Creating an Acrostic Poem
In this lesson, you will create an impressive acrostic poem. You will use your Intel-based
MacBook, or iMac, (or other Macintosh computer running OSX 10.5 or higher), and the
preloaded software to complete the project.
Images are provided to help you along the way, and there is a sample poem on the last
page of this lesson.
Try to follow the steps in the activity as closely as you can, but once you have a feel for
the way the software works, feel free to elaborate in order to personalize your poem and
further develop your computer skills.
Here is a list of the tools you’ll use:
Hardware Software
Computer MS Office-Word
iSight Camera Dashboard Widget-Dictionary/Thesaurus
Printer PhotoBooth, iPhoto (optional)
Procedure:
Setting Up the Document
1. Open MS Word application. Look for the
icon in the Dock. If you can’t find it there,
open a New Finder Window, then click on
Applications, then scoll down to MicroSoft
Office 2004 or Office X, then open (or
expand) that folder to show the icon. Double-
click on it to open the application.
2. Pull down the File menu to New Blank
Document, or, in the Project Gallery, click
Word Document, then click Done.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
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are needed to see this picture.
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3. Type the title of the poem (name of the person, animal, item) on the first line
of the page, ideally with all capital letters.
4. Press the return key two or three times to leave some space between the title
and the first line of the poem.
5. Now type the same word vertically, down the
left side of the page, again in all captial
letters, pressing the return key after each
letter, so that each letter is on its own line.
Don’t worry about the appearance being QuickTime™ and a
rather dull at this point. The first task is to TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
get the structure down.
6. Save your document. Some students may
remark that they “…have not finished yet…”
This is a good opportunity to remind ourselves
that we should be saving our work early on in
the process, and then repeatedly as the
document grows. Pull down the File menu to QuickTime™ and a
Save… A ‘sheet’ will appear at the top of your TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
window. The one shown here shows that the
document will be saved as: HENRY.doc on the
Desktop. (You may elect to have your students
save their work with a more specific name, and
in another location.) Click Save.
Using the Dashboard Widget – Dictionary/Thesaurus
7. Click on the
Dashboard
icon in the
Dock.
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8. The dictionary widget may already be
present on your desktop, but if it is not, QuickTime™ and a
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click on the plus sign (in the circle in the
lower left corner of the screen), and
other widgets that are available will appear.
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9. Click on the dictionary widget (it also
includes the thesaurus). The widget will
appear. You can drag it anywhere you
like. Click on the Thesaurus button at the
top of the widget, then type in a word you
want to find synonyms for. Let’s say, for
example, that you want to find a word
that means ‘friendly’, but you don’t have
an “F” in your name. Type the word
friendly in, and then look for a word that
starts with the letter you need.
10. Once you have found the word, click on the Word
icon in the Dock to return to your acrostic poem.
Type your word on the line that beings with its first
letter. Repeat this process until you have filled in all QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
the lines of your poem. Remember to continue to save are needed to see this picture.
your work by pulling down the File menu to Save, or
by holding down the Apple key and pressing S.
( ).
Using the PhotoBooth Application to Take a Picture
11. Click on the Finder icon. If a
Finder window does not appear,
pull down the File menu to New QuickTime™ and a
Finder Window ( ). TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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12. Click on Applications, then scroll down to PhotoBooth. Double-
click on the PhotoBooth icon to open it. m
QuickT i e™ and a
T IF F (Uncompressed) decompr essor
are needed to see this pictur e.
13. Adjust your seated, (or for small students, your
standing position) in front of the computer. You
may also be able to adjust the tilt of the iMac or
MacBook screen to change the angle. Get close to
the camera so your image is large.
14. If you want a standard photo, just click the camera
icon below your image, then smile and wait for the
3-2-1 countdown.
If you don’t like the result, simply click on the x in
the corner of the little image (which deletes it), and
then take another.
If you want an effect in your image, click on the
1 or 2 next to Effects, click on the effect you
want to try, and then click the camera to shoot.
Here are a few samples of the types of effects you
can use:
Once you are happy with the photo taken, you
can simply drag and drop (with your mouse) the
mini-photo from PhotoBooth onto the Word
page.
QuickTime™ and a QuickTime™ and a QuickTime™ and a QuickTime™ and a
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are needed to see this picture. are needed to see this picture. are needed to see this picture. are needed to see this picture.
15. There are several places you can store the photos you’ve
taken:
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a. You can move them to iPhoto, and then create albums to organize them.
b. You can save them to a folder on the desktop,
or to a USB drive, or to a server folder. To
locate the PhotoBooth images you’ve taken
in the Finder, click File, Reveal in Finder.
There you can rename the files and copy
them to one of the storage locations
mentioned above.
16. Once the photos are saved, you can insert them
in the Word document in many ways as well.
a. You can copy/paste them in from iPhoto, or
drag/drop them from iPhoto, if you had
saved them there.
b. You can drag the photo into Word just by
dragging the icon onto the Word page.
c. You can pull down the Insert
menu in Word to Picture, From
File… and then navigate to the
location where you saved the
photos. Once you see it, click
Insert. Do not worry that that QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
photo ends up in the middle of a are needed to see this picture.
sentence. Wherever the photo
ends up, just double-click on it.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
17. Once you have double-clicked on the photo, the Format Picture dialog box
will appear. Click on Layout, then Square, then OK.
18. Handles will appear in the corners of the
photo. Click and hold the mouse button
down and a square with arrows in the
diagonal corners will appear. Drag inward to
resize the photo down. (You can always QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
resize the photo later, if necessary.)
Repeat the process if more than one photo is
desired. Leave space so that you can enlarge
the text of the poem. If the poems are
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exprected to be posted on a bulletin board, make sure the text is at least size
36-48, with an even larger title, so they can be read easily from a distance.
Modifying the Text
19. Select the text. Then,
using the Formatting
Palette, change the
size, and font of the
text. If you don’t see
the palette, pull down QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
the View menu to
Formatting Palette.
(Tip: If you want to QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
select a single word, are needed to see this picture.
just double-click on
it. If you want to
select an entire line, triple-click on it).
Finishing Up
20. Adjust the size of your photo(s) to
have a good balance between the size
of the text and the photo. Be sure
there is enough white space on your page. Having a page that is too crowded
is unappealing.
21. Change the color of the title text.
22. Change the color of the first letter to match the color used in the title text.
23. Using the formatting palette in Word, you can add a bordering line around the
photo(s), and also a shadow, which helps the picture appear to be ‘lifted’ from
the page.
24. Save your work.
25. Once your work is saved, feel free to make more changes until the page looks
just right.
26. As an extension of this activity, and to give
students opportunities to modify photos using
iPhoto, the PhotoBooth photos can be sent to
iPhoto and then edited.
27. A common task is to crop the photo, removing
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unwanted portions of the photo, or enlarge the image
of the face, if the student was sitting too far from the
computer when the photo was taken.
California Reading/Language Arts Standards Included:
Grade 3
Research
1.3 Understand the structure and organization of various
reference materials (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, encyclopedia).
Writing Applications 2.2 Write descriptions that use concrete sensory
details to present and support unified impressions of people, places,
things, or experiences.
Capitalization
1.7 Capitalize geographical names, holidays, historical
periods, and special events correctly.
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HENRY
Healthy
Easygoing
Neighborly
Reliable
Youthful
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