General Information Project Overview Curriculum Connections Resource Connections Evaluation

  General Information

  Project Overview

This project will introduce kindergartens and grade ones to the Internet using the letters of the alphabet, with which the students are familiar. Using a search engine, such as Yahooligans, students will find topics and sites that begin with different letters of the alphabet. Students will bookmark web-sites that they feel would be interesting to other students in kindergarten and grade one.

With the help of some older students, possibly grade 6 or 7, the kindergartens and grade ones will publish a homepage on the World Wide Web, highlighting their favorite sites in alphabetical order, and adding a brief collage of some of their favorite words that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

Other kindergarten and grade one classes world-wide are invited to suggest their favorite alphabetical sites, explaining why they think other children would enjoy visiting these sites. Likewise, the kindergarten and grade one classes at St. Joseph's will be able to share their reasons for choosing their sites. The final published World Wide Web page will be a collaborative effort with the other K and 1 classes who share an interest in this type of research.

  Curriculum Connections

This project will relate mainly to the Reading/Writing/Viewing components of the Language Arts program and to the Curriculum Framework for Technology Education.

Language is the major medium through which children learn. At the kindergarten and grade one level, this project will provide many opportunities for thinking, observing, listening, investigating, inquiring, talking, reading and even writing.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

• To help students acquire the language skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and viewing.
• To help students realize that language is a tool of learning, as well as a medium of communication.

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION:

• To help students learn the basics of communication - principles of encoding/decoding, transmitting/receiving, sorting/retrieving.
• To help students develop a vocabulary of the terminology and language used in the communication technology associated with e-mailing and using the Internet.
• To help students write an appropriate e-mail message.
• To help students send and receive e-mail messages.
• To help students use a browser to explore the World Wide Web.
• To help students use an appropriate search engine for this project.
• To help the older (grades 6/7) students use an HTML editor to create an ABC homepage on the World Wide Web.

  Resource Connections

Students will avail of the Internet access provided by the STELLAR Schools program to make this project possible. They will use the resources of the World Wide Web to conduct their research. Each student will be encouraged to contribute to the project. Students will be expected to justify the choices that they make, and they will share these ideas with other schools. Finally, the students will design their own ABC web page.

This project would require the collaborative effort of other classes, and indeed other schools to work through the project. Students and other schools that are already used to using the required learning resources for this project would be able to help other classes and schools that may be just starting. As students from different schools share ideas about their favorite alphabetical sites, they will also be exchanging information about themselves, their community, and country. The information that the students at St. Joseph's gather will greatly expand their knowledge and broaden their horizons. The finished product (the ABC homepage) will then be available for any schools that would like to use this additional learning resource.

The following resources will be procured to complete this project:

• Digital camera
• Flatbed scanner
• Appropriate PC applications and accessories that are necessary for the creation of a homepage for this project.
• The Internet - specifically electronic mail and the World Wide Web for research and communicating.

  Evaluation

Students will:

• demonstrate a knowledge of using a World Wide Web browser, such as Netscape, to explore the Internet.
• demonstrate a knowledge of sending and receiving e-mail using appropriate software such as Eudora.
• demonstrate a knowledge of various search engines, such as Yahooligans, to locate appropriate sites.
• demonstrate a knowledge of how the resources of the Internet are related to the "real" world.

Older students will:

• demonstrate a knowledge of using a HTML editor to create a homepage for the project.