When Serena Carmichael, who worked in the Finance Department of County Hall in Worcester, announced that she and her old college friend, Helen Matthews, were planning a round-the-world trip together, we were all extremely envious. Meanwhile, Serena suggested that this could be an ideal opportunity for school children to become involved in the journey by using their PCs at home and in school to access information.
The idea of taking a teddy bear along on the trip was suggested and thus Columbus, the travelling bear, was "born" (or rather, purchased from a nice shop in Stratford-upon-Avon).
Serena regularly mailed us (snail mail and e-mail) to let us know how the trip was going. This information then formed the basis of a travel diary, written from Columbus the Bear's point of view. We also received photos of places visited (often with Columbus somewhere in the picture) and travel souvenirs. These were then scanned into the scrapbook sections of the site. Many of them can also be accessed via "thumbnails" from the relevant diary pages. We thought that the children would not only enjoy looking at these, but could download or print any pictures that they felt could illustrate their own responses to Columbus's journey. And for each country there is a selection of activities on offer - these can be accessed from the diary for each country or from the 'Choice' page.
What does the Columbus site offer?
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Activities which integrate Literacy and other subjects in the curriculum.
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Literacy activities which cover all text types using lively content which appeals to children
- Activities linking Numeracy and ICT
- The Traveller's Diary provides ideal opportunities for many of the QCA Art Modules
- The Traveller's Diary and other activities provide excellent opportunities to develop ICT work.
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The school day is already extremely busy. The site itself and the suggested activities have been designed with that thought very much in mind. They can be used to support, extend and reinforce a range of literacy objectives both within and outside the Literacy Hour. The literacy objectives met by the missions appear in a section of the teacher's notes called "What's on Offer?".
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as part of a school's Activity Week
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as part of an ICT club at lunchtime or after school
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as a homework or holiday activity
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as an option if children have a choice of activities
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as a reward
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as part of a class/year group/whole school involvement in following Columbus the Bear's travels
Spend a little time getting to know what's on the site. Check out the links. Look at the Choice of Missions page. See the "What's on Offer?" page for curriculum objectives information.
If you do some work based on anything you have seen on this site, we would love to see it! You can send it by post to either Aunt Edwina or myself at the addresses below:
