ICT at key stages 1 and 2    (Year 1)

• Discuss with the children that materials 'tell' us things, eg pictures show us what things look like, maps show where things are, labels describe what things are, sounds, such as bells and whistles, can tell us that something is about to happen.
• Discuss with the children where we might find things out and introduce the idea of a variety of sources, eg asking questions, books, television, people.

• Prepare a tape recording of sounds that carry information, eg a bell indicating the end of playtime, a television theme tune indicating that a programme is about to start, a baby crying indicating it is hungry, a police car or ambulance siren. Ask the children to close their eyes, listen to the sounds and describe what the sounds are 'telling' them.
• Children should tape record an interview with an adult, perhaps to collect information to support their topic work. Prior to the interviews they should decide on the questions that they want to ask. Topics will vary, eg transport, houses, what it was like when they were children. The recordings can then be played to the whole class. Children should then use the information gathered for other activities.

• Show the class a selection of poster-sized pictures, including photographs, representational drawings, abstract pictures, signs and maps. Ask the children to describe what each picture is 'telling' them, eg it shows some of the types of animals that live in the sea, it shows how big a dinosaur is compared to a house.

• Ask the children to look around the classroom and point out anything that provides them with information. Discuss how the information is communicated. Extend the search beyond the classroom walls but still within the school grounds. Ask the children to collect samples and sort them into text, pictures and sound. They may have samples that include pictures and text - this will provide the foundation for a multimedia group under the next activity.
• Ask the children to consider how information is communicated in the wider world, eg road signs, traffic lights, shop signs, road directions, instruction labels such as 'PUSH' and 'PULL'. Record the findings, perhaps by drawing pictures. Sort these out into text, pictures, sound and multimedia.
• On paper, children should record various objects that communicate information in different ways, eg fold a sheet of paper into six sections and ask children to draw, or collect, pictures of things that communicate information using text, sound, still pictures, icons, text and pictures together, or symbols, which might include pictures of books, magazines or newspapers, alarm clocks, kitchen timers, microwave ovens, computer icons for printers, word processors, painting programs, comics, social signs, television cartoons or videos, warning signs.

• Introduce the children to a multimedia program such as a talking book or an adventure game. Ask them to look at the icons on the screen and to suggest what information or instruction they might provide. Encourage the children to check and see if they were right.
• Children should explore the program and see how many different ways the computer can communicate information.

• Collect paper-based samples of text that are used for different purposes. Discuss why different styles and sizes of text or font are used, eg a label in the classroom needs to be large so that everyone can see it - this might be the date on the board or the list of who is responsible for specific tasks. Children might notice that a newspaper uses different sizes of writing on a page. They should be encouraged to express their ideas about why this might be. Some children may notice that colour is used to convey meaning, eg red for stop or danger and green for go. If drawers are labelled in the classroom and all of the labels are the same size, children might be asked why they have been prepared in such a way.
• Present a set of prepared text files to the children. Each should be set up for a specific purpose, eg a suitable font size with a box or frame around it to produce labels for pictures for a display, a warning sign with large red text in a frame, a layout suitable for a poster with sufficiently large text to be read from a few feet away. Children could suggest what they would use each one for. Some could demonstrate and others be given time to experiment later.

• Ask the children to work in groups to collect information about an agreed topic. Encourage them to think about what they want to find out about the subject (but they should be prepared to find out other things).
• Ask the children to think about where and how they will find out the information and how they will collect and present it.
• Encourage the children to collect information in a variety of forms, eg representational pictures, interviews, books, photographs. Ask them to make a simple display of the materials they collect.