Today you build your own site for real.
You already know the blocks. You have planned a shape. You have made a counter on a page, and you have made a page take what a visitor types.
Now you put it all together: at least two pages, a menu on every page, your content in boxes, and one thing a visitor can do.
This is a project lesson, not a teaching beat. No new blocks. Pupils use only what they have already learnt.
Work may already be on the canvas from earlier building. If a pupil has no saved site, the interactive opens on a simple two-page starter they can rebuild from.
Protect the close: if time runs short, trim a build stretch. Still reach Make sense, Reflect and the recap.
Before you start building, decide four things. Write one short line for each on scrap paper so you can glance back while you build.
1. What is your site about? One topic only.
2. What are your page names? You need at least two.
3. What will a visitor do? Count something, or add something to a list.
4. What goes in a box on each page?
Keep those four answers where you can see them. Build that plan, not a different one.
Two minutes of quiet think is enough, then one minute to jot the four lines. This is a plan, not an art lesson. Scrap paper from the room is fine; nothing prepared in advance.
If someone is stuck for a topic, offer plain Irish primary ideas: a GAA club, a school garden, a favourite book series, a pet, a local place, a hobby.
Look-for: every pupil can name their topic and the one visitor action, and has the four lines written, before the first build stretch starts.
Open the interactive. Your site should already be there if you built earlier. If you see a simple starter site instead, that is fine. Build on it.
Must-have by the pause: two pages, and on each page a menu, a heading, and one box with text inside.
This stretch is about shape and content. Do headings and menus first, then fill the boxes.
If you have time, you may also add a picture or emoji from Content.
Check these off when you can see them:
Model only the checklist on the board, not a full demo site. Then get out of the way.
Circulate. Ask “Which page am I on?” and “Where does the menu take me?” rather than redesigning their topic.
Box is the required layout block (type id wp_card if you need it). Say box only with pupils. Row is optional for pupils who already met it. Picture and emoji are optional decoration, not on the must-have checklist. Point slower rebuilders at the must-have line first.
Watch for text left beside a box instead of snapped inside it. Remind them: drop text or subheading into the box until the preview shows the words on the coloured area.
Stop building. Hands off the keyboard for a moment.
Open your site on the Your web page tab.
Use every name in your menu to move around.
On each page, check there is still a menu so you can move again.
Can you reach every page and get back without help?
If a page has no menu, go back and put a menu block from Links & buttons on that page too.
Do this as a whole-class pause. Count down from ten, then everyone moves through their own menu in silence for one minute.
Ask two pupils to shout only yes or no to “I can reach every page and get back.” If several say no, give ninety seconds to fix menus, then move on.
The real failure mode is a page with no menu block: once you land there you cannot leave. Checking only the starting page can miss that.
Do not open a full demo. The point is their own navigation.
This stretch is about the one thing a visitor can do.
Most people should build a counter. Follow the counter path below.
Order matters: put the counter on the page first, then the button, then the action inside it. If you do it the other way round, the dropdown will say “(add a counter)”.
Counter path:
Only do this part if your teacher says your list from earlier is finished.
Add these in this order. If you add them out of order the dropdowns will say “(add a text box)”.
Try it yourself on the Your web page tab.
Check these off when you can see them:
Order matters for Apps. The counter, text box or list box must sit on the page before the action block that names it, or the dropdown reads “(add a counter)” or “(add a text box)”. That rule is on the pupil screen; still name the category out loud when you help: From Apps, drag button when clicked. Never say only “add a button.”
Steer the whole room toward the counter path. The list option is only for pupils you confirm already finished a list; do not promote it in a tight period.
Remind pupils to label the button so a visitor knows what will happen.
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