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Partners Project

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Subject: Art and Writing
Age Level: 3 years old and up

Performance Standards Information
Writing E2d
Conventions, Grammar, and Usage of the English Language E4a
Information Tools and Techniques A3b
Tools and Techniques for Working with Others A5a

Activity Goals

• The goals of this project are to encourage children to look at each other and themselves through different perspectives. By using multiple mediums, children will be encouraged to be creative and thoughtful interviewers.

Skills children will learn from the activity

• Basic interviewing skills
• Simple layout and design using Microsoft Publisher
• How to take digital photographs
• Informative writing

Materials needed

• Digital camera
• Extra Batteries and the recharger
• Microsoft Publisher CD
• Microsoft Word
• Printing Paper
• Writing Paper
• Pencils
• Floppy Disks
• White board & markers (or chalk boards, chart paper)
• 1 Question sheet per child (if you are going to be using them instead of brainstorming with the group)

Prerequisites
Children need to know:

• How to write complete sentences
• How to use a mouse
• Basic word processing skills
• Simple interviewing questions

Procedure

1. Have the students gather together in a circle to explain what the project is going to be. Brainstorm together and come up with a list of interesting questions that they can ask their partners. Write these questions on chart paper or the white-board so children can refer to them throughout the project while they are conducting the interviews. Then have the students break up into pairs.
2. Show them a sample of what the project will look like. Either use the sample provided or create a sample of your own.
3. Have the students select 5 questions for their partners to answer. Then have them write up the answers in paragraph form. Encourage them to think about how to begin and end their paragraphs to make them more interesting. Doing the word processing in Microsoft Word is best because it is good form making corrections and can then be imported into Publisher (and most other graphics programs) in a text box. As the children are interviewing each other and typing, call up one pair at a time to use the digital camera to photograph their partners.
4. After the children have finished writing their interviews, have the children start designing the borders for their partners. To make this part of the activity more challenging, have the children spend some time creating a border that reflects the interests of their partner. Using clip art images from Publisher will be helpful but without the CD many of the images might not be available. If this happens, encourage the children to create some original pictures or designs using Paint or KidPix.
5. MAKING YOUR OWN BORDER: After children have created an image, make sure that they save the image as a jpeg or bmp. When they want to import a graphic in Publisher click on Insert> Picture> then From File. or Clip Art. If the child chooses to use an original image, make sure the remember where they put the images. If the child wants to create a border pattern by repeating the image, make sure that they leave space for the photo of their partner and text.
6. When the border is complete, have the student create a picture box and import the photograph on half of the page.
   
7. Then have the student create a text box and import the text from Microsoft Word. Importing text is not unlike importing a graphic: Insert> Text File. and then find the text from where it was saved.
   
8. MAKE SURE THAT THE CHILDREN SAVE THEIR WORK PERIODICALLY!!!
9. Print out the activities and hang them all over the walls in the computer rooms.

Extension Activities

• While taking digital photographs might not be practical, students can always bring in pictures to be scanned or draw portraits of the person using markers, crayons or on the computer. Then they can create the borders and include the text as they would with the Partner's Project.
• This activity could also be a useful way to highlight some of the special events and activities that are happening in the center. The children can conduct interviews and act as roving reporters.

Points of Consideration:

• The project will be much easier to conduct if you have all the supplies ready before the students come into the room.
• Creating partners can cause some awkward situations if there are children who have friends in the program and some who don't. If the same group of students come to the computer room regularly, it might be a good idea to have a list of the students with the children already paired together. If you don't get the same group of students regularly, pair them together as they walk into the room. However, if you feel that the activity will be more successful if the children choose their own partners, encourage them to think of questions that reveal something about their friends that they don't know.
• Hopefully, each group is around the same age. If they aren't, have worksheets with five questions on them that they can ask and answer. This will provide children with a structure to help them write in complete sentences.