Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade Level: Upper Elementary

• Subject Area: Social Studies, Language Arts

Brief Description

     Students invite classes, both in their school and in remote locations, to join them in celebrating their classroom holiday.
Objectives

    Students will:

• Develop communication skills by explaining the celebration of their holiday to others.
• Work cooperatively in a large group.

Materials & Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer (PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or dial-up software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but perhaps Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: Server space for HTML documents (optional).
2. Special software requirements: CU-SeeMe (see Internet Resources below); multimedia design application such as ClarisWorks, HyperCard, Hyperstudio, or Director; SoundEdit or other audio editing application; HTML editor; word processing application.
3. Internet access: Medium-speed (28,000 BPS via modem) or High-speed (greater than 1 MBPS via network).

• resources related to the holiday (these will vary but could include foods, decorations, costumes, etc.)

Pre-Activity Preparation

• Have students invite other classes in the school and classes in remote locations to help them celebrate their classroom holiday. Classes in remote locations that have CU-SeeMe can participate simultaneously, while classes with e-mail can participate asynchronously.

• Have students decide how they want to present their holiday. Have them divide up tasks. For instance, some students could be in charge of making and serving food; some in charge of explaining the overall holiday to visiting students; some in charge of writing songs, poetry, or stories related to the holiday.

Activity Description

• On the date of the holiday, have the students take their places as the visiting classes enter, including those that are visiting via CU-SeeMe.

• Have the students try to spark discussion with their visitors about holidays and why it is important to celebrate them.

Internet Resources:

• CU-SeeMe
  [ftp://gated.cornell.edu/pub/video]
  This is the site where classes can download the software for CU-SeeMe.

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