SUBJECT: Thanksgiving
GRADE: Third
TECHNOLOGY: KidPix
BY:Kathleen Dumm, Laia Gresham, Erin Kerby, Leah Reyna

Thanksgiving

Target Grade/Subject:

The lesson is designed for third graders to help them improve their language arts, history, and oral communication skills. This activity provides hands on experience for third graders, who are eager to apply classroom knowledge. The group work provides a chance to use teamwork. Using the computer gives third graders a chance to explore technology and to use a medium other than pencil and paper. Students gain a sense of pride and accomplishment when they see the finished product and are given the opportunity to share their product with others. KidPix is inviting to students on a third grade level because it is colorful, easy to use, and a refreshing contrast to the traditional hand written activities. It provides third graders with a chance to exercise their creativity as they begin to think for themselves more often. This lesson will be spread out over approximately a week. The project will be created in both language arts and history class for not more than an hour a day, because most third graders still have relatively short attention spans.

Objectives:

• In a group, each student will contribute three well-written sentences to the story about the founding of Thanksgiving, printed legibly, with two or fewer grammatical and spelling errors.
• The sentences will include descriptive details and elaborate on the central idea.
• The students will individually go through a revision process after writing their original sentences.
• Together the students will type the revised story onto the KidPix program, with two or fewer typing errors.
• As a group, the students will illustrate their story using the KidPix program. They must use the following tools: the pencil, the stamps, the paint, and use at least six colors. Each student must use one tool to contribute to the group illustration.
• After completion of the class book, each student will orally read their portion of the story to the kindergarten class.
• The students will actively participate in the group work, with members of the group all collaborating as a team.
• The students will read their sentences aloud with clarity and inflection to a class of kindergartners.

Virginia Standards:

• SOL 3.1 ENGLISH The student will use effective communication skills and group activities.
• SOL 3.2 ENGLISH The student will present brief oral reports.
• SOL 3.8 ENGLISH The student will write stories across all content areas.
• SOL 3.9 ENGLISH The student will write legibly in cursive.
• SOL 3.2 HISTORY The student will describe the settlers' interactions with American Indians.

Materials:

• Newsprint paper and markers for webbing
• Lined paper and pencils for rough draft of story
• Computers, one for each group to create their story and illustrations
• Each computer must have the program KidPix also to create their story and illustrations
• A colored laser printer to print the finished product
• A laminator to laminate their story
• A book to bind all of the stories together.
  

Lesson Description:

1. The teacher will organize students into groups of three to four students.
2. The teacher will tell students to brainstorm, using "webbing," on topic of the founding of Thanksgiving (based on knowledge from a previous lesson). At this time, the teacher will provide newsprint paper for the activity.
3. The teacher will ask students to write a story 9 ­12 lines in length. Each student will contribute a minimum of three sentences. The students will use their own lined paper and pencils for this activity.
4. The teacher will ask students to revise the story for grammatical and spelling errors. There should be two or fewer grammatical and spelling errors after the revision process.
5. The teacher will tell students to type their stories on KIDPIX word processing and illustrate using KIDPIX tools such as pencil, the stamp, paint, and at least 6 colors. They will use the computers in the classroom for this activity.
6. The teacher will remind the students to save their work in their class folder.
7. The teacher will print each group's story using the classroom's colored laser printer.
8. After class, the teacher will laminate and bind the printed copies into a class book.
9. The following class, the teacher will instruct the students to present their stories to the kindergarten class.
   

Evaluation Procedure:

View the Rubric

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