Wild Earth African Safari

Suggested year group: whole of KS2 Classroom Ideas: Literacy:

Journalists Recount: Write the journalists diary about the events of the day on African Safari, including animals found and other notes of interest. Write letters home describing life on safari. Record a section of the game and produce a narration to play over the top of it. Plan interview questions for the journalist. Plan and record an interview with the journalist, planning camera shots and angles of the animals and area to support the interview. Factfile: Research and write short factfiles for the animals and plants found in the African Safari. Use statistics and information collected through the game. Safari Guide: combine the factfiles to create a tourist guide for a safari holiday Information texts: Collect information and format as an information text using subheadings or chapters. Include tables and graphs to show information mathematical links. Persuasive writing: Create adverts for a safari holiday. Notetaking: jot down key events/facts during the game. Instructions: How to act safely around animals when on safari. Look at environmental impact. Speaking and Listening: Class debate about zoos. Description: Use scenery out of context of the game. Walk around and use the scenery to gather ideas for own writing/scene setting. Exploring the environment as an unknown land, the children continue the narrative journey in their writing. Use the scenery within the game to support work on descriptive settings. Narrative writing: Stop the game and write what happens next. Transfer writing skills: use skills learned to complete writing of a similar style eg other habitats rainforests. (Use Planet Earth DVD for stimulus)

Cross Curricular Ideas:

Science: Interdependence and adaptation Discover the animals in their natural habitat and consider their developments which enable them to survive. Contrast simulated animal movement on the game to real animal movement on film/dvd. Look at predator/prey and foodcahins. Compare and contrast the different habitats within the game and establish why they are suitable for the animals that life in them. Numeracy: Collate information gathered about the animals into graphs or tables. Use the direction finder to support work on orientation and direction. Develop maps of the National park to support co-ordinates and mapwork. Organise an imaginary safari trip keeping within a specified budget. Geography: Use google earth to visit Africa. Plan the journey from UK. Art: Look at African art. Look at composition of photographs taken during the game and compare to real wildlife photographs Music: Listen to the sound effects on the games and create own, recording if possible and use as background for the interview with the journalist.

Enquiry Questions:

Is it right for animals to be kept in zoos? Investigate the benefits and disadvantages. What is the human impact on natural habitats?

Books to support: The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo Non fiction texts on interdependence and adaptation

Other Supporting Resources (DVD, Web, Games etc): Google Earth Planet Earth DVD

See http://suffolkwiiproject.blogspot.com/ for links to other blogs and google documents relating to the use of Wii and gaming in education.

Mario Kart
Suggested year group: Upper KS2 Classroom Ideas:

Descriptive writing: Description of characters. No playing, using player selection screens. Mind map appearance adjectives. Also when characters are racing; using their individual mannerisms. Descriptions of environments around the race tracks. Creative writing using Bowsers castle as the setting. Structure and paragraphing: Use a race and look at different elements e.g. Scenery, characters, weapons, sights, smells, sounds, THEN write a selection of paragraphs using those different areas. Persuasive writing: Write adverts for jobs for a new racing driver. Create an advert for the Mario kart game both on paper and radio. Prepare questions to ask during interviews for racing drivers. Letter writing: Write a letter to congratulate driver on getting the job Write a formal invitation to launch party, Information writing: Research F1 drivers and create biography sheets. Commentating on races, adjectives/adverbials, use of formal and informal language. Instructions: Blindfolded driving.

Cross Curricular Ideas:

Science: Topic revision of forces unit using a race to identify the different forces acting on the car. Children would shout the correct force, and if incorrect the cart would slow down. Also used the pre race fly over to discuss where we thought different forces would be relevant. DT: Design own racing cars and present the designs to rest of class. Design logos for own race teams Numeracy: collecting data times for races to use in data handling. Using league tables and stats. Work out average speeds, times etc.

Enquiry Questions: Where in the world are the F1 race circuits? What is the cost to the local economies of an F1 race?

Books to support: Science books on Forces.

Other Supporting Resources (DVD, Web, Games etc): Listen to commentaries - youtube Watch races from other more sophisticated games (Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport etc)

See http://suffolkwiiproject.blogspot.com/ for links to other blogs and google documents relating to the use of Wii and gaming in education.

