Express Yourself

Objectives: To communicate ideas and information effectively

Materials: computers with email

Procedure:  
1) Students will draw a picture of a scene, design or place.

2) They will write to their key pals and describe in words only what the picture looks like. Key pals can be located at ePALS and More Than Just Key Pals

3) The students in Ireland or country of their choice will then draw the picture and send it back.

4) They will then write their own description of a scene, design or place and send it to the U. S. school.
                                                 
Tip: The purpose of the lesson is to learn to write clearly by giving all the necessary details; a variation of this would be to describe a board game.

Evaluation: Students will print out email correspondence and place in an email folder. Students will be evaluated on content and minimum number of email correspondences (three).

Homework: Using various search engines and book marked web sites to gather information (see below), students will create a "Fun Facts Work Sheet" about their country. They can save it to a disk and publish it in school.

Extension Activity: Plan a trip to visit a key pal

• Students will use various search engines to research the country where their key pal lives:  KidsClick! and Ask Jeeves

• Have students type in the name of their country, then search for information on its cities, attractions, popular foods, currency and exchange rates, and weather

• To locate currency and exchange rates, visit 1-Click Currency Conversion

• To determine weather of their country, visit The Weather Page and The Weather Channel

• Students will complete a Country Research Work Sheet

• Students will use data collected to plan their trip to a country of their choice

• Students can also include travel information such as airplane and train fares

• Information on trip can be presented in various ways, such as a travel brochure or research report using desktop publishing, a simulated commercial, a mock interview, a video, a photo album or through a multimedia presentation using PowerPoint, Kid Pix or HyperStudio

Tip:
Make sure students include the URL and name of each web site used in research.

Guest Speaker: Invite an artist or graphic artist to class to speak about how artists create a picture: their thought processes and methods of drawing, painting or using the computer.