Manzana Tips and Tricks November 09

Hide and reveal – Magic boxes

This month we’re having a look at a basic trick called ‘magic boxes’.
A hide and reveal trick ideal for matching or separating exercises.

Check out the video here

The idea behind ‘magic boxes’ is that on your screen is a single box with a range of answers ‘hidden’ in it. As you touch and drag the middle of the box an answer is revealed and you then match it up to a range of possibilities along the other side of the screen.

For this basic example I’ll use counting in Te Reo as my matching topic (Te Reo words hidden in the box, with 1-9 down the side of the screen).

Start by creating a box using the rectangle tool. Make sure you choose a fill colour for that shape (in this example I’ll use green).

Put the box on the bottom left hand side of the screen.

Lock it in place by highlighting the box and clicking the arrow on the top right hand corner of the box. Go down to Lock.

Put individual numbers from 1- 9 down the middle of the screen using text.

Next, using individual text boxes, write out each Te Reo number from tahi to iwa(1 -9). Make sure that the colour for each word is the same as the fill colour you used for your box (green).

Highlight one of the Te Reo numbers, say waru (8), click on waru’s right hand arrow and select send to back. Do this for a number of Te Reo numbers so that it jumbles up the order. (this means that when the numbers are pulled from the box they don’t come out tahi, rua, toru, wha etc..)

Drag the Te Reo numbers into the box – they will now ‘disappear’.

Students can now go up to the board and drag the Te Reo version of the number out of the box – not knowing what it is – and then place it next to the correct numeral.

To watch the how to video click here.