'A' Is For Aardvark

Lesson Instructions

1). Put a copy of "Start Here" (<-- click there to download the file) file on each computer being used by the students. Create a folder (preferably on a mapped network drive for the students to save their completed dictionary pages.


2). Walk around the class reciting the alphabet while assigning each student a letter until every letter is assigned from the entire alphabet. This means that all 26 letters of the alphabet are assigned in such a manner that each student may be assigned more than one (preferably each student should have 5-6 letters assigned to them; with this in mind, expect there to be duplicates of letters).


3). Instruct the students to open the "Start Here" file (that should be located on their computer's desktop) and show them how to complete each of the required fields using dictionary.com for the older kids, enchantedlearning.com (which is the better of the two sites,but geared more toward younger kids), and MS Clip Art (to insert a picture indicative of their word) in the provided space. Remember to double click and change the letter to represent the letters they are assigned (e.g. the "Page Template" file has the letters "A a" at the top the students must change these to represent the letter of the word they are defining).


4). Show the students how to save their completed dictionary pages to the mapped network drive (or diskette), titling each page with the letter it represents.



5). When the entire dictionary is completed, break the students up into groups (or not) of two or three and allow them to randomly select 5 letters (or so) from the class dictionary. They will then be tasked with creating a sentence using the words they randomly selected.