Techno Tools – 5 Card Stories

5 Card Stories is a really cool site. As the name tells the aim of the site is to write a small story/explanation about 5 rather unrelated pictures. This application draws upon collections of photos specified by a tag in flickr. You are dealt five random photos for each draw, and your task is to select one each time to add to a selection of images, that taken together as a final set of 5 images- tell a story in pictures.

When you are done, you get the option to add a title and explanation, then you can save the story. You can also get a link to your story, so you can share it with friends and family or may even put on a blog.

I liked this website a lot, it has great potential in teaching. The fun of it will lead any reluctant writer to write. Trying to make some link between five totally un related pictures gives a nice stretch to one’s imagination and creativity. It can be a great teaching tool for kids with English as a secondary language. Younger children can make a list of things appearing in the pictures, and hence practice their spellings. But the biggest thing I liked was that it can help non Arabs in practicing Arabic language. You can first write a story in English and then choose the option of reusing the same cards to write another story. Try writing the story again in Arabic (in Romans) or you can simply write your Arabic version on paper. Use Google Translator to find out the translation of words in Arabic which will give your Arabic vocabulary a boost. Doing this activity for Arabic every week a few times will help a lot in forming small sentences and learning new words, Insha Allaah.

A word of caution: Though I have used this site many a times, and the pictures are generally clean but parental supervision should be exercised as you have no control on which pictures may appear on screen.

Exemplary uses:

Here’s a story by my 2nd grader:

Dinosaurs

another one by my Kindergartner:

I like

 

and here is the Arabic version of the second one: