Ideas: Helping Kids Develop Reasoning Skills

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Part of growing up is developing reasoning skills, such as logical thought processes and the ability to discern multiple types of relationships between concepts. Reasoning skills are an important part of organizing thoughts for a report, constructing a story, using a reference book, conducting an interview or navigating the internet to find information. 

Recommended Time: 

20 to 30 minutes

Goals: 

    • To help kids understand how concepts are related and that they can be related in different ways
    • To help kids understand basic issues of organizing their thoughts.

Community Mapping: Collecting and Organizing Data from Surveys

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In this project, learners do a survey and create a spreadsheet using the data. Keep in mind that you could also do a survey project just with pen and paper, or you could have the group take photos to illustrate their findings and build a Web page with the results.

Recommended Time: 

If your learners are already familiar with the spreadsheet software, you can probably complete a simple, warm-up version of this project in two 30-minute sessions. If you are still introducing the software, however, plan on working on the various elements of this project for 15 to 30 minutes a day over a week or more. A more extended version of the project with a broader survey base might take longer.

Goals: 
  • Learn about surveys
  • Learn more about the people and other attributes of their community
  • Gather, analyze, and present data
  • Introduce or practice using spreadsheet software
  • Research an inquiry-based project 

Creating a Chapter Book: A Drawing Project to Reinforce Classroom Reading

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This is a simple and powerful project to engage kids in reading aloud and to integrate drawing into your class, especially with younger children. Kids create their own pictures from reading along in a chapter book.

Recommended Time: 

Approximately 15 to 20 minutes per day.

Goals: 
    • To more actively engage children in classroom reading
    • To provide practice in drawing.
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