Babushka, Babushka, Babushka I I!

For the past two weeks I have been teaching the children about Babushka, the Russian lady who meets the wise men, however she does not go with them because she wants to make toys for the baby Jesus.  She decided to follow them the next day but couldn't find the star or their foot prints due to the fact they were covered with fresh snow.  To this day she roams around Russia and delivers toys to the children on Christmas day.  Finally a woman getting some recognition at Christmas for doing all the work!

Regarding ICT and Babushka, I used an idea that was shown to us in University.  Our Lecturer demonstrated the use of a photostory programme being used as a reflective tool.  Or for the children to create their own story of a project they were doing.  I liked these ideas and having used a photostory programme previous, to create a photo diary of the children throughout the year and sell them to their parents, I thought this would be an innovative use for it.

The children painted a Babushka doll from a template.  Their learning outcome was to paint a Babushka doll with a face and some flowers on their middle, similar to the wooden Babushka dolls they had been playing with. 

The fun Ict part for them, was to take a photograph of their Babushka.  I then collated the dolls, some with heads, a few on a jaunty angle and many photographss with the children's thumbs in view. I then proceeded to place them on to the photostory.  The great thing about the photostory package, is it' flexibility.  I could control how long I would like each photograph on the screen.  Decide on the position of where I wanted the image to start and finished.  Choose how to fade in and out the photographs and add in music.

We have yet to view them as a class.  That will be tomorrow.  The children are going to choose which three they like best and why.  These will  be taken to the head teacher, who will choose which Babushka he thought reflected the learning outcome.  No pressure 3 and 4 year old children.

The photostory was quick to create, and looks brilliant.  It was much easier choosing the music from what they offered with the photostory programme, than having to add your own from an Mpeg.  You have to convert the music from a CD first, very complicated , I usually ask a year 6 to do it.