How To: PowerPoint E-Books

Teach students how to create a storyboard using index cards.
Distribute Aesop Fables and allow students to read and select an appropriate fable.
http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/aesop1.html
The students will divide into groups based on the fable they would like to create. Students will collaborate and create a storyboard.
The students will use a digital camera to take photos and insert the photos into a PowerPoint slideshow. Each student will have a photo of himself or herself in the slideshow. The students will take one group photo that will be used as an Author Page.
The students will collaborate and create the e-books. Each page will contain a digital image, sound, text, and a graphic image.
Upon completing the e-book, the students will create a rubric for grading their e-books. The students will also brainstorm ideas for using e-books in their classrooms as teaching and learning tools.
As a culminating activity, the students will present their e-books to the class. The students will Email their e-books to each other to be used for future reference or lesson plans.

After selecting an Aesop Fable, the next step is to change the characters in the story and modify the story as appropriate. The group members will decide upon their individual roles in the story. Each student will have a role (this provides the opportunity for each student’s photo to be placed in the e-book).
Read the fable and divide it into sections; each section will be used as a page.
Decide on the photos you should take in order to represent the storyline.
Decide on graphic images that you will insert on each page to enhance the photos.
Based on your decisions create the storyboard. This can be completed individually, in pairs, or as a group.

The Bat and the Weasels
A bat who fell upon the ground was caught by a weasel and pleaded to be spared his life. The weasel refused, saying that he was by nature the enemy of all birds. The bat assured him that he was not a bird, but a mouse, and thus was set free. Shortly afterwards the bat again fell to the ground and was caught by another weasel, whom he likewise entreated not to eat him. The weasel said that he had a special hostility towards mice. The bat assured him that he was not a mouse, but a bat, and thus a second time escaped.

Moral: It is wise to turn circumstances to good account.

Joey and the Hungry Weasels

SLIDE 1

Title page

SLIDE 2

Joey the Bat fell upon the ground and was caught by a hungry weasel named Harry. Joey pleaded for his life.

SLIDE 3

"Please do not eat me, I am not a bird. I am a mouse!" begged Joey. Harry did not care to eat a mouse and set Joey the Mouse free.

SLIDE 4

Joey the Bat was terrified of falling to the ground again. The next day he hung with his four friends on the tree branch. He held on to the branches of the tree with all his might.

SLIDE 5

Joey the Bat used all his strength and became tired. Again he fell from the tree.

SLIDE 6

Joey was caught by yet another hungry weasel who went by the name Hungry Hannah. Again, Joey the Bat pleaded for his life. "Please do not eat me, I am not a mouse, I am a bat."

SLIDE 7

Hungry Hannah, who happened to be less hungry than usual, agreed to let Joey the Bat live another day. Joey the Bat was so happy that he was a bat and not a rat

SLIDE 8

The moral of the story is: It is wise to turn circumstances to good account.

SLIDE 9

About the Authors

EXAMPLE OF A STORYBOARD:

Below you will find an example of a storyboard for slide two of Joey and the Hungry Weasels. The storyboard indicates the following: