Pivotal Kids Learning - lesson plans, teaching ideas and resources for

Peace Poems and Picasso Doves: Literature, Art, Technology, and Poetry
This lesson for grades 3–5 supports students as they research symbols of peace and write peace poems.

Story Map
http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/ideabank/activityDetail.asp?id=1899
Students develop their speaking skills by producing a slideshow outlining the beginning, middle and ending of a story or to retell a significant event

PicLits.com
http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx
"PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with
carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put
the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the
essence, story, and meaning of the picture."

Talking Storybook
http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/ideabank/activityDetail.asp?id=1299
Students (in pairs) are to create a talking storybook for a child in the junior school, using Kid Pix Studio Deluxe.

free new web site -- http://www.makebeliefscomix.com
-- where students can create their own comic strips. The site offers fun
animal and human characters with different moods, thought and talk balloons
to fill in with words, and story prompts.

Talking Books
http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/ideabank/activityDetail.asp?id=1195
This activity involves students making a Talking Book that can be read by others, or as a part of the buddy system shared with others.

RealeBooks (“Really Books”) are picture books created with RealeWriter (“Really Writer”) software (which is free). You can read RealeBooks in your web browser or download them with RealeWriter to print or modify. RealeLibraries (“Really Libraries”) are websites where schools, organizations, and businesses share their RealeBooks.

Global Classroom Projects
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/gc/projects.htm
All Global Classroom projects are linked to the curriculum, with each
project identifying relevant strands in at least one key learning area.

Literacy:
- Year 3 prefixes (2)

Poet Online
http://www.poetonline.com/index2.html
Site featuring regular selections of poems that convey feelings of love,
friendship, humor and inspiration. You can also email a poem to someone
you know.

Telling stories with PowerPoint
education.qld.gov.au/tal/tips/02470.html

Forking Story
http://www.avnet.co.uk/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/tesspub/story.cgi?next=1&chapter=0
Register and contribute your own chapter to this story.

Ask An Expert Links
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/aussieed/askanexpert.htm
Links to over 40 sites which have Ask An Expert facilities.

Yahoo Ask An Expert Links
http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Ask_an_Expert/
Directory listings of Ask An Expert sites.

Build a Rubric
http://www.learner.org/channel/workshops/hswriting/interactives/rubric/
Rubrics are an important tool for all teachers. They carefully explain
the criteria that will be used to judge a particular piece of student
work. In this activity, you will use an interactive tool to build a
customisable rubric that can be used for any writing activity your class
might be completing. Follow the steps to complete the rubric. Once you
have finished, you can print your rubric, save it on your own computer,
or email it.

Little authors: The integration of ICTs and literacy into a Preschool program
http://education.qld.gov.au/tal/tips/02274.html
Contributed by Lisa Cooper.

Travel Buddies
http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/old_oz-teachernet/projects/travel-buddies/
A Travel Buddy can be a soft toy or a puppet. You give the toy a name and
welcome it into your class, find a partner school and post the travel
buddy to your partner class. While the buddy is away you stay in touch
using e-mail.

Information Age Writing Tips
http://www.businesswritingtips.com/wbwt/tip51.htm
Here are some tips for writing in the Information Age.

Email Projects Home Page
http://www.otan.us/webfarm/emailproject/email.htm
Range of email writing projects for students to join. Read student emails
from around the world about all the latest projects and join a project.

The Young Writers Club
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~david/derya/ywc.html
This club aims to encourage children of all ages to enjoy writing as a
creative pastime by getting them to share their work and help each other
improve their writing abilities.

The character writes the story
http://education.qld.gov.au/tal/tips/02244.html
Contributed by Stephanie Smith and Rob Thomson.

School Blogs
http://www.schoolblogs.com/
Create your own blog and read about blogs.

KidsPub
http://www.kidpub.org/kidpub/
More than 40,000 stories written by kids from all over the planet and
contribute your own.

Listen and Write
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/listenandwrite/home.htm
Teaches you how to improve your poetry writing skills and submit your
poems.

Kid Authors
http://www.kidauthors.com/
Here you can share your stories and poems with people around the world,
including your friends and family. You can also read stories and poems
written by kids around the world.

I saw an ICTs lesson plan recently for younger kids that could be adapted -

The basic intentions were to learn to use the thesaurus in MS Word and to experiment with Word Art. This was done in an activity replacing the "nice" in a small "Have a nice day" sign/poster/greeting card with several other words done is various Word Art styles.

Other cards saying Congratulations on a "good" result, Thanks for a nice meal, etc could be used

Ray
PS For alternatives to "said" I always liked the fun of "Tom Swifties"
where the adverb and sometimes the verb was a pun as in "You are as beautiful as the Venus de Milo," Tom whispered disarmingly "I'm halfway up a mountain," Edmund alleged "I'm tired of smiling," moaned Lisa "We're returning the ship to harbour", the captain reported

Zuzu
http://zuzu.org/
Read and submit your stories to this online magazine.

