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Write a Number Story

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

Students use AppleWorks or Office to write and illustrate a number story. Each student's work is then added to a Keynote or PowerPoint show and displayed for the class (or parents!) to see and share.

Subjects: Language Arts, Educational Technology, Math

Grade Levels: K-2, 3-5

Objectives
Students will:

• use AppleWorks or Office to write and illustrate a number story,
• add their work to a Keynote or PowerPoint show, and
• display their work for the class (or parents!) to see and share.

Keywords
number story, writing across the content areas, math

Materials Needed

• Student access to AppleWorks
• Pencil and paper
• Teacher access to PowerPoint or Keynote

Procedure
Make writing across content areas fun with this computer activity for grades 1-3.

Start the lesson by showing students the number stories at Math Cats. Read the stories and discuss each picture. After discussing four or five stories, ask students to share what a number story is. Students should identify that each number story contains two sets of objects -- balloons, cookies... -- and that something happens to the items in those two sets -- they are added together or subtracted from each other.

Tell students that they are going to write their own number stories. Follow the steps to help them create their stories:

• Have each student write an equation -- such as 3 + 4 = 7 -- on his or her paper. (Make sure the numbers they use are small enough that students can draw objects to represent those numbers.)
• Brainstorm with students ideas for stories that can include their equations. If an equation is 3 + 4 = 7, for example, the story might be, "Maria had 3 sugar cookies. She bought 4 oatmeal cookies from Mr. Johnson. She now has 7 cookies."
• Review each story to ensure that students understand what they are supposed to do.
• As each story is approved, have the student draw the story on his or her paper. (It's important to draw the story on paper before going to the computer.)
• Review and approve each picture.
• Invite each student to go to a computer loaded with AppleWorks (or Office), click Painting, and draw the picture on the computer. (Note: This part of the activity can be done on a single classroom computer, in a classroom computer center, or in the school's computer lab.)
• Have the student click the Text tool and type the story ABOVE the drawing. (Remind students to type "by" and their names after the story.)
• To save students' files, click File>Save As and choose JPG under File Format. The stories will be saved as a picture that easily can be inserted into Keynote or PowerPoint.

When all the students are finished with their stories, use them to create a PowerPoint or Keynote show:

• Open whichever program you are using. (For help creating your first PowerPoint presentation, see the Education World techtorial Creating a Class PowerPoint Presentation.)
• Create a title slide. Type "Number Stories," your name, the class, and the date.
• Open a new slide and insert the first student's picture.
• Repeat this step above for each student's picture.
• Save the show.

You now can show the number stories to the entire class or to parents at Open House night or other event!

Assessment
Students will be evaluated on their:

• Ability to describe a math problem using words in a number story.
• Ability to illustrate that math problem.

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