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Grade 1 Expectations and Activities

BACK to Ontario Media Literacy Homepage
WIINDMILL PRESS (Canadian Publisher of Media Books and Resources)

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education's Elementary Curriculum in Media Communication, grade 1 students will:


arrange still pictures and/or photographs in a sequence to create their own stories;

distinguish between real life and life depicted in animated works;

create simple media works.

Click here for a review and definition of Media Works, Media Techniques and Purposes of Media Works

Activities for Your Grade 1 Classroom

Of course, these are only ideas, meant to jump-start your own concepts which you will infuse into your classroom based on the curriculum you are bringing to your first-graders. The key for media literacy is not to have a media unit per se, but to use media literacy concepts throughout the school year in language studies.

ask students to listen to a story from a cassette

ask students to relate what they felt was the scariest/most exciting/funniest scene in the cassette story and list reasons why (scary music, scary voice, etc)

ask students to draw a picture of a scene from the cassette story

ask students to make a scary/excited/funny voice for effect

ask students to watch an interactive CD-ROM; ask questions about what students like about it; why is this CD-ROM fun to work with?

read a story with TV characters in it (Sesame Street, Teletubbies); ask questions about the difference between storybook characters and TV characters

point to cartoon or muppet characters and ask students if that character is real; point to pictures of children and ask the same question; ask why students think one character is real and the other isn't

create flash-card-pictures with cartoons, muppets, and real kids. Hold them up and have students call out whether a character is "Real!" or "Not Real."

provide magazines or Sears catalogs with a blend of cartoons, muppets, and real people; instruct students to cut out five of each

on bristle board or construction paper create two headings "Real" and "Not Real," and have students glue their pictures on the appropriate headings

ask students to brainstorm ways in which TV people create puppets and cartoons (hand movements, wires, pictures, etc)

find a Picture Story (make your own or visit a Scholastic supply store or the like), and have students put the pictures in their correct sequence to tell a story

create a sheet of paper with six squares, each with a number and have students "tell" a story through pictures in a sequence

have students work with a partner, mix up the pictures and attempt to place them in sequence again

divide a page down the middle with a line and have students draw a picture or a person or a sun or some other object; on the right side of the sheet, have that person, sun or object "act" in some way (wink, wave, etc.) You may add pictures to the sequence until you have a story

show students road signs that are symbols (deer crossing, school children); choose the most important for safey emphasis and with flash cards, have students call out what the sign means

have students identify other symbols you bring in that promote safety (toxins, recyclable material, etc)

have students identify corporate logos which you bring to class (McDonald's, Nike, Coca-Cola); engage a discussion: how did you know this was McDonald's? What if the big M was green? So colour is important?" give students a task to create a safety sign (you may create a humerous safety sign like "Danger, Poison Book") The key is to capture the warning in a picture

have students record sounds on a tape recorder for effect (scary sounds,happy sounds, mysterious sounds)

have students make faces that communicate certain effects (sad face, surprised face, etc)

have students draw a series of facial expressions

introduce some literary concepts that have to do with effect: onomatopoeia (splash! boom!), alliteration, rythym, etc and brainstorm ideas for each