TTLA Presentation

Today's TTLA Presentation

Badges and Passports

As well as creating Adventure Island, Room 8 came up with the idea of having badges. This idea came from two boys in my class who go to Scouts. Initially we were only going to use the designs the children came up with for our adventure passports. The idea being that for each stage on the island a group worked through, they would earn a passport stamp for their adventure passport. Then I came across a website called www.zazzle.co.nz where you can have physical badges made.  We decided to call these explorer badges. To start with I ordered six badges, which is enough for one for each group. Why did I bother ordering badges? It shows the children that their ideas are valued, created instant student buy in and after all, learning should be fun. 

The tricky bit was working out how we were going to get the design that was drawn on paper uploaded to the Zazzle website. I ended up using the Art Rage iPad app. You can upload an image, trace over it and then remove it. We did this using the photo of the original island design. This part requires a little bit of teacher help.I plan to order extra badges so that once the children complete their first Adventure Learning project they will be presented with their own explorer badge. The children aren't aware of this, so it will be a surprise.  If you're planning on ordering products from Zazzle keep in mind that they can take up to three weeks to arrive (unless you want to pay the earth for faster shipping). 

As well as the badges, I also had the children's passport stamp designs printed as stickers. That way they can easily be stuck into their passports. 

Passport Cover

Inside Passport 

Adventure Island - A Visual Model, Part 2

Throughout Term 1 my class of year 4 students put together a visual model for Adventure Learning. We decided on an adventure island. The children spent a lot of time coming up with different designs. You can read more about the process we worked through here. By the end of the term we had created the final product. All children are able to explain what each icon represents and as we work through the model for the first time are learning what happens at each stage. What I love about the design is that it was created by kids, for kids. The children refer to themselves as explorers as they work their way around the island. 

Here's a brief overview

Adventure Island 

Explore at Sunshine Cove

Plan under the coconut palms

Discover at Mermaid Lagoon

Create at the rocky volcano 

Share at the island tree house

Take Your Learning Further in the hot air balloon

Here are Room 8's initial designs

Adventure Island Maps - Video Maker