Creative Writing #12: An African Storybook Project report back from Princess Primary School in Roodepoort

Thank you so much to those who are sending in their stories about how their writing is going for the African Storybook Project. This is a fantastic project for Grades 1-3 children in Africa where the plan is to create an awesome website of stories that teachers and their classes around Africa can use. The blog post that gives more information about this project is: There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!

The story in this post comes from Princess Primary School in Roodepoort where Eden Daniels teachers Grade 7. Listen to what she has to say:

“I am Eden Daniels,the Grade 7 English teacher at Princess Primary School in Roodepoort.

Eden Daniels from Princess Primary School in Roodepoort

When I first read of this amazing project I thought of incorporating  it into my Creative Writing Assignment for Term 3.The learners first wrote their stories in their Classwork books then transferred it to the computers in the computer centre.I had never seen kids so excited about a project before.They actually begged to remain in the computer centre  during breaks and after school.

We don't have an ICT  teacher at our school any more so I don't have help at school. The 4 week course really helped.The free image websites really assisted the kids. I downloaded many pictures according to the children's requests as most of them are underprivileged and do not have computers at home.These pictures were then copied onto the computers for them to pick and choose from.Some of them brought their own pictures and others submitted drawings.”

Thank you so much for this wonderful report back Eden. I am thrilled to hear how the class enjoyed writing.

Creative Writing #11:An African Storybook project report back from Karin Horne

I am always so thrilled when teachers send in some information about their writing for the African Storybook Project. I would like to thank Karin Horne, the Deputy Principal from Crawford Preparatory in Pretoria for sending in this picture and information. Karin says, “This is a picture of me down loading photographs from my camera and phone, to use in my story.”

Karin Horne from Crawford Preparatory School in Pretoria

Karin has also sent in the delightful story she wrote called ‘The sheep who wanted to knit.”

Thank you so much for sending in all of this to us, Karin. Perhaps you'll write another lovely story as well?

An opportunity for you the reader

If you are reading this and you feel you would like to write a story for the African Storybook Project yourself or with your class before the 21st June, Please could I invite you to do so. The following blogpost has the details...There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project. Join us!

A few different ways of creating videos

Here are three ways that you can make a video quickly in the classroom

a) Record yourself speaking using your cell phone

This is by far the simplest way. Record yourself talking about a project on your cell phone and download the movie on to your computer.

b) Use Photostory 3 and save it as a movie

Photostory 3 is a free programme that comes with Windows. If you have just photos and you want to add narration to the photos this is the programme for you to use. You can also add text to the photos

Here is a tutorial for using Photostory 3 from the Partners in Learning UK YouTube channel



c) Use Windows Live Windows Movie Maker

If you have a PowerPoint you would like to use you can easily create this into a Windows Movie Maker video. In addition to the PowerPoint you can use extra photos, video clips, music and narration if you want to. 

This is a typical Windows Live Movie Maker interface. 

If you look at the image above you’ll see that there is a place that says ‘Add videos and photos’. After you do this the media clips appear on the timeline on the right hand side. Then after that you add as many effects as you like. You can even add titles and credits to your movie.  This video from Microsoft gives the overall perspective

Let's do this step by step

a) Create a PowerPoint about your project.

b) Save each slide on your PowerPoint as a separate JPEG or PNG file.
If you are not sure how to turn each slide into a picture here is a PDF that someone created showing you the steps to saving each slide as an image http://www.rcs.k12.va.us/glms/ppt2video.pdf

c) These slides are now separate images so save them to Windows Live Movie maker in the normal way.

d) If you have any movie clips you want to add do this now and place the clips exactly where you want them to be. 

e) Now add sound to your search bar on your computer. Just ask for Sound Recorder - it is part of Windows. It will appear immediately. as shown below.

This video from YouTube will show you the steps for adding Sound Recorder.

(Another way to do this would be to download a free programme called Audacity and save your words as MP3 files. Add them to Windows Live Movie maker where it says 'Add music'.)

f) Once you have added the sound to all the parts where you want a sound, save the completed file as a movie on your computer.