After talking to the lecturers yesterday we decided to take a step back and work on the core objective of our group project which is to teach children Phonics. I have looked into programming the game in flash with voice recognition technology and its near impossible. So we are going to hold a group meeting today to discuss other ways to go. After looking at jolly phonics Iv found that they use actions to teach children in Phase one of their learning. They sound out the word and get the child to repeat it and carry out the action so they learn by doing. I like this approach to learning so I would like to try and incorporate that.
Monthly Archives: October 2012
Make and do Completed Clock
My finished piece for make and do
Make and Do Assignment
Make and Do Project
For my make and do assignment I looked into making something that would relate to music. I found a tutorial for a LED light box that reacted to music through an audio jack on instructables and decided I would try that. I decided I would put the lights into a record rather than a box to tie in with the theme. After drawing up a plan I decided to make a clock with LEDs that react to sound using the vinyl record. I bought a clock to pull apart and tried it with the record. The hands were very hard to see so I stuck a CD to the vinyl record to make it clearer. Here are the steps I carried out to make the clock. You will need:
- A Tip 31 transistor
- 3 resistors
- 3 LED’s
- A 9v battery and battery holder
- A clock
- Two blank CD’s
- A vinyl record
- Wire
- A 3.5mm audio jack cable
10. A CD case
11. Glue
12. Electrical Tape
Steps to making the clock:
- Glue a CD to the centre of a vinyl record
- Take apart a clock and glue it to the record with the part for the hands in the centre of the hole. Reattach the hands.
- Drill holes into the record for three LED’s. These will be for the 3, 6, and 9.
- Place the LED lights through the holes and glue them into place.
- Attach a resistor to the positive end of each LED and attach this to the poditive side of the battery.
- Attach the negative end of the battery to the right leg of a Tip 31 transistor and the negative side of the LEDs to the middle leg.
- Attach the dround wire of 3.5mm audio jack cable to the right leg and the left or right wire to the left leg.
- Solder the wires together
- Break the second CD to make the 12 and glue it onto the record
- Glue the battery box above the clock part on the box. Make sure you can change the battery and access the switch
- Glue a CD case to the back to act as a stand
- Stick the wires down using electrical tape to hide them.
After completing these steps I had trouble getting the wires onto the Tip 31 transistor as it is very small. I then accidentaly broke a led on the transistor and was unable to get another one. I then attached the negative side of the lights to the nedative side of the battery to make them light up. I am happy with how the clock turned out and would like to make another one and try and make it react to music.
The instructables tutorial I followed was: http://www.instructables.com/id/Music-LED-Light-Box/
Idea for make and do
For make and do I am going to make a Vinyl record clock with LEDs as the numbers 12, 3, 6 and 9. I am going to make them react to music by attaching a audio jack to them. I have all the parts for it.
Jolly Phonics
I was talking to a primary school teacher who told me the best thing to look at for Phonics is jolly learning. They have a section for phonics and this is what the schools use to teach children to sound out their letters. She also has a video of how to teach children phonics which she will send for research.
http://jollylearning.co.uk/2010/10/29/hear-the-letter-sounds/
Some examples of Phonics games
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/popup.shtml
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2-initial-sound-game-1.html
I found the two above a bit difficult for the age group we are aiming at. I liked the one below and would like to try something along those lines.
http://www.ictgames.com/phonemeFlop_v4.html
http://www.starfall.com/n/make-a-word/an/play.htm?f
22 Cool ideas to make with CD’s
Idea for make and do (2)
I found a metal frame in my house last night so i’m thinking of making a clock out of it and some CD’s and using some LED’s as the 12, 3, 6 and 9 on the clock. I may also make these react to music to be in keeping with the music theme.
Laura Traynor 