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Activity

Finch Tales

Bring a story or character to life! Retell your favorite story or create one of your own.

BEGINNER: Outputs Only

Required Lessons: Moving & Turning, LEDs, Buzzer & Sound

Tell a story by including the Finch as a character in a play or skit. Move the Finch on stage at the appropriate time, and have it move and light up based on how the character should behave in the story.  

Extension for BirdBlox/Snap!: Use the tablet/computer sound recording feature to record the lines that the character should say, and then play them back at the appropriate moments in the story.

INTERMEDIATE: Add Sensors

Required Lessons: Sensor Overview, Boolean Data, Conditional Statements

Tell a story by including the Finch as a character in a play or skit. Move the Finch on stage at the appropriate time, and have it move and light up based on how the character should behave in the story. Use sensors to trigger the Finch to react to another character in the play. For example, if a non-Finch character moves close to the Finch, you could use the distance sensor to trigger the Finch to respond.

Extension for BirdBlox/Snap!: Use the tablet/computer sound recording feature to record the lines that the character should say, and then play them back at the appropriate moments in the story.

ADVANCED: Going Further

Required Lessons: Modularity

Tell a story by including the Finch as a character in a play or skit. Move the Finch on stage at the appropriate time, and have it move and light up based on how the character should behave in the story. Give your Finch at least five lines, which it should say via recorded sound (if in BirdBlox or Snap) and act out with motion, light, and sound effects. Each line and associated actions should be its own custom block or message. 

 

MATERIALS: Materials

  • Design and build some Finch-sized sets and backdrops for your story.
  • Give Finch a costume made of paper, felt, or something else to help tell the story. Attach costumes to Finch with masking tape.

    INTEGRATION

    • Writing: Students can tell a story from their lives. This is a great activity to teach story sequencing!
    • Literature: Program the Finch to reenact a scene from a book or play.
    • Poetry: Record yourself reading a poem or other reading, and program the Finch to bring it to life.
    • Encourage students to think about HOW the Finch character would move through each part of the story. Fast, slow, choppy? What colors would the LEDs be? How can students program their Finch to convey emotion?
    • Include more Finches for more characters. Learn to control multiple Finches from the same programming device in the Using Multiple Finches module.