Category: Writing

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each week, I’ll share one with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy! (more…)

This holiday letter can be as simple (for 2nd graders) or sophisticated (middle school) as your students can handle. There are a gamut of skills–

• text
• borders
• pictures (from the internet, from clip art, from a separate file folder on your school server)
• different fonts, font colors, font sizes

I’ve included a grading rubric to guide students in accomplishing as much as they can. Start with the basics (text, a border, some pictures) and add more skills as students get used to the early ones: (more…)

This is the only project that’s easier than Project 21 (the holiday card in Publisher). There’s no folding and the templates are bright, colorful and exciting for kids as young as second grade: (more…)

Reinforce fiction writing–characters, plot, setting, climax–with a short story in MS Word. Then use color, borders, pictures to enhance the words. (more…)

This is another great holiday project for 5th graders (see the holiday calendar here). Publisher templates lay out the columns, headings, articles. All students must do is fill in with their topics and pictures. Be sure that they delete the extra pages at the end before printing. (more…)

Create the drawings in KidPix for grades kindergarten and first. By second grade, you can have students insert them into PowerPoint as a slideshow for Open House. (more…)