Lesson Accelerators

I reviewed the Lesson Accelerators "A Day with Beauford Cat" and "A Frog's Life: Sequence It!" While I did not have full access to these Lesson Accelerators, I was able to view the movies explaining the projects. Both of these lessons were included in the PreK through 2 grade range. Since I have a 13 month old, I thought it would be interesting to take a look slightly ahead to projects I could try out with him.

"A Day with Beauford Cat" involves creating a photostory using images of cats during their daily activities. PhotoShop was used as the photo editing software for this project. I liked the idea of this project, but did not feel like the quality of the project produced was very good. I would have higher expectations for my own students. A way to improve this project would be asking students to create photostories about a stuffed animal that goes home with them over the weekend. For the younger students, pictures alone could be used, while with older students, words could be added in the captions. Photostories could also be created to go along with stories students write, to complement a how-to presentation, or to share autobiographies. In staff development, teachers could learn to use PhotoShop to create online albums for parents to see class activities, field trips, or fun days. Depending on the age of the students, a few students at a time could be responsible for creating these albums and sharing them on the class website.

"A Frog's Life: Sequence It!" focuses on sequencing the different stages of a frog's development. Both words and captions were used for this project. This lesson could easily be adapted to use with other subjects and grade levels. From sequencing events in a story to changes in various science related topics (chemical reactions, animal or human development, land formations, etc.), there are many ways in which to use this idea. The teacher could also separate the captions and the pictures and ask students to not only sequence, but also match the captions and the pictures. In the past, I have used a similar, but much less technologically savvy, approach with my first graders practicing their reading comprehension. Not only could this be used with students, but also with teachers in staff development. This project could be an example of a content area activity.

I found these Lesson Accelerators to be interesting and helpful. As a novice when it comes to creating such projects, it is nice to have the support of an example project with step-by-step support. As I gain confidence with these programs and possibilities, I hope to step outside of the box more and more to create fun learning experiences for my students.