Global Postcard Exchange #2: Make a postcard template using Microsoft Publisher – Grade 2&3

We have started with the global project called the 'Global Postcard Exchange' organised by Melissa Schur (https://sites.google.com/a/sjvknights.org/4postcardex/) . I signed up (right at the last minute, mind you!) and have told my students about it. They are very excited that we are participating. We are planning to send digital postcards.

With the Grade 2-5s I thought we should use Microsoft Publisher and then save each postcard as a PDF. (We could just as easily used Microsoft Word!)  With the Grade 2s and 3s I created the template for them. Hopefully we could complete the lesson in one 45 minute period.  The idea is to have the back and the front of the postcard on the same A4 page:

Here are the steps:
1. We had a discussion on the mat about postcards, global projects, communicating with others etc. The Grade 2 participated with another Grade 2 class in the USA on a Wordl Read Aloud project, which they loved participating in. Consequently they felt excited about this one as well. We looked at postcards. We discussed the kind of things other children in other countries would want to know about us and where we live. We talked about which images we could choose for our postcards.

2. We made a start on the template which consists of two equal blocks, one for the writing.  The class selected their images first using Google images. (I guess I need to teach them about citing references before we send off our postcards. Perhaps we should use http://www.photosforclass.com/ for this as it builds in the attribution).

3. After finding their images we got on with the writing block following the ideas of the template but changing whatever we wanted to change.

4. We’ll see what the students come up with...