Butterfly House Adventure

In this activity, which is based upon the adventure template available on the Learning Magic, Inc.'s "Adventures in Reading" CD, children get to navigate through a tropical rainforest and a tropical butterfly house. On each of the fifteen pages high quality photographs along with short videos are used to show the tropical plants, ponds and butterflies in a pseudo-native environment.

After reading each page the child has an opportunity to decide where to go next. By making individual choices, children have the ability to determine which path (i.e. eight in all) they want to travel along as they explore.

The text on each page provides further insights into the anatomy of butterflies, their environment and their feeding/drinking habits. Students can read silently or click the text to hear it read aloud. Children have the opportunity via several movies to see different butterflies using their probosci to suck nectar and juices out of fruits and flowers and also using it to drink water.

In the initial instructions children are told that they should become active note takers as they go through the adventure since they will have the opportunity to write individual journals after they have finished the trip. This encourages off-computer writing and helps introduce the concept of journaling and note taking.

Children also have the option to use two on-computer journals, Butterfly House Writing and Butterfly House Writing ­ Supported, to record their impressions of their adventure. These two supporting activities are also available in our Goodies section.

In our experience, children also spend time in the adventure mapping out how they have traveled through the adventure. To encourage this activity, they should be made aware that there are fifteen pages they should visit and find. Many children revisit pages to reread/listen/watch their favorites and also gain further information on the subject matter.

This activity provides a platform for the child to be actively engaged in the adventure and also provides strong visual, auditory and textual content support for different learning styles. The end result is a strong universal design for a learning environment in which children can explore.

Butterfly House Adventure was built in Classroom Suite v. 3.2. The activity can be run on the ITAN Player. But IntelliPics Studio 3® is needed to perform data capture, automatic grading and portfolio management, as well as any editing or changes to the activity itself. Required Software: IntelliTools Classroom Suite® v. 3.2 .