ICT AT CHRISTMAS
A “Christmas” topic gives teachers and children a great opportunity to do some really
good ICT work in all aspects of the ICT programmes of study.
Most types of generic software can be used in “Christmas” work including word
processors, DTP programs, paint packages, spreadsheets and databases.
The internet can be particularly useful when studying a Christmas topic in a variety of
subjects including history, geography and science.
Email can always be used in lessons to contact outside experts. ‘Ask an expert’ sites
can be found on the internet. Youngsters can contact ‘Santa’ by email at Christmas!
Email links can be formed with schools around the world and work on collaborative
projects can be exciting – especially if the topic is “Christmas”!
Use the internet to find out about religious customs and traditions connected with
Christmas, in the UK and around the world.
Use a digital camera to take photographs of the pupils. Then use a desktop publishing
(DTP) program to design and print personalised Christmas cards.
Check the schools TV schedules for Christmas episodes of programs. Quite often
there is something for all key stages in a variety of subjects with a seasonal theme.
Introduce children to Christmas music. Make use of audio equipment such as cassette and
CD players. Use a microphone to record their performances of certain songs and carols.
Use a control package to control to the switching on and off of Christmas tree lights.
Edit the instructions to make them flash on and off for longer or shorter intervals.
Do you want ideas for activities to do with ICT at Christmas? Well, last year the ‘Ask the
Expert’ section Becta’s ICT Advice website (http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/) focussed on a
topic called “101 things to do with ICT at Christmas”. Find the archive here:
http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?section=ae&theme=59
Use painting programs to design Christmas wrapping paper. Draw a Christmassy
picture or load a piece of clipart. Next use the ‘copy’ facility of the program to fill the
paper. Alternatively, use ‘stamp’ tool if the software has one. Save and print.
The children can use the internet to carry out ‘cyberhunts’ (or ‘webquests’). These involve
questions being posed on Christmas topics. Each question is followed by a link to a site
where the answer can be found. Multi-tasking can be promoted by typing (or copying and
pasting) the answers into a word processor. Find some Christmas cyberhunts here:
http://www.btinternet.com/~tony.poulter/index.htm
Use a desktop publishing (DTP) program (e.g. Microsoft Publisher) with children to
produce an invitation to a Christmas party. Use appropriate fonts, seasonal clipart,
textboxes, autoshapes and WordArt to achieve a really Christmassy effect.
Tony’s Tips (2005)
Use DTP software with children to produce a professional looking Christmas card. You
could use the ‘wizards’ provided or start from scratch with a greeting card template. Use
WordArt, Christmassy clipart, borders and backgrounds to make a stunning card.
Why not use a word processor to ‘mix-up’ sentences about “The Nativity”. Pupils
open the file, then they could use the cut and paste (or drag and drop) facilities of the
word processor to put them in the correct order. Appropriate pieces of clipart could
be inserted into the story. Make the exercise as simple or as challenging as you like,
according to age and ability of the pupils.
Dress the Roamer (other programmable toy) up to look like Santa (or his sleigh). Make a
grid on a large piece of paper and draw chimneys on it. The children key in instructions to
send Santa to the various chimneys so that he can deliver the presents.
Use a Logo program to send Santa around the world. He can label the continents or
cities that he visits on a map. Alternatively, use Logo to draw Christmas shapes such
as a Christmas tree or a Christmas star.
Spreadsheets can be used with children as the festive season approaches. They could do a
modelling exercise which involves planning a Christmas party within a given budget.
They could calculate the cost of the gifts they would like (using process from catalogues).
Or they could investigate how many gifts “my true love gave to me” in the famous
Christmas song.
Databases do not spring to mind when thinking of Christmas but a database about
religious festivals could be interrogated for information about Christmas traditions.
A database of Christmas customs around the world could be compiled and later
interrogated. A database about “The Victorians” might be interrogated for
information about many of our Christmas customs and traditions.
Young (and not so young!) children will want to send a letter to Santa during December.
There are a lot of sites (though some of them are a little too commercial) on the internet
where children email Santa AND then receive an email back! Some of these sites include:
http://www.icteachers.co.uk/christmas/xmasmail.htm
http://www.emailsanta.com/
http://www.xmastime.co.uk/funstuff/mailsanta.htm
Why not hook up with another school in another country (through a site such as
www.epals.com) and collaborate on some Christmas work. Your pupils could tell
their partner school all about British Christmas customs and traditions. They could
attach text, pictures, photographs, sound and video files to their emails. The partner
school could reciprocate.
As December approaches teachers may like to use online Advent Calendars with their
children. You may find something suitable for your class at these websites:
http://www.reep.org/resources/adv2004/index.php
http://www.advent-calendars.com/
http://www.electricdecember.org/04/
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/christmas/advent%20calendar/advent.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/advent/calendar/index.shtml
Tony’s Tips (2005)
The NAACE (formerly MAPE) website is a brilliant repository of resources for
primary schools and they've now put some seasonal goodies at your disposal. Find
them at
www.mape.org.uk/ChristmasCrackers
Here you'll see activities for KS1 and KS2 children, the Nativity Big Book,
Christmas Clipart and notes for teachers. This could be very useful in the next few
weeks!
Use CD-ROMs to find out about various aspects of Christmas. Investigate ‘Christmas
Around the World’ or ‘The History of Christmas’ or the ‘Religious Customs of
Christmas’. You could focus on the food associated with Christmas. Ways of approaching
this are endless and encyclopaedic CD-ROMs (or specialist CD-ROMs on religion or
history for example) can be excellent sources of information.
Why not use graphing software to do carry out surveys about Christmas? What is
the most popular Christmas food? What is the most popular Christmas carol or
song? Which gifts are going to be popular this year? Spreadsheets or databases
could also be used for this task but more often than not a simple graphing package
will suffice.
Tony’s Tips (2005)