Creative Writing with Makey Makey
Author and educator, Jeremy Kalbstein, provides opportunities for your students to enhance and extend their writing with engaging activities and the use of Makey Makey. Jeremy offers a suite of writing workshps from planning to infographic storytelling. Integrating Language Arts with Science and Technology, this is a true STEAM experience not to be missed.
Interactive Picture Books
In Interactive Picture Books, your students will discover how to put together an interactive picture book from scratch. They will learn how to plan and write a picture book story before adding engaging and supportive illustrations in a thoughtfully designed layout. Finally, with the use of Makey Makey, they will learn about electrical circuits while coding interactions for their readers. This incursion is a relevant, creative and truly integrative approach to STEAM learning.
Students will develop transferrable skills including:
- Creative thinking.
- Design thinking.
- Computational thinking.
- Resilience and adaptability.
Interactive Picture Books supports lessons and learning through the students learning, or consolidating, a range of Australian and Victorian curriculum-aligned skills, including but not limited to:
- Sort and order data and information and represent patterns.
- Represent data as pictures, symbols, numbers and words.
- Select appropriate formats or layout styles to present data as information, depending on the type of data and the audience.
- Recognising the need for a complete circuit to allow the flow of electricity.
- Investigating different electrical conductors and insulators.
- Explaining how separate systems can be connected in different ways to exchange data.
Important Information & Requirements
- The incursion comprises of two half-day sessions.
- Group sizes are limited to a maximum of 50 students but we can cater for larger groups. We’re happy to chat with you about this option.
- We can run a maximum of one session a day.
- The ideal location for this incursion is a large indoor area.
- We require access to the incursion location 30 minutes before the start time to begin setting up.
- Teachers are responsible for supervision of students at all times.
Suitability: Grades 4-6
Number of students: Max 50
Pricing 2023* (Inc. Materials): $500 + GST per session.
^Virtual/remote sessions available.
Contact us for groups larger than 50 students.
A travel charge may apply for locations outside Inner Metro and Inner South East of Melbourne.
*Requires 2 sessions.
^Virtual/remote sessions do not include the use of Makey Makeys.
Infographic Storytelling
Transform complexity into clarity.
Infographic Storytelling, also known as visual storytelling, involves the integration of data and design with story and visuals. Your students will learn how to create an infographic. When students create infographics, they are using information, visual, and technology literacies. Some key reasons why introducing the creation of infographics into your learning environment is essential are to:
- Engage and spark student interest.
- Boost comprehension and information retention.
- Build computational thinking skills.
- Empower students to research, analyse and evaluate information.
- Provide authentic and meaningful learning experiences.
- Enable students to demonstrate critical thinkings skills.
Infographic Storytelling supports lessons and learning through the students learning, or consolidating, a range of skills, including but not limited to:
- Sort and order data and information and represent patterns.
- Represent data as pictures, symbols, numbers and words.
- Select appropriate formats or layout styles to present data as information, depending on the type of data and the audience.
- Recognising the need for a complete circuit to allow the flow of electricity.
- Investigating different electrical conductors and insulators.
- Explaining how separate systems can be connected in different ways to exchange data.
Important Information & Requirements
- The incursion comprises of two half-day sessions.
- Group sizes are limited to a maximum of 50 students but we can cater for larger groups. We’re happy to chat with you about this option.
- We can run a maximum of one session a day.
- The ideal location for this incursion is a large indoor area.
- We require access to the incursion location 30 minutes before the start time to begin setting up.
- Contact us to discuss:
- Virtual/remote sessions.
- In-person and virtual sessions** can be spread over multiple sessions. E.g. 4 x 90 minute sessions.
- Teachers are responsible for supervision of students at all times.
Suitability: Grades 2-6
Number of students: Max 50
Pricing 2023* (Inc. Materials): $500 + GST per session.
^Virtual/remote sessions available.
Contact us for groups larger than 50 students.
A travel charge may apply for locations outside Inner Metro and Inner South East of Melbourne.
