Week 4: Halloween Spirit

This week my students did an amazing job expressing themselves. Creativity soared while searching for images or even creating their own media. They wrote many Halloween themed pieces including poems, spooky stories, and non-fiction. Please enjoy:

Week 4: Celebrating Halloween Creatively

We have been working hard on improving our writing, commenting, and adding images. This week’s theme is Halloween.

Pick one of the activities below to work on this week. You will include both writing and media.

Photo Credit: wtennery via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: wtennery via Compfight cc

Activity 2: Write some poetry or a spooky story about Halloween.

Write a poem or a spooky story about Halloween and remember to include some images to show what you learned from last week’s challenge on using images.

Activity 3: Write a post about how you celebrate Halloween or the History of Halloween.

Halloween is celebrated in lots of different ways around the World.

  • Write a post to tell us how you celebrate Halloween where you live (personal narrative)
  • or write a post on the History of Halloween (informational research)

Activity 4: Show off your Halloween creativity using some different tools

Paper 53 – An iPad app for drawing.

PicCollage – An iPad app that allows you to make a collage of photos and add text and shapes.

Powtoon – A website that allows you to create animated presentations/movies.

Thinglink – A tool that allows you to add links to a background image.

Week 3 Summary

I’m very proud of the stories that my students wrote this week. They picked interesting pictures, learned how to give attribution, and showed their own creativity through their writing. Here is a gallery of the photos they chose. Please scroll down to the links below to go to their stories.

Week 3: Using Images

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Photo Credit: Jobopa via Compfight cc

Blog posts are much more interesting if there are images to go along with the text. This week we will learn how to find images that we are allowed to use and how to give attribution (credit) to the person who created the image.

Activity:

Find a creative commons image that you are allowed to use. Make sure to give attribution (credit) to the person who created the image. You also need to provide a link to the original location of the image. Check out our blogging resources page for great sites to find an image.

Once you have chosen an image, you need to write a story that goes along with the image. Make sure to refer to your narrative writing rubric to see if you have included all of the required elements in your story.

Week 2: Blog Action Day – “Raise Your Voice”

This week we are focusing on raising awareness about issues that are important to us. We will take action through our writing.

What could you write about?

1) Ever been inspired by the actions of a person in your community?

We have many Ripple Kids at our school who are helping to make our community and the world a better place. Who is someone that makes you want to be a better person. What have they done to make our world better and what could you be doing?

2) Is there an issue that inspires you?

Think about Malala and her role in improving education for girls around the world.

Al Gore raised awareness about Global Climate Change in An Inconvenient Truth.

In some countries, you could be put in jail for blogging about issues that the government doesn’t agree with. Raise your voice for these bloggers and journalists.

3) How can technology help in times of disaster?

Often the people of a country can quickly work together in times of disaster, before government departments get organized. Think about bushfires, floods, tsunamis, cyclones and hurricanes- how could you raise your voice at this time?

4) Indigenous people in your country

In the United States the indigenous people are the Native Americans.  Often the indigenous people do not have their voices heard especially when it comes to land rights, voting, the environment and multinationals on their land. How have Native Americans been mistreated and what could we do to raise awareness?

5) Refugees and immigration

Often the people of a country are prepared to have refugees live in their country while governments may take a more negative route. What is your opinion on how you can raise your voice for refugees?

Did your parents or grandparents move to the United States from another country? That makes them immigrants. Talk to them and share their story.