Our Grade 6 & 7 Authors Shine using Canva and Book Creator Together

My Grade 6 and Grade 7 computer class learners were hard at work, a while back, writing and publishing their own creative stories using Canva and Book Creator together. 

Using Canva for planning, drafting, and designing their pages, and Book Creator for publishing their final books, the learners explored what it means to be real authors. They experimented with characters, settings, plot twists, illustrations, and digital layout design. 

Each learner produced an interesting story, full of imagination.

You are  invited to view their completed books in their online Book Creator library.

Grade 6 stories: https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-OBUNiYlTp-nEIFnq262 
Grade 7 stories: https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-OBSC4H-n8ZM9HDmEBZd

We have started using Minecraft Education Edition in our Coding lessons!

When I first mentioned to my Intermediate Phase classes that our new A3 Microsoft license provides every student with access to Minecraft Education Edition, there was such excitement in the air!

What is MinecraftEdu?

Minecraft education edition is a game- based learning platform that can be used in all subjects to encourage the 21st skills of creativity collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Students really enjoy using this program when it is combined with the curriculum.

Getting started with Minecraft

Teachers often feel – how can I use this platform and how do I get started? I felt like that and was encouraged by the YouTube video about Katja Borregaard, an educator at Skt Josefs Skole in Roskilde, Denmark. She claimed one doesn’t have to be a gamer or an expert in Minecraft: Education Edition in order to get started. She took the plunge and got started for the sake of her learners, and she has never looked back. 

           

I started with Grade 7 and Grade 6 in Coding lessons. I was fortunate in that my students are already very knowledgeable about Minecraft – so they were able to teach me! We started with the Hour of Code Minecraft Education Edition activities. found on the Minecraft platform.  In these activities, the he students have to solve quests using coding. Here are some of our photos.

 

This is game-based learning! We are all learning such a lot! As we go along I will post more posts showing how we are using MinecraftEdu in our lessons.

Create lovely Google Site headers using Canva

This term the Grade 6s and 7s have been creating websites to use as digital portfolios. They used Google Sites for their websites and made their Google Site headers using Canva. Canva is a wonderful graphics online application. As a teacher I could apply to get Canva free for myself and all my students - my application was successful, so all the classes use Canva. The students came up with the loveliest of designs.

Learner examples

How did we go about making the website headers? 

Once again I found a relevant Youtube video to use to teach myself the steps. Here is an example of one of the videos that I followed for guidance  - 'How to Create Custom Banner and Buttons for Google Sites' from Vestal's 21st Century Classroom Channel:  https://bit.ly/3x5CkkV.