Wonderful PowerPoint Lessons

I've been working with our third grade students on power point presentations. For some reason, 3rd graders just LOVE power points! Their teacher decided to do an "All About Me" theme, and she gave them an organizer to use. It had about 8 boxes on it that said things like "Favorite Foods" and "Favorite Color", etc. They filled out the organizer and then we numbered each box. I explained that each box would become a slide. I then showed them on the smartboard how to create a power point. We discussed how to add slides, clipart, images from bing, etc. Then, they went to work. The organizers were what made this project work! They really need that visual organizer to move information into the slides. Since this original presentation, they have completed a biography power point - we had trouble with this one because it was hard to find a website with all the information they needed for the report organizer. So, I got the idea to create an organizer for the next one by using the outline of a website. I wanted them to look at the question on the organizer and find it exactly on the website. They were very interested in their animal slide they did for all about me, so I found an amazing website with "fact sheets" about animals. I copied the information down and created an organizer. They got to choose their animal - found out this wasn't such a good idea. Next time it will definitely be better to assign each person a topic. Here is a link to the ORGANIZER and here is a link to the WEBSITE. At the website you click on a category (reptile, etc.) then click on an animal to take you to the fact sheet. Then, they just copy the info. onto the organizer. I just can't tell you how easy this makes things for the kids. We are working to help them learn to read and summarize information by putting a question or two that they have to read and summarize information for. On the animal one, they had to read the info. at the bottom for an "interesting fact" and list one. We are currently doing a state organizer for a state power point. Here is a GREAT WEBSITE to create an organizer from. Students find their state from the drop-down. Then there are tabs with info about each state. On the organizer are some of the facts (state flower, state capital, etc.), two "Did You Know", and one "Famous Person". They are getting really good at finding information and learning to make sure they copy neatly and correctly on the organizer so they don't have to go back to the website to look up info again once they start the power point.  They are so independent now, too. It is amazing to watch them and see how they learn things on their own!  Once their power points are complete, they upload to their Edmodo and present in class. This is such a great project, I've even tried it with 2nd grade. We used this ORGANIZER and then had the how-to lesson. They were only allowed to use clipart, not bing. They did an amazing job!!  I've even developed an organizer and found a website for 5th grade on the Revolutionary War. I adapted some of the worksheets I found HERE for a Glogster project. Here is the ORGANIZER and here is the WEBSITE and ASSIGNMENT SHEET (use this to assign topics to students).