How can I make spreadsheets creative and exciting for y5 children?

[RacingSnake]

Hi. I am new to a job share in a year5/6 class. I have been given all the things that the main teacher hates teaching, among them spreadsheets. I also find it boring! Has anyone got any ideas to make it a bit fun, creative and interesting?

We find working out the price of football kit etc a bit samey - football is built into everything in the hope of motivating the boys.

I am at some point going to get them all to bring a pound and we will work out what we can buy for a party, then have the party, but has anyone got any completely different ideas?

[figrollinthehay]

'difficult and hostile class' - gosh, hope their parents aren't on here looking at your pictures then

[RacingSnake]

Hadn't thought of that! Not every child is difficult or hostile - just quite a few!

[djharts]

You want to know how to make using spreadsheets "a bit fun, creative and interesting?

Firstly, forget the definitions of "spreadsheet" that you find in most dictionaries and adult textbooks.(These originated as a sales-pitch for business people.)

Spreadsheets are programs that can be used in basically three ways:
(a) Like a piece of grid paper, to record and display information
(b) Like a hand held calculator, to do simple maths (try typing in =24/3 +5)
(c) Like a programming language, to give your computer a list of things to do.

Skills in taking advantage of this are cumulative. They take time (even years) to develop and the best time to teach any of them is when the kids are asking for a quicker, better way to do something.

I have often introduced Year 4's to spreadsheets, for example, by showing them
(a) how to make the cells in a worksheet square shaped and (b) how to colour these in.
Then I set them the task of finding out how many different shapes they can make by joining 2, then 3, 4 and 5 squares along their sides. I also get them to record their findings as a table on another worksheet. One boy doing this with me stopped for a moment to tell me that he had never played this game before!

So think about useful and interesting things that kids will find fun to learn and will learn more readily by using spreadsheets rather than other ways. e.g. how to set out a solution to a problem neatly and logically recording the numbers and calculations used rather than just scribbling down a mess of answers.

I am going to include a lot of these in a book I hope to get back to writing again soon now that I have finally retired..

Good luck

Des Howell (Retired teacher, Caloundra, Australia)funwithspreadsheets.blogspot.com/

[Hulababy]

RacingSnakes - did my spreahdsheets come through ok?