Carnival Time!

Oh my word, what a hit this lesson was! We've had so much fun discussing the features of an informational text such as a brochure! We used resources from the Dairy Board of Canada to cover a little bit of everything.  Aside from the obvious discussions about health and nutrition, we also talked about some of the features of the text itself: illustrations, different fonts, coordinated colours, diagrams, interactivity, and bold text. I explained to the boys and girls that these same features apply to websites.  

After this discussion, students learned they would be designing their own brochure for a pretend carnival! They're asked to choose a theme for their carnival and the sky is the limit! For the purpose of my sample, I went with a cheese and lama-themed carnival (no idea where that idea came from, but my website has a nice ring to it: www.cheeseoramalama.com). 

The wheels were turning with this one!  We're going to get back to work on our brochures on Wednesday and I can't wait to see how they turn out! What a great way to end the school year: a year where there is always so much growth in terms of my students' writing skills.  

In this one exercise, we cover many important skills and answer lots of questions: 

• What's the purpose of a brochure (and website)?
• What makes a great brochure and a not-so-great brochure/website? 
• What kind of information will people want to know about a school carnival from a brochure/website? 
• How do I engage my reader? 
• What's an appropriate theme for a carnival? 
• What are sensible food prices for my menu items?
• How do bullet points work really effectively on a brochure? 
• What's an appropriate day/time to hold a carnival? 
• My carnival's website? What's an appropriate name?
• Will the website be a .ca or a .com site?
• Let's talk revenue: who benefits from my carnival? 
• The beneficiary: why them? 

I've been so thrilled with the quality of my students' writing this year. Watching them grow with each assignment is so exciting and rewarding. I hope they'll use all the skills they've learned this year to make this their best writing piece yet!