It's taken a while to get settle into the new class what with being in a job share but now we're on our way and we're all excited by the Wii. It took a while for me to get my head round when and how to save games (I am so out of touch) but with the Year 5's doing their cycling proficiency the Year 4s and I have been having fun exploring Endless Ocean, and soon the teaching ideas were there. The picture shows the Year 4s collecting adverbs from watching the game, to put in Wordles www.wordle.net to use later in their writing.


After some writing assessments it was clear the children needed work on description in their writing so I've focused upon the fiction side of things, especially as Literacy lessons are based around Kensuke's Kingdom. This week we are merging both as they start their own island and ocean adventure.


What I've noticed so far: kids making comments such as 'I've never written so much, my hand hurts!', total silence for 20 minutes as they write about what it is like to dive amongst the coral (our topic this term is Oceans so a perfect link!), a huge increase in use of descriptive language, motivation to write and how the Wii appears to give them the support they need in starting to write.

Looking forward to branching out and using other games after half term!


Anna

Endless Oceans 2-initial review

The Wii game 'Endless Oceans 2' has captured the children's interest; providing a realistic setting in the South Pacific from which to embark on solving the mystery of the Song of Dragons. We have explored the basic principles of 'virtual scuba diving' and are currently researching scuba diving equipment and technique via explanation texts. We will be writing a letter of application to Jean Eric Rouvier who fronts the R&R Diving Service in the hope of securing a position as a diver on board his boat. Children are enthused and the graphics and sound effects are particularly calming-a bonus!

Best wishes and regards,

Clive

Gearing up for it

Pupil perceptions are done, and were very interesting... a good mixture of responses.

I plan to use Another code : R as the basis for our work on fiction genres, mixed in with some diary writing and linking Mario Cart to the latter half of our Forces topic in Science.

The Primary pete website has some really good ideas, reports and videos up there and a great link to a google docs spreadsheet detailing curriculum links and Wii game ideas... all separated by year group, there is a huge pool of ideas to take inspiration from there.

I plan to start the work in around a week. Once I have prised the Wii from my wife's hands...

Toby.

Miis created!

Children have also done their pupil perceptions. During the creation of Miis it would appear some of the boys have some deep rooted desires to wear make up....!

All set to go!

I was pleasantly surprised with many of the responses from the pupil perception interviews - many of the children seem quite positive about their writing.

Our first literacy unit is fiction genres so I'm looking forward to getting out a couple of the adventure games!

Just checking in,

Game Evaluations

On day one we evaluated the following games for their use in literacy and across the curriculum:

Wild Earth African Safari, Another Code R, Endless Ocean, Brave - A Warrior's Tale, Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Medieval Games, Mario Kart, Wii Sports Resort

You can access all these plans by clicking here, and then clicking on the individual photograph to enlarge it.

We also have, but didn't have time to evaluate, Rotten Romans and Zack & Wiki - Quest for Barbaro's Treasure.

Please feel free to suggest other games to us that we may be able to use to support children's learning.