*Requires 2 sessions.
^Virtual/remote sessions do not include the use of Makey Makeys.
Character Development
Emotions. Emotions. Emotions.
The key to characterisation is the author’s ability to convey emotions as the driving force behind a character’s motivations as well as bringing out a reader’s emotions. Particuarly, empathy. This is how, and why, reader’s connect, and want to connect, with characters and the story.
Character Development will empower your students to begin to develop engaging characters for their stories. Adding Makey Makey to their character brings another level of deep, creative thinking and opens up greater opportunities for feedback.
Character Development supports lessons and learning through the students learning, or consolidating, a range of skills, including but not limited to:
- Following a sequence of steps.
- Collaborating in group activities.
- Recognising the need for a complete circuit to allow the flow of electricity.
- Investigating different electrical conductors and insulators.
- Explaining how separate systems can be connected in different ways to exchange data.
- Considering language choice when describing a character’s appearance, behaviour or speech.
- Discussing a character’s likes, dislikes or personal qualities.
Important Information & Requirements
- The incursion comprises of two half-day sessions.
- Group sizes are limited to a maximum of 50 students but we can cater for larger groups. We’re happy to chat with you about this option.
- We can run a maximum of one session a day.
- The ideal location for this incursion is a large indoor area.
- We require access to the incursion location 30 minutes before the start time to begin setting up.
- Contact us to discuss:
- Virtual/remote sessions.
- In-person and virtual sessions** can be spread over multiple sessions. E.g. 4 x 90 minute sessions.
- Teachers are responsible for supervision of students at all times.
Suitability: Grades 4-6
Number of students: Max 50
Pricing 2023* (Inc. Materials): $500 + GST per session.
Virtual/remote sessions available.
Contact us for groups larger than 50 students.
A travel charge may apply for locations outside Inner Metro and Inner South East of Melbourne.
*Requires 2 sessions.
^Virtual/remote sessions do not include the use of Makey Makeys.
Planning & Structuring
Plotting versus Pantsing?
No doubt some of your students would prefer pantsing. Pantsing is ‘writing community lingo’ for flying by the seat of your pants. In other words, writing as you go. Plotting, is thereby, in opposition to pantsing. Plotting requires the planning and plotting of story arcs. The Planning and Structuring workshop focusses on plotting by introducing students to The Hero’s Journey and/or the Three-Act Structure using some well known stories such as Harry Potter, Star Wars and The Lion King.
Planning and Structuring will empower your students to plot their story arcs before they start writing. Adding Makey Makey provides another level of deep, creative thinking and opens up greater opportunities for feedback.
Planning and Structuring supports lessons and learning through the students learning, or consolidating, a range of skills, including but not limited to:
- Following a sequence of steps.
- Collaborating in group activities.
- Recognising the need for a complete circuit to allow the flow of electricity.
- Investigating different electrical conductors and insulators.
- Explaining how separate systems can be connected in different ways to exchange data.
- Considering language choice when describing a character’s appearance, behaviour or speech.
- Discussing a character’s likes, dislikes or personal qualities.
Important Information & Requirements
- The incursion comprises a half-day session.
- Group sizes are limited to a maximum of 40 students but we can cater for larger groups. We’re happy to chat with you about this option.
- We can run a maximum of one session a day.
- The ideal location for this incursion is a large indoor area.
- We require access to the incursion location 30 minutes before the start time to begin setting up.
- Contact us to discuss:
- Virtual/remote sessions.
- In-person and virtual sessions** can be spread over multiple sessions. E.g. 2 x 90 minute sessions.
- Teachers are responsible for supervision of students at all times.
Suitability: Grades 4-6
Number of students: Max 50
Pricing 2023* (Inc. Materials): $750 + GST per session.
^Virtual/remote sessions available.
Contact us for groups larger than 40 students.
A travel charge may apply for locations outside Inner Metro and Inner South East of Melbourne.
*Requires 2 sessions.
^Virtual/remote sessions do not include the use of Makey Makeys.
World Building