Each class will be paired with another class in the district and teachers will be notified of their partner class and the time and date of their videoconference with their partner. Ample time will be provided for you to prepare your class drawing.
On the day of the videoconference, each class will have technical support to help with the videoconference.
Guidelines for the drawing and descriptive paragraph:
The kite drawing should not be overly complicated.
Please keep the kite to a basic shape such as diamond, square, circle, or rectangle. The kite can be one basic shape or a combination of two. Example: just a diamond or a diamond inside a square.
- Use the basic colors in order to keep it simple: red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown and black.
- Have the class do a shared drawing of a kite. Allow the students to be creative as possible. Example: A diamond kite divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant has a different color pattern or design in it. The kite has a tail with a certain number of bows with colors or designs/patterns.
- When finished, the shared writing to describe the kite should contain about 8-10 sentences. Please be as detailed as possible. Example: On the tail of the kite, there are four yellow and blue striped bows. Remember these sentences will be read to your partner class during the video conference.
- A sample paragraph is included (click here).
- Have either an individual or a small group (2-3) of students read and practice a sentence from the writing to read to the other class on the day of the conference.
Options for posting student work:
There are a number of ways to post the student’s work after the project is complete. Please contact your computer facilitator to help with uploading your class’ work to the district website or your own school site. You may use whichever posting method you are most comfortable with.
- Photostory - Two ways you can post a PhotoStory project: 1- have the students write about how close they came to the original kite. Then scan the writing and drawing and put it into Photostory for posting on the web. 2- Scan each picture then record the students comparing and contrasting their drawing to the original kite.
- Podcast - This application requires the use of a Mac. You can video each student holding their picture and describing what they drew.
- Flip Video - You can also video the students displaying their picture and talking about their picture with this tool.
- iPad - You can use the iPad to take a photo or scan the student work and then bring that into an app such as Educreations or Knowmia and have the student narrate.
Additional Teacher Resources:
- Books
- The Emperor and the Kite by Jane Yolen - NOTE: This is part of ELA curriculum unit 7 (Fairytales)
- Riley Flies a Kite by Susan Blackaby
- Funny Ride by Margaret Hillert
- Windy by Robin Mitchell
- Curious George Flies a Kite by H.A. Rey and Margaret Rey
- Let’s Fly a Kite by Stewart J. Murphy (also good for symmetry and cooperation)
- Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel (can be used for guided reading level J)
- Videos
- Ready, Set, Learn With Paz: Kite Flight NOTE: You will need to log in to Discovery Education Streaming to view this video.
Time: 7:24
You will have to log into disoveryeducation streaming to view.
- Other Resources
- Common Core Standards Addressed through this project
- SL.1.4
- SL.1.5
- SL.1.6
- W.1.5
- W.1.6
- W.1.8
- R.1.9
