The first grade teachers had been talking about adjectives and decided Skitch would be a nice way to reinforce describing words.
When the students arrived in the lab, I paired them up and had everyone sit in a big circle. The teacher and I talked about adjectives and then introduced the project. Each group of two shared an iPad (which worked well for the most part!). The children were to take a picture of each other, import it into Skitch, and then write words that described their partner.
Step 1:Pose for photos. Partner 1 took a photo of partner 2 and handed the iPad back to partner 2 so he/she could write their name.
Step 2:Open the Skitch app and import the photo. My original plan was to have the children get used to using the camera on the iPad and then go to choose a photo. However, that extra step added too much time so after the first class we just used the “Take a Photo” option within the Skitch app.
Step 3:Describe a partner. The iPad returned to Partner 1 who wrote describing words. (Does all the changing sound confusing?? The students really did figure it out!). The hardest part was dealing with the arrows! The idea was to draw an arrow from a word and point it toward the student in the picture. Unfortunately, we ended up with LOTS of little arrows everywhere. The children forgot to switch to another tool and would touch the screen. Everywhere they touched, a new arrow appeared!
Step 4:Email the document to me. When finished the students emailed their Skitch document to me so that I could print them in color.
Step 5:Change roles and begin again.
Considering we only had about 40 minutes to do everything, the students did remarkably well for the first time using this app. We’re still working on mastering adjectives vs. nouns but that just takes practice!
Mrs. Cooper’s second grade class spent the month of February researching presidents. They talked about qualities needed to be an effective president. This led to a discussion on characteristics of leaders. Mrs. Cooper invited our headmaster, Dr. Krahn, to visit her class to share his ideas about leadership.
The students jotted ideas in their journals but decided they wanted to share what their thoughts with others. They came to the computer lab earlier this week and started blogging their thoughts.
They would love to have others looks at their writing so please visit Mrs. Cooper’s blog and feel free to leave comments!
To celebrate Dr. Seuss week, we read Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss to our first graders (who just happen to come on Wednesday to the lab!). I have to say, there were some VERY wacky-looking students (and teachers) in the lab that day so drawing a wacky picture was not a problem at all!
The students used Microsoft’s Paint program for their illustration. The teachers joined in and discovered that it’s not so easy drawing something on the computer! Most didn’t finish during lab time so we carried over to the following week.
Once the students had completed their drawings, we opened MaxWrite (from Max’s Toolbox by FableVision Learning). MaxWrite is the child-friendly word processing program that runs off Microsoft Word.
The students inserted their pictures and then described the “wackiness” they had illustrated. We’ll be printing these out to make a class book.
I took their drawings and created an animoto video. Enjoy!
Once again, to celebrate Pi Day this Thursday, March 14, McGraw-Hill is offering several apps free of charge for iOS devices and at a reduced price in the Google Play store.
Continuing with Seuss week celebrations, our second graders were issued a challenge:
Dr. Seuss was good at creating imaginary creatures. Now it’s your turn to create a creature from your own imagination. Think about where it might live; what it might eat.
(lesson from Discover the Forest)
After flipping through a few Dr. Seuss books and discussing backgrounds, styles, colors, etc, the students and their teachers set to work drawing a Seuss-like critter. This was a wonderful opportunity for the teachers to be students. They are always an extra hand in the lab so they rarely get the chance to try out the things we do. But this time they discovered it isn’t quite as easy to draw in Microsoft Paint as they thought it was! The teachers quickly learned to ask other students for guidance. And, the children were absolutely thrilled to share their knowledge!
Crazy Hat Day – It is so much fun to see the interesting hats worn by the students (and teachers) during Dr. Seuss week! To celebrate today’s theme, the third graders used Microsoft Paint to illustrate their hats.
