Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students have been reading the Aboriginal Dreaming story of Pheasant and Kingfisher, in a big book version by Catherine Berndt & Raymond Meeks.
We used a Google Images search to locate online photographs of Australian pheasants and Australian kingfishers. The additional descriptor of “long tail” helped us find images of kingfishers “with firesticks stuck in their bottom”.
We discussed why images of peacocks (not Australian!) and lyrebirds turned up in the pheasant image seach, and why kookaburras turned up in the kingfisher search. We then used Youtube to locate examples of a pheasant saying its name, “Bookbook”, as in the story, and a kingfisher saying “Bered-bered”.
Common pheasant making quick repeated sounds while taking a walk
Pheasant – common pheasant bird call
Pied Kingfisher catching fish in split second – BBC wildlife
The next week, we moved our investigations into factual information on Australian birds:
This presentation to the teacher-librarians of Granville District, followed by a practical workshop, looks at how teacher-librarians can work with students to create book trailers to enrich learning, maximising the engagement of students in literacy activities. Applications used to make trailers will be looked at and discussed, also how they can be used as a resource in a school library and in classrooms, and how they can help promote reading.
The kookaburra who stole the moon: retold by Class 1/2Sa
*BRAINSTORMING (using Circle Time) – consider audience, theme, length, 30 images *STORYBOARDING (using a book rap template) – small groups *WILL YOU USE PHOTOS (“Creative Commons”), drawings, cutouts, puppets, toys, claymation, or actors in dress-up box clothing? *UPLOADING – to Photo Peach or other Web 2.0 facility – Flickr slideshow, PowerPoint/Keynote, podcast/Youtube, IWB Notebook software? *EDITING, and adjusting timing to the selected music *SHARING with the wider community – monitor incoming public comments regularly, or close them off.
* RAP RESOURCES (NSW DEC) for making digital stories and book trailers
* ‘iInquire… iLearn… iCreate… iShare: Stage 1 students create digital stories’ in Scan 30(2) May 2011, pp 4-5.
Stage 1 students narrate how they inquire, learn, create and share with ICT and Web 2.0 to produce online Photo Peach slideshows at Penrith Public School. View the article online HERE. The Photo Peach slideshow featured in this article is recently restored, and now located at photopeach.com/album/18cw2b6.
* ‘Have blog, will storyboard!’ in info@aslansw Issue #2, May 2010, pp 5-8.
Stage 2 students at Penrith Public School created storyboards and PowerPoint digital stories as resources to support Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students working on the Bear and Chook books rap, which ran during the subsequent term.
* ‘Circle time: maximising opportunities for talking and listening at Penrith Public School’ in Scan 26(4) November 2007, pp 4-7.
Circle Time is a structured framework for social and emotional learning which promotes a positive class ethos. Moving from class teacher back into the school library, I incorporated Circle Time and information skills into a range of collaborative literacy and ICT activities, including book raps.
This week’s Aboriginal Dreaming story for Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 is “The kookaburra who stole the moon”.
The picture book I have usually used for this week’s theme, on the three-year literacy cycle, has not shown up since our move to the new library, so I went looking online. As I said three years ago, there are slim pickings on the story itself, although there are many references to travelling theatre shows and audio productions. This Youtube kookaburra laugh is still useful, though:
Bargain shop stock tends to arrive in waves, and certain items can disappear without a trace. I thought I’d seen the last of the endangered animals puppets that were so prevalent in the bargain shops a few months ago. This week, several stalls at Paddy’s Market, in Haymarket, had cheap puppets in the same style and I found it hard to pass up the $4 parrot, kookaburra and kangaroo puppets. I even found a $1.50 key ring with a joey, who seems to be in the same scale as the kangaroo.
This week’s Dreaming story for Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 is “The kookaburra who stole the moon”.
The picture book I usually use for this week’s theme is packed away while the library is being built, so I went looking online instead. Slim pickings on the story itself, although there is a travelling show that’s been around since NAIDOC Week. If only. However… our Youtube resources include:
