We celebrated the Spring Equinox at STRIVE Prep – Ruby Hill Elementary School by creating a seasonally inspired PowerPoint presentation. With intentionally vague instructions, this class of 3rd and 4th graders was prompted to explore their own interests and create unique projects by incorporating multimedia elements like sound, video and animated images.
In one student’s presentation titled, “Springtime Harry Potter,” the student rewrote her own scene between two Harry Potter characters that took place during a spring semester at Hogwarts. To add a multimedia element, the student asked a fellow classmate to join in reading the characters’ lines while recording their voices that would replay in the same slide. Another student let out his inner deejay by finding multiple videos with spring sounds (think birds chirping, a gentle breeze blowing) which he looped together to create a “soundtrack” for his slideshow of flowers and green meadows. Finally, a student who loves to make animated stories — by repositioning images in each slide so in the slideshow so it looks as if they are moving — told a story of a spring day on a pirate ship that ended in a splash!
The Ruby Hill students enjoyed this opportunity to show off the skills they have learned in KidsTek, while using their creativity so that each project was unique to each student.
In addition to our mission statement, KidsTek adheres to five core values created by our full team at the beginning of this program year. This lesson is an example of Value #4: “Intentional creativity.”