Since I’ll be making a collage of the illustrations, the teachers joined in and drew what they had worn. That was the funniest part of the session! The children LOVE having their teachers be students and they are thrilled when their assistance is required. One teacher was easily frustrated because the tools didn’t do what she wanted (Yes, it is very difficult to draw on the computer and the students have much more experience than their teachers!). We would hear, “Oh, no!” “Why didn’t that work?” “I can’t do this!” She had lots of help from her students! Another teacher was concentrating so hard that she had no idea what was going on around her.
Here’s the animoto of the third graders’ crazy hats.
One of our second grade teachers, Mrs. Shapard, wanted her students to research an animal to develop an understanding of what camouflage, prey, protection, and habitat means. She wanted the students to be able to share the information in a way other than the usual oral report. Mrs. Shapard chose to use the Book Creator for iPad app since it’s an easy way to make an ePub book. The app allows students to type text, insert images, and record narration. A new feature of the app allows users to make a book then email it. All books can then be combined to make one class book.
Because we only have only one class set of iPads that can be checked out, the students just wrote a few basic facts for their individual books. We were able to get the set for two different class sessions.
During the first session, the students were to use the Drawing Box app to draw two pictures: one of their animal and one of the animal in camouflage. Most had enough time to finish their illustrations.
The next week, I started out with everyone following along as I discussed the tools in the Book Creator app. It’s such an intuitive app that there were few questions and as students discovered tools they shared information with their peers. After the students wrote the animal facts, formatted their text, and inserted their illustrations, they were ready to record. Again, the app makes this super easy! While students dispersed to various corners of the room, I took pictures for their author pages.
Next step – email the book. All were sent to me and then combined into one class book. The only negative to combining books in the Book Creator app is that there is always an empty page between books (or at least I haven’t figured out how to avoid that). But, that’s a perfect spot for an “About the Author” page.
Taking this picture was probably more difficult than any other part of the process! Every time we thought we were ready to snap the photo, someone’s screen would change to something other than their animal picture. That would be fixed, then it would happen to someone else. It was rather humorous! After dissolving into fits of laughter several times, we were finally able to get all screens showing an animal at the same time!
We hope you enjoy this book from Mrs. Shapard’s class of animal lovers!
Link to the class book:To read the ePub book, you must click on the book link below while on an iOS device with the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch). The book will not open on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book link. We hope you enjoy the students’ work!
You will need the iBooks app installed on your iOS device.
Click on the book link above.
Tap on the download button.
Choose Open in . . . and then choose Open in iBooks
The book is now in iBooks.
Lessons Learned:
Always pre-write! The first day the students had the iPads, we had planned to only spend time drawing the two illustrations. However, some students finished early so we let them go ahead and start writing directly in the Book Creator. The result was that we had all kinds of writing! Not everyone knew what they wanted to say and even though we had discussed where to write the information, there was no specific order. After class, Mrs. Shapard and I debriefed and decided that it would be best to have those who had started their book begin again. The students would write a rough draft in class and when they had the iPads again, would type the information into the app. When we met again, there was a bit of groaning from the few who had started their book the week before but they quickly realized that their expertise was needed to help those who hadn’t had the chance to explore the app!
Make sure students know how to save the illustration to the photo roll! All drawing apps are just different enough that exporting can be confusing. In Drawing Box, saving the image doesn’t automatically send it to the photo roll. There were a few moments of panic when students couldn’t find their picture but that was easily remedied!
Use students as “teachers”! Students learn quickly and are invaluable in helping others who have questions; especially when a teacher can’t get there quickly to help!
Our second and third graders have been taking surveys and using the data to practice working in an Excel spreadsheet. The students took two surveys: one on favorite fruits and the other on favorite pizza toppings. I used Survey Monkey for the polling.
Both grades started with a template to create a bar graph using data collected from the “Favorite Fruits” survey. The students learned about cells and how to enter data. The students were fascinated to learn abut auto sum! Before showing auto sum, I asked the students to estimate what they thought the answer would be. Many were thrilled to discover that their estimation was fairly close. A favorite part of the lesson was learning how to change the color of the bars!
The following week, we discussed pie charts as well as bar graphs using the “Favorite Pizza Toppings” survey. Although we again had a template, I left out some information.
As soon as the students opened the spreadsheet, I heard comments such as: “You left off some of the toppings. We’ll have to write them.”
Hooray! I love it when they are observant!
Again, I had the students use the auto sum function and was pleased to discover that they remembered how to do it. The third graders even learned how to select the data and create a pie chart.
As an added piece to the lesson, some of the third graders had time to blog about what they learned about spreadsheets.
Although we learned some basics, the students were thrilled to discover that they could use a program just like their parents (Well, not quite, but they were excited!). It’s a start . . .
A few months ago, my mom emailed to tell me that she had heard about a teacher who gave each of her students a key and asked them to write a story about what that key might open. She then told me that she had plenty of keys (mostly antique) and asked if I would like them. Teachers refuse nothing so of course I jumped at the chance to add to my collection of stuff!
Wanting to have the 4th graders do a writing activity and try out the Book Creator for iPad app’s newest features of emailing a book then combining several to make one class book, I decided to have the students pair up and write a story about a key.
When the students arrived for computer lab at the beginning of the week, I described the assignment:
Choose a key and work with a partner to write a short story. Answer questions such as:
What could the key open?
What use did it have?
Where might it lead?
Illustrate the story, type it in the Book Creator app, and then record it. Finally email the book to me so that I would be able to combine all into one class book.
I was amazed at the interest in the keys – students said they’d never seen the various shapes of keys from the past! After much examination, each group finally chose one! Then they went to work brainstorming what to write. The story was typed in Microsoft Word. Illustrations were done either on the computer (Microsoft Paint) or on the iPad (using one of the following apps: Drawing Box, Art Set, or Color Box HD). The students also used the iPad camera to photograph their key which was to be used in some place in the story.
It was interesting to watch the students work; to see the collaboration as they talked about their ideas. Some finished quickly while others weren’t finished after their five days with me. Considering we only had 40 minutes a day, I was amazed at the progress – writing, illustrating, learning the apps. We were not able to spend as much time revising as I had hoped so some of the stories aren’t as “polished” as we would like.
The students really enjoyed writing and recording a “key” story. Some gave up recess to have extra time to work. The app was easy to use and the idea that they will have a finished product that can be read on an iPad or iPhone was extremely appealing!
Link to the class book:To read the ePub book, you must click on the book link below while on an iOS device with the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch). The book will not open on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book links. We hope you enjoy the students’ work!
You will need the iBooks app installed on your iOS device.
Click on the book link above.
Tap on the download button.
Choose Open in . . . and then choose Open in iBooks
The book is now in iBooks.
Lessons Learned:
To get illustrations drawn in Microsoft Paint on the computer to the iPad, I uploaded them to my Picasa Album so the students could go there and save the image to their photos on the iPad.
When the books are combined, there is an extra page in front of the title. After discovering this with the first two finished books, I asked students to come up with an “About the Author” page. They loved posing for their authors picture!
It is important to pre-write before getting into the app. That gives students the chance to edit and revise; not the favorite aspect of the writing process but it’s what authors do!
Our 3rd and 4th grade Spanish teacher, Sra. Nedrelow, developed a wonderful lesson for Valentine’s Day in which the students made valentines and created an ePub book using the app, Book Creator.
The Book Creator app provides a simple way to create an ebook for the iPad. Images, text, hyperlinks, and recorded narration can be added to the pages to create an interactive reading experience.
Sra. Nedrelow photographed each student holding their valentine. The students then took turns recording themselves reading what they had written.
What a fabulous way for parents to listen to their child speak Spanish!
Links to the class books:To read the ePub book, you must click on the book links below while on an iOS device with the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch). The books will not open on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book links. We hope you enjoy the students’ work!
After reading a wonderful post from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano on her Langwitches blog about Kindergarteners using Skitch to label nouns, I passed it on to our teachers with the comment, “We too can do something like this!”
