2E Castle Building Spectacular

This week has seen the children engaged in a cross-curricular multimedia learning extravaganza. Our theme in English this week has been instruction writing. On Monday and Tuesday the children designed a castle and wrote some simple instructions on their iPads on how to make it.

Wednesday was the practical hands-on castle building session. As they were constructing these amazing edifices, they had in mind and tried to follow the instructions they wrote the day before. Many children chose to work in pairs or threes, actively espousing the collaborative ethic I have been trying to promote. The children used their iPads to take photos of the various stages of the construction.

When their castle was finished, they then took up their iPads and started to edit and re-write their instructions based upon the steps they followed as they made them. They then imported their photos into the written instructions to sit alongside the relevant text and lend their instructions an air of authenticity. Some children found this easier to do than others and enjoyed coaching their peers to enable them to achieve the same result.

The children were extremely motivated by this activity, and worked really hard to produce not only an impressive castle, but a sophisticated and thoughtful piece of text. I was particularly impressed with the children's application and with their desire to complete their work and to do it as well as they can.

Here are some photos of the children immersed in their work this week.

Finally, here is a screenshot of one the (almost) finished instructions, complete with the photos. The children will get the chance to check over their work on Friday and to edit and improve it according to success criteria that we will agree on together.