Endless Ocean/Endless Ocean 2 Suggested Year Group: KS1

Classroom Ideas: Literacy: Instructions: how to dive- introduce imperative verbs, then play game, write notes which lead to instructions. Developing descriptive language: collect lists of adjectives, adverbs, verbs and nouns and create sentences. Poetry: under water rhyming words, personification of sea creatures, shape poems. Story writing: underwater adventure, rewrite a familiar story/ film, Diary entry: how the fish move- could link to PE. Blue Planet (BBC) is good for ideas and footage. Recount: journey in one aspect of the game, e.g. near the coral, diving, what you see, etc. Information text: facts about sea creatures, top trump fact cards. Speaking and listening: protecting the fish- be careful when swimming, protecting the coral. Create own game linked to coordinates, write instructions for game.

Cross Curricular Ideas: Dance: movement of creatures in the sea. DT: pop up fish- simple levers. Art: batik, sea scapes, collage, brusho, Music: underwater sounds, create a sound track for the game. Maths: data base of fish facts- length, colour, country, collect data. Area and perimetercreate own coral reef map. Coordinates- treasure, things to find in the sea (relate to the map on the game). Create own game.

Enquiry Questions: Why should we not touch/ feed the fish if we were diving here? What can you see? Hear? Touch? What will happen next? What makes a good game? What is it like to live under the sea?

Books to support: Rainbow Fish

Other Supporting Resources (DVD, Web, Games etc): Finding Nemo Blue Planet Shark Tale Deadly 60 See http://suffolkwiiproject.blogspot.com/ for links to other blogs and google documents relating to the use of Wii and gaming in education.

Endless Ocean/Endless Ocean 2

Suggested year group: whole of KS2 Classroom Ideas: Literacy:

Developing descriptive language: Collect adverbs, adjectives, similes, metaphors to describe the ocean environment, and what is seen and felt when you dive. Collect words and use Wordle.com to produce word banks for children to use ideas in other activities. Poetry: Use above learning to create poems, extend to personification of sea creatures and other aspects of the under-water environment. Story writing: Plan and write a diving adventure with a dilemma. Children experience virtual dilemmas when playing the game. Writing to focus on childrens thoughts and feelings when confronted with a scenario. Letter writing: Write a formal letter of application to join Jean Luc Rouviers diving team, using persuasive language. Use You Tube videos to learn how to enter the water safely using different techniques to include in the letter. Diver's Recount: Write a diver's journal about the events of the day in Endless Ocean, including time, depth, species found and other notes of interest. Explanation text: Produce annotated diagrams of diving equipment explaining how it is designed to facilitate diving. Focus upon sentence level work (connectives, commas) Factfiles: Research and write short factfiles for the fish and sea creatures found in Endless Ocean Marine Guide: Combine the factfiles above in a Marine Guide as in Endless Ocean. Create a small booklet of sealife discovered. Speaking and Listening/debate: Raise philosophical questions about the ethics of hunting whales and shark finning.

Cross Curricular Ideas: D&T: Pneumatic models of ocean creatures, based upon Suffolk D&T year 5 Pneumatic dragon unit) Dance: Ocean dance exploring movement and shapes under the ocean, of contrasting different sea creatures and animals eg sea urchins and shark. Art: Batik ocean pictures using brusho dye, individual work and group under water scenes. Music: Create a group piece to represent a journey across the sea using repeated patterns, based upon the pentatonic scale.

Enquiry Questions:

Is it right for us to eat wild fish that have been caught in the Oceans? Investigate what is happening to world fish supplies.

Books to support: The Rainbow Fish - Marcus Pfister

Kensukes Kingdom Michael Murpurgo Why the Whales Came Michael Morpurgo

Other Supporting Resources (DVD, Web, Games etc): DVD Finding Nemo Google Earth Ocean layer Blue Planet BBC You tube video extracts for shark finning and whale hunting, scuba diving.

See http://suffolkwiiproject.blogspot.com/ for links to other blogs and google documents relating to the use of Wii and gaming in education.

