Aliens!
By Wakefield Elementary's Third Graders
With thanks to the creators of the original Monster Exchange project, here's Wakefield Elementary's Alien Project.
Visit the Aliens Project! Not all classes are finished, so come back soon for more aliens!
| Mrs. Booser's Class | Mrs. Cunningham's Class | Ms. Dunbar's Class |
| Mrs. Guthrie's Class | Ms. Rinkoski's Class | Mrs. Williams' Class |
Here's what we did:
1. Each student imagined and drew an alien in KidPix.
2. Then each student typed a written description of the alien.
3. Mini-lessons on various writing skills were taught along the way. (Students found it hard not to start every sentence with "my alien!") We practiced using good adjectives to describe parts of the alien. Students discovered it wasn't easy to write a good description!
4. After students wrote their description, another student in the same class gave it a "test drive." The second student tried to redraw the alien from the written description. Then the two students conferenced about what parts of the description were unclear.
5. Editing and revising of the descriptions usually followed the test drive.
6. Then, when the descriptions were as polished as the students could make them, we printed them and gave them to another class to redraw in KidPix.