Fun with vokis

Your class can go to voki.com and create their own avatar. This is so much fun and it's easy!

Voki.com walks the creator through the process step by step. This is an activity you could do even with first or second graders.

Have the students create a voki for their favorite Alice in Wonderland character and a few short sentences about who this character is in the book.

Other ways to integrate technology...

• 

We talked about blogs and how easy and creative they can be. Next let's talk about some ideas that are more visual.

• A different way to get the students to summarize the story of Alice in Wonderland they could use the website photopeach.com allows you to surf the web for pictures and upload them into a mini presentation format. You can also chose to use your own pictures however for this project it would be best if the students found picture stills from Alice in Wonderland or that help illustrate a scene from Alice in Wonderland and upload them to this website. They arrange the pictures in the order they would like to present them in and then add music. This is a fun way to do a presentation and to have the students use pictures to summarize main points in the book.
• Alice in Wonderland on PhotoPeach

• There is a website called prezi.com which is a presentation website. can be used by the older students individually or collectively as a class for the younger students. I made a model template of how to get the students thinking about the book. There is a what I know section, what I want to know, and what I learned. Prezi.com let's you save the presentation so you can go section by section with the students and type in the answers as the kids give them. At the end it's a fun way to go through each part of the reading process. The kids can also get creative by voting on the background and the colors for the prezi. Older students will have no problem picking up this web tool and will enjoy presenting to the class while using prezi.com. Click here to see my model prezi.

There are so many fun and creative ways to have the students present their summaries and ideas about Alice in Wonderland. Be sure to explore new and creative ways to integrate all the students into the learning process.

Integrating technology into the unit....

Teachers love to integrate some technology into the classroom. One great tool is blogging.

• Students enjoy blogging because it is a way for them to freely share ideas with one another and to get creative.
• You may have students who are incredibly talented at designing things on the computer and this is a way for them to integrate their talents into a blog.
• Sometimes in class students don't feel comfortable sharing their ideas or have enough time to craft a thoughtful response. Using a blog will enable them to share their ideas and think about what they want to say.
• Blogs are a way for everyone to share their opinons/thoughts and as a teacher it is your job to be the facilitator of conversation. Comment on students ideas or posts and post thought provoking questions. In time the students will be doing these things themselves.

Remember technology always has a place in the classroom and curriculum, but don't forget to get the parent's consent before allowing the students to start such a project. Also be sure to give the students a lesson on surfing the Internet safely.

Ideas:

Here are some ideas for types of blogs you can set up for your students.

• Personal response-ask a question to the class and have them respond
• Poetry-have students write poems about parts of the book
• Q&A-have half the students ask questions about the book and the other half answer
• Picture-have students create a collage of pictures that they feel represent the book the best

Get creative!

Acting out...and other ideas.

A great way for students to understand the meaning of the dialogue in Alice in Wonderland is to have them act out the monologues themselves!
The website Alice in Wonderland: Monologue Archive or Storymania has a great choice of Monologues for the students to chose from. You can put the kids in groups and let them decipher the meaning behind what the characters are saying or they can work on this activity individually.


(Sigh, sing/hum? Look for rabbit) There were more ghastly things I met on my way, the Cheshire Cat for example? Okay (laugh?), well he wasn't too bad, although he did scare the living hell out of me, “You're mad” it says “too bloody right I am” and the catstared at me grinning, why he was grinning I'll never know, it looked like he had just drawn all over his mother's fur while she was sleeping. “I'm mad, you're mad, we're all mad here” “Well, I know why I'm mad, but why are you mad?” “Well a dog's not mad is it?” “I guess so...” “Well then, you see a dog growls when it is angry and wags its tail when it's pleased” “Yes? Get to your point” “ Now I growl when I'm pleased and I wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I am mad.”

Movies movies movies

Down the rabbit hole we go today with the discussion of age appropriate Alice in Wonderland movies.

Sometime after (I strongly recommend

after) your class has read Alice in Wonderland it would be a great connection to show the movie in class. There are many different versions of Alice in Wonderland that have been made over the past few years.

1. Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951)

This is the animated version we all remember from childhood. Click on the link to see the IMDb synopsis. I recommend this version for students from kindergarten through high school. Which age group will get the most from this version? The younger students. They will laugh with delight when they see the purple cheshire cat disappear and reappear again. I would recommend this highly for kindergarteners through fourth or fifth grade.

2. Disney's Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Tim Burton did this live action Alice in Wonderland. It deviates from the original Disney Classic however certain aspects of this version stick closer to the book. I would recommend this version for students eighth until twelfth grade. The movie is dark and it may scare younger students. I also think that older students will appreciate the all star cast that is in the movie.

3. Alice in Wonderland (1985)

This is another live action Alice in Wonderland. If you feel as though your students will have an aversion to anything Disney related, especially the older students this is a great film to

show. This movie sticks extremely close to the book. I would recommend this for students sixth grade and up.

After the class watches the movie you can make small discussion groups and have the students write similarities and differences between the book and the movie. This is a great way to ensure they will pay attention to the movie.