Fragile Dreams Suggested Year group: 5/6

Classroom Ideas: Literacy:

Vocabulary harvest description Adverbs how the light fell on objects. Use movement within the game to create a word bank Feelings poem considering the character Game review considering controls and movement of character Diary writing once further into the story considering lost love and family. Suspense writing using scene setting. Discrete sentence level lessons taught alongside using the Wii to develop skills of sentence types, sentence openers and order of writing, including subject sentence, within a paragraph. Newspaper articles Horror writing creating different ghosts, ghouls and spirits based on those within the game. Using the text from the blurb as a model for writing blurbs for other games Using show not tell technique showing that something tense is happening rather than telling the details.

Cross Curricular Ideas:

Music soundscape scary music and sound effects Maths contextual percentage problems video game sales etc Drama Freeze frames PSHE emotions surrounding loss

Enquiry Questions:

What makes a story? Can a story be a story without any words?

Books to support:

Other Supporting Resources (DVD, Web, Games etc):

See http://suffolkwiiproject.blogspot.com/ for links to other blogs and google documents relating to the use of Wii and gaming in education.

Portal 2 Education edition. Suggested year group: 5/6

Classroom Ideas: Portal and Portal 2 are non-violent, cleverly written games that challenge players to solve puzzles within a three-dimensional world. Players must manoeuvre objects and themselves through the world in order to solve the puzzles and progress from one level to the next. Players primarily interact with the world by using a hand-held portal device to place interconnected portals on walls, floors, or ceilings. Once a pair of portals is positioned any object entering through one portal will exit though the other.

Literacy: Effect of setting and plot on characters Describing characters and settings Instructional writing Play scripts (re telling narrative in a different genre) Rewriting the story in another time period

Cross Curricular Ideas: Science Forces, Computer science, programming, software. Numeracy Geometry hunt, 2D/3D shape and space, coordinates, measures Game engine is fully adaptable and adjustable, a tailored game for almost any subject or scenario.

Enquiry Questions:

What makes a story? Do stories have to be written? Can video games tell stories? Have you ever played a video game that also tells a great story? How would the characters act in a different setting? Would the characters be happy to be somewhere else? Why? Can the characters make their own choices? How would the story change if it were in a different time period?

Other Supporting Resources (DVD, Web, Games etc): www.teachingwithportals.com www.learningwithportals.com http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-20-valve-offers-teachers-free-portal-2-forclassroom-use http://physicswithportals.com/why-teach-with-portals/

See http://suffolkwiiproject.blogspot.com/ for links to other blogs and google documents relating to the use of Wii and gaming in education.

Another Code: R Suggested year group Year 6.

Classroom Ideas:

Play the Wii game and focus on the initial setting. Explore the relationship between the characters portrayed through mind-mapping. Story board the game and sequence the events. Scaffold the early stages of the game on to a Story Mountain and create a dilemma for Ashley Robins. Children write their own resolution and ending to the story and Examine how the characters link and relate. Order from good to bad at different stages of the game. Create dialogue between the different characters. Write a paragraph introducing the context of the story and use the concept of flash-backs experienced by Ashley Robins to explore writing in different tenses e.g. present to past. Develop extended narrative writing using different stages of the game to explore dilemmas presented to the characters and discussing possible resolutions. compare/contrast with the actual game. Explore the concept of memories as the scientist in the game is involved in designing a memory control unit (called Another). Compare the use of flashbacks within the game to The Piano. Diary writing writing in character as Ashley, and keeping a diary recording the events of each session. Write a biography of Ashley. Write information texts about the area. Create tourist leaflets. Discuss uses of American parlance and non-standard English. Review writing of video games. Explore language, formats and features of reviews. Explore online reviews and, using ict, create a webpage of a game review site uploaded to VLE/blog

Enquiry Questions: PSHE discuss Ashleys relationship with her father and emotions evoked.

Books/Visual texts to support: The Piano Year 6 unit Short Stories with Flashbacks

Other Supporting Resources (DVD, Web, Games etc): SEAL resources based on relationships.

See http://suffolkwiiproject.blogspot.com/ for links to other blogs and google documents relating to the use of Wii and gaming in education.

The Classroom Ideas for all the games have been collated by Su Harris (Primary Literacy Adviser) as a result of the work carried out by the following teachers at the following schools: Handford Hall Primary School, The Oaks Primary School, Shotley Community Primary School and Grange Primary School