Creative Writing 4 Kids
http://www.creativewriting4kids.com/
Become a member and you can read stories and submit your own.

Amazing Kids eZine
http://www.amazing-kids.org/ezine_11/ez.html
Online magazine that seeks student writing and editors.

Global Schoolnet
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/index.html
Organisation dedicated to partnering with schools, communities and
businesses to provide collaborative education and cultural learning
activities that prepare students for the workforce and help them to become
literate and responsible global citizens.

Keypals International
http://www.worldkids.net/clubs/kci/keypals2.html
Register and find keypals to exchange information or join in projects.

Email Netiquette Rules
http://homepages.ius.edu/DSCHWEI2/email/rules.htm
When using email, you must learn to use email rules. These rules are
called netiquette. Here are a few email rules that can help you.

Netiquette for email
http://dotsafe.eun.org/www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/ds_main_/content4ca3.html?ov=13455&lang=en
Basic guidelines for netiquette with regard to e-mail, chat rooms,
discussion boards and newsgroups.

Basic Netiquette for All Online Participation
http://dl.stcsc.edu/netiquette.htm
The following are basic rules to be observed while interacting with others
in online.

Teacher Reference

Email Writing Tips
http://www.patsula.com/esltown/
Here are some quick tips for good email style.

Knowing Write from Wrong
Exploring Common Writing Errors in the Electronic Communications Age
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20041210friday.html

E-mail Opens Up A World of Possibilities
http://fno.org/apr01/email.html
Article about email in the classroom from \"From Now On\" The Educational
Technology Journal.

Using E-mail in the Language Arts Curriculum
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/chuck.htm
This article makes suggestions for using email in the classroom English
program.

E-Mail Keypals for Language Fluency
http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/%7Etrobb/keypals.html
This article provides information about keypal exchanges and how to get
your learners using email effectively with another class.

Writing Prompts and Journal Topics
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/prompts.html
List of scenarios useful for stimulating writing.

52 Writing Prompts
http://www.writersdigest.com/writingprompts.asp
Collection of idea joggers and brain starters for writing.

Epals
http://www.epals.com/
Provider of student email and collaborative technology.

Education Place Project Centre
http://www.eduplace.com/projects/index.html
View and join a variety of projects across the curriculum or submit your
own.

Kidsproj
http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/projects.html
Links to several collaborative projects. Many of these projects also
welcome participants at any time of the year.

IECC Listserv
http://www.iecc.org/
IECC is a free service to help teachers link with partners in other
cultures and countries for email classroom pen-pal and other project
exchanges.

What Happens In A Book Rap?
http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=16&bid=36&btitle=Projects&meid=21
A Book Rap is a book discussion conducted via electronic mail. Individuals
or groups of students from across the country or around the world can
discuss the scheduled books.

Steps in the Travel Buddy Project
http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/oz-teachernet/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=19&bid=36&btitle=Projects&meid=22
A Travel Buddy can be a soft toy or a puppet. You give the toy a name and
welcome it into your class, find a partner school and post the travel
buddy to your partner class. While the buddy is away you stay in touch
using e-mail.

Publishing Web Pages
http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/internet/why.htm
The why and how of publishing web pages.

Collaborative Projects on the Web
http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/cyberteacher/findingprojects.html
Sites which contain information about collaborative projects which are
open for teachers and students to join.

CIESE Global Projects
http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/collabprojs.html
Collection of Collaborative projects.

Connecting & Communicating
http://www.saskschools.ca/%7Eqvss/technology/2connect.htm
Tutorials on how to set up online projects in the classroom using email.

Combating Net Nasties in your Classroom
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/nasties/index.htm
How to keep up-to-date with current acts of Internet vandalism and
strategies in place to combat them.

Weblogs in the Classroom
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/
Extensive list of links relating to the educational value and use of blogs
in the classroom.

Weblogs: The Possibilities Are Limitless!
http://anvil.gsu.edu/NECC2004/
All about the educational possibilities of Weblogs.

weblogg-ed
http://www.weblogg-ed.com/
Spend some time here and with any luck you'll meet a dedicated community
of edubloggers and find out why we think the Read/Write Web is going to
transform the way teachers teach and students learn.

Elementary School Weblogs
http://anvil.gsu.edu/NECC2004/stories/storyReader$17
Examples of existing weblogs created by school students.

Educational Bloggers Network
http://www.ebn.weblogger.com/
eBN is a collaborative of teachers and organizations using weblogs in education.

ESL Weblogs
http://anvil.gsu.edu/NECC2004/stories/storyReader$21
Examples of existing weblogs created by ESL students.

Acceptable Use Policy Example
http://www.campbell.pvt.k12.ca.us/handbook/tech_policy.asp
Example of an Acceptable Use Policy and Technology Use Agreement
containing rules and guidelines when using technology.