It is designed to fit into the UK Yr6/7 transition unit related to the book Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, but can also be used as a stand-alone project for other year groups and in other countries (see below).

Without needing to understand any computer language, classes can create an online island that other people can visit and explore. It can involve imaginative and descriptive writing, perhaps diary or poetry writing. We are always open to suggestions as to other applications of the project in the classroom and ICT lab..

Pupils create challenges and puzzles for the visitor to solve. As the visitor travels around a created Island, descriptive writing for each area encourages them to explore further. Will they be able to survive, and leave the Island, or will they remain forever ... trapped?

UK schools helped us test the pilot stage of Adventure Island, and the full web-based tool with instructions, teachers’ notes and worksheets is now available in the eTeachers’ Portal for teachers anywhere to reproduce the project with their classes.

Some examples of how Adventure Island might fit with the curriculum

Note: This refers to the UK curriculum Literacy Framework but schools elsewhere should be able to see how this might fit into your teaching.

Transition Year 6 / Year 7

Potentially building on reading Michael Morpurgo’s “Kensuke’s Kingdom”
Year 6 can do a type of writing that’s very different from their SATs and secondary schools can offer their ICT labs and facilities to the Year 6s.
Can be combined with other ways to work on the book in drama, art etc.
Book reviews, poems and other stories can in any case be submitted to Kids on the Net

Yr 3 Term 3
Ob 3 Distinguish between 1st and 3rd person texts
Ob 11 To write opening to stories or chapters linked to or arising from reading; to focus on language to create effects; e.g..... setting scenes
Ob 12 To write a first person account
Ob 21 Use IT to bring to a published form

Yr Term 3
Ob 1 to identify social, moral or cultural issues in stories, eg. the dilemmas faced by characters or the moral of the story, and to discuss how the characters deal with them;
Ob 11 to explore the main issues of a story by writing a story about a dliemma and the issues it raises for the character

Yr5 Term 3
Ob 3 to change a point of view; eg tell incident from or describe a situation from the point of view of another character or perspective
Ob 7 to write from another characters point of view eg. retelling an incident in [letter form]

Yr6 Term 3
On 13 to write a sequence of poems linked by theme or form, eg. haiku (each area could have a haiku describing it)
Ob 22 to select the appropriate style and form to suit a specific purpose and audience, drawing on knowledge of different non-fiction text types (e.g., diary / journal type writing)

There are many other ways to fit this project into the curriculum and we will support creative suggestions.