Common Craft Creations

Today we are finishing up our Common Craft scripts by using a K-W-H-L-A-Q chart that asks us questions to make sure our script is perfect. The K is for what do I know?, the W is for what do I want to know?, The H is for how do I find out?, the L is for what have I learned?, the A is for what action will I take? and the Q is for what new questions do I have. This chart helps students learn to go back over their work and make sure it is as best it can possibly be. This lesson is very important to learn and is good to learn at a young age like this.

Script Writing for Common Craft

We are using Google Docs to write a script about how to better explain different aspects of Technology. Some examples of our scripts are "Why do people like to play video games so much?" and "What makes Technology so appealing to people?".   The narrator will read the script when the videographer films.   Script-writing is a group project.

Common Craft Project

Our class is just beginning a project where we make a video about the Internet that is in the style of a Common Craft video.  We are to come up with a driving question that relates to technology and our goal is to answer that question through a Common Craft video.  As a class, we brainstormed examples of driving questions.  They should be open-ended and engaging.  We will work together in teams of three.  One person will be the narrator, the second person will be the videographer, and the third person will be the propmaster.  We are using Google Docs to write our script so that we can collaborate as a group.  Plus, Mrs. Brown can comment on our script as we move forward.  Our school has a subscription to Common Craft's video cut out library so that is what we will use for our props.  Four groups have decided on their driving question and two are still brainstorming the perfect one.  Stay tuned...

Scratch

Today we are learning to do Scratch. We have to learn to make the sprite move around and we get to pick the background.  You can also pick your sprite or draw your own.  It is going to be hard because programming is new to us so we will have to play around with it to figure it out. It is good to have programmed the Lego alligator because it could help us program with Scratch.  We learned that the characters in Scratch are called sprites.  We are learning how to program with Scratch because there is a demand for this skill. 

Challenges, Advantages and What We Would Do Different

Yesterday we finished our programming challenge.  Today at the beginning of class we talked about the challenges we faced, the advantages we discovered, and what we would do differently.  Some challenges we faced were how to program the motion sensor, how to program things in the right order, translating how to make our alligator do the splash in the programming challenge  and sometimes it was hard logging into the computer to get set up.  Some advantages were having a partner that was a strong programmer, getting a partner that has experience using a MacBook (since that is what we are using), and programming the sound effects turned out to be easy.  The best part was seeing the final results of our work.  In discussing what we would do differently, we decided it would be interesting to make another animal, do a different challenge, or program our alligator differently to make it better. 

Programing Challange

It  will be very hard programing our Lego alligators. We have to try new things to make the Lego alligators do new things. We have to make the alligator splash into the water and make it when the man is approaching the jaw opens and closes 10 times! Working with a partner can help. One person can program it while the other person tells them what to do.  Last time we learned and played around with it.  It was hard because everybody wanted to do everything but in the programming challenge we have to have to work together to do it.  Finally, we get to make are own programming challenge!!

These are the questions I thought about while writing this blog post: