Making It Big In The USA

This blog is written by Mrs Vicky MacKenzie, P7 teacher of Lairdsland Primary School in East Dunbartonshire

Making it Big in the USA was an interdisciplanary project led and deliverd by Vicky MacKenzie and Fiona Donaghey. The project was based on and extended the ideas of Kim Aplin’s Guitar Hero work. It was a collaborative topic between Primary 7 and Primary 6/7.

Interdisciplinary Learning
• Main curricular focus – literacy, technology and social studies
• Minor curricular focus – art, maths
• Integrating International Education and Financial Education into the curriculum

So why Making it BIG in the USA?

The basic premise of this topic was to ensure that Primary 7 pupils were highly motivated and enthused by their final topic in primary school. I wanted the children to have an experience that they would remember for a long time and was completely different to anything they had done before. I also wanted the children to have the opportunity to work cooperatively in friendship groups and have a common goal as a class. Fiona and I also had to include Financial education as part of the school’s existing programme of work. As this focused on exchange rates, including the dollar, we decided to have the children tour the USA and work out all their band income and expenditure in dollars.

Launching the topic
There was a big build up to the topic and Fiona and I worked really hard to build anticipation and get the children excited. Initially Glow was not used as it’s role was central to the actual “tour”! We began by doing the following:

1. Children worked individually to create their rock star character. The children drew portraits and wrote profiles and were told that they would have to be in role as their rock star for the topic.
2. The children were then put into rock bands. There were roughly 3 children in every band. They were then set the following challenges:
a. Decide a band name
b. Decide a band logo and identity
c. Create their own guitars

Once the children had completed these tasks, they then had their 3 day induction at Lenzie Academy which tagged onto the May weekend, resulting in Fiona and I not seeing the children for a week. When the children returned to P7 and we told them they were about to go on tour, they actually cheered and were so excited. It was just amazing as Fiona and I were worried that having been to secondary school, they may have been completely indifferent to the topic. Throughout the topic Fiona and I acted as Band Managers and the children had to negotiate with us what they could and couldn’t do on tour.

Using Glow
It was at this point the Glow came into its own. The children were told that all information about the tour and their finances would be delivered through Glow and therefore it their responsibility to logon everyday to check for updates.

Activity One
The children were taught how to use a spreadsheet (RM Number Magic) to keep a record of their band expenses. Every band was given a starting budget and during the topic would have to record all expenditure and income. The children were told that at the end of the tour the band with the most money would be given a prize. The children uploaded their band budgets to the Band Budgets document store in the Glow group.

Activity Two
The children then had to book flights and accommodation to their first destination. The children used the websites in the Useful Websites section of the Glow group and obviously had to then deduct their expenditure from their expenses. This task was repeated 5 times during the topic as the children flew around the States.

Activity Three
Using Glow Learn the children were set the challenge to create a brochure about the states they were visiting. Information about the task and the criteria were sent by Fiona using Glow Learn. The children had to upload their completed brochures to Glow Learn and Fiona and I used the assessment tool in Glow Learn to give them feedback. The children were awarded bonuses for their budgets dependant on the quality of their brochure.

Activity Four
An ongoing set of tasks was delivered daily using targeted news. Fiona and I would post all sorts of additional challenges using this and it drove the children up the wall! It was hysterical. Once of the funniest, was Fiona’s stroke of genius about hiring security. The children were notified that they had to hire security as they had a stalker problem. They had to decide which security to hire from the Classified Ads section of the Glow group and deduct the costs from their expenses. Unbeknown to the pupils, Fiona had already decided that there would be consequences dependant on which security they hired. The children who hired the cheap security ended up having to go to court as they had a really serious stalker problem and had to pay hefty court fees. It was very funny. We used the targeted news to announce tax charges, bonuses for completing work etc and also for reminding the children about deadlines.

The children really rose to these challenges and due to many bands having a lack of funds (too many first class flights and 5 star hotels) they started to produce their own merchandise. This was something Fiona and I had not planned but ended up being an amazing success. They created their own CDs, t-shirts, tickets for concerts (which were touted around the room and caused a few arguments), key rings, baseball caps etc. The children ended up making merchandise catalogues and selling to each other from these.

Activity Five
The children were set a music topic as homework and could use the Glow group to upload documents they wanted to print at home.

This was a fab topic that Glow really enhanced. The children had a brilliant time and so did Fiona and I. The topic culminated in an X-Factor type show organised and delivered by the pupils. They organised the programme, collected money and wrote a shopping list for Fiona and I for party food. As the children had been playing Guitar Hero through out the entire topic, the children had to perform as their band. The performances were terrific as the children turned up in costume and lots had rehearsed in their own time.

See the Glow group here

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