Using 2 Do It Yourself to promote writing - year 5

Back in the spring term, we decided to run a parallel project in years 1 and 5 at Becontree Primary School. We wanted to use 2Do It Yourself, from 2Simple, to promote writing.

In Year 5 we started by discussing what made games appealing to them. We looked at various online games and children came up with a list of a 'top 3' features they wanted to see on games.

There was great excitement when I told the class that they were going to be game developers for the Year 1 children to play. Having never used the 2DIY software before, the class and me, found it very interesting.

After a little exploration, the children started to design and create their own games. It certainly got the children engaged and many were taking their work home and working on it at play times. This led to some very good teamwork as well as some intriguing discussions between the children.

Most of the pairs completed their games and again, there was plenty of discussion about ways to improve their end products. Unfortunately we were unable to share our games with the Year 1 class. The class were disappointed about this after the effort that they had made.

With regards to improving writing, some of the boys were more involved in writing plans/instructions for the games. However I'm not sure if it had a huge impact on everyone. However it was a very worthwhile experience, both for the pupils and myself.