Writing Motivation within an authentic situation

 Last year Countdown did a promotion where you could get free items (through purchasing groceries) to fill a supermarket. You needed to purchase the Supermarket base ($15) and you could buy other accessories which included a home delivery truck, a truck and trailer and an EV car. What came free with grocery purchases was what could fill a supermarket like shelf units, checkouts, trolleys, people, groceries etc.

I saw one set up in a Year one class today. It is one of their favourite activities. What was interesting about this story was that this is a school in the Far North, where they don't have a Countdown but someone had purchased it for the teacher. Even though this school is isolated children can still relate about going to the supermarket. One particular child who has anxiety issues found playing with the supermarket relaxing and soothing as it was something that was part of her real life. You could hear the students talking about what they were doing and what they were changing in the scenario they created. Other students would want to play with it all the time so the teacher had to put it away and bring it out at certain times.

This is perfect for writing prompts as all students could relate to the authentic, real experience of visiting a supermarket. They could set it up the way they wanted to view it and write about it. Photos could be taken and used for final publishing.

Older students and younger students with support could use the supermarket in stop motion, it could be used with a green screen and movies could be made. More writing could happen around this. 

Beginning of the year activity

Make a movie using iMovie on iPads or Clipchamp on Chromebooks where students (depending on how old they are as to how many of the below options they cover)

• identify what their goals are for the year
• what do they think the year is going to be like
• what are they are watching on TV
• what are they reading
• what games they are playing
• what their favourite pastime is
• who their friends are

Students can do this again at the end of the year and make a comparison between what they said at the beginning of the year and the end of the year. They could talk about whether they achieved their goals for the year. Students will get a great kick out of seeing how much they have changed in a year.

More on using Audio in Google Slides

 Here is a couple of tips when inserting audio and video into Google Slides.

When you insert audio a format menu will appear. This is the default look. If you leave it like this, your audio will play only on that page.

If you deselect the Stop on slide change, your audio will play across all the slides in your slide show.

This is really useful if you are inserting audio from the Ready to Read books, Journals or the Ready to Read Phonics books as you can play the story right through your slides.

It is also useful if you have used Online Voice Recorder to record your own voice reading a story.