>Ceremonies and festivals

Ceremonies and festivals

Summary

Two primary classes work together on describing a ceremony or a festival and turning it into a PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint presentation contains scanned or downloaded pupils’ pictures and a soundtrack in both languages. The final presentation is then published on the Internet. To make the experience more real, pupils also produce festivals-related objects, present them on stage and organise an exhibition about the project.

Age range: 10 - 14
Language: English
Owner: Diana Antonova

Project stage: In progress
Last update: 16 years ago

1. Objectives

- Pupils learn to work together on an ICT-based project with their counterparts from abroad - Teachers learn to integrate ICT-based projects at primary level - Parents get involved in making festival-related objects and preparing the play and exhibition.

2. Process

i. Getting started - Two classes from two different countries gather information about their festivals and ceremonies - In each class, the children read and discuss the info they know in their mother tongue; - The pupils in each class establish the scenes to be illustrated and divide the work; - Pupils use various techniques to design/draw the scenes. ii. Exchanging information and learning from each other: - The pictures are photographed and scanned. Then, the classes exchange and print them. They organise an exhibition in their schools; - The digital pictures made by pupils in both classes are put together in a PowerPoint presentation; - Each class creates an audio track for the PowerPoint presentation version of the festival in their mother tongue; - Both classes listen to the description in their partners' language and compare the two languages

3. Outcome

- The final PowerPoint presentation is published on the Internet (for example, on school websites or in the public “TwinSpace”)

4. Follow-up options

- More work on foreign languages can be done. Pupils may look for the same, similar or different words. They may also compare the language similarities or differences; - Partners decide on objects to produce. They should be related to the theme. - The festival is put on stage. The children perform it for their parents and other children from the school; - The project outcomes may be exhibited and presented to the local community; - Every child gets a CD with the festival and pictures from the project; - The project outcomes are shared with the press and at conferences for teachers.