Kathy Cothran

As mid-October approaches there are teachers all over looking for some new and interesting manner of presenting the story of Christopher Columbus. How many times can you read the same book?

How about engaging your students and exciting them by creating a podcast that can be posted online for the world (or at least their parents and grandparents) to listen?

5th grade creation

Simply choose a reader's theater script that you like. There are many available online for free.

Practice, practice, and then practice some more.

When you are ready to record there are a few methods:

1. Hook a microphone directly to the computer and record. The two most common applications for recording are GarageBand and Audacity.

2. Attach a voice recorder to your iPod and record. Griffin makes a nice one. (Be sure to set the quality to the best for recording so that the voices import correctly. If you end up with chipmunk voices in GarageBand you'll have to burn a CD with the audio tracks and then import.)

3. Use an actual voice recorder that then hooks to your computer.

After getting the best recordings, import the tracks, edit if necessary, and compile into a single track.

Post online for everyone to hear!

When kids know that their voices will be heard from anywhere in the world they have a real purpose for improving their reading fluency.

Another idea for celebrating Columbus Day is to build the three big ships on the hallway wall. Take each child's photograph. Using only the face, have each student create one of the people sailing with Columbus on the journey. The person should be dressed for the proper time era and/or position on the boat. Hang them all up on the ships! A slogan might be: Cruisin' With Columbus.

Kids can make their individual ship and have themselves as the captain by capturing their photo with the built-in camera, importing into KidPix and drawing the rest of the picture.

Kindergarten creation of Columbus and his ships

Make these Columbus Day lessons some that your children will always remember!

Fifth grade