Thanks to ideas from a fabulous post by Meghan Zigmond called Noun Cards, our first graders went on a search for nouns to review what they had learned about that part of speech.
I started the discussion by asking what a noun is (person, place, or thing). We then brainstormed ideas for each category. The students were told they were to take an iPad photo of a noun, check it to make sure it wasn’t blurry, then return to their seat for the next part of the activity.
Using Meghan’s idea for a script, the students circled what type of noun they found and wrote what it was called.
Noun Video Script for 1st grade
Next step – add the photo to ChatterPix Kids (free iOS app). I love this app because it is so intuitive for even the youngest students. The children were asked to type the name of their noun and “by ___” (add their name). They were sent off to record in “quiet” places in the room. When you are trying to record an entire class in a short amount of time, there’s never a completely quiet spot and there’s always a bit of background noise. But, isn’t that the sign of an engaged class??
Recording with Mrs. Kee
Adding text to the video.
All this took about 40 minutes which I thought was not bad considering the students hadn’t used the app before!
Sample video:
The following week, we uploaded the video to our blogs. The first graders have been blogging but we hadn’t done so on the iPad. What’s nice is that KidBlog’s interface is now the same on a computer or on an iPad so it was an easy transition.
Uploading video to blog
Sample post
The students wrote a sentence or two about the process and/or about their noun and uploaded their video. I’m having the 4th graders leave comments for the little ones. (They won’t admit it but it’s obvious they’ve enjoyed seeing what the little ones are doing and then giving them feedback!)
If you would like to leave comments, visit the following blogs. Thanks!
Mrs. Crumley’s blog
Mrs. Hutchinson’s blog
Mrs. Kee’s blog
Our first graders took advantage of a beautiful day to go on a noun hunt.
When they arrived in the lab, we reviewed what a noun is (person, place, or thing). I explained that they would be going on a noun hunt and they were to take 4 photos of a place or thing (a person was omitted because I didn’t want them taking photos of their classmates).
We headed outside and the little photographers spread out in search of nouns.
Back in the room, we opened Pic Collage and added the four photos. We discussed how to add labels for each image and I challenged the children to add an adjective (or describing word; a more appropriate term for first graders) for each noun.
Proud collage creators:
The next step will be to upload the collages to their blog pages.
I love Pic Collage because there are so many ways it can be incorporated into a lesson and it is extremely easy for any age to use.
What amazed me was how many different nouns the children discovered! We were in a small courtyard but they were able to find all kinds of objects – things that adults tend to miss! The first graders had a great time on their noun hunt!
Our first graders have been learning about nouns so when they visited the lab this week I thought it would be helpful if they went on a noun hunt!
We started class with discussing what a noun is – person, place, or thing. Several students quickly mentioned that there is a fourth category: animals! I asked the students to take a look around the room. “Do you see anything that is a noun?” Hands popped up with all kinds of answers.
Before going on the noun hunt, we talked about the Pic Collage app (click here for Android app) and how to take an in-focus photograph. Unfortunately, we were unable to search outside due to rain so we used the lab and the Upper School art gallery just outside our room. I loved watching the little photographers wandering around, searching for the “perfect” photo op!
The students’ photos were better than my blurry ones! It was difficult to catch them NOT moving around rather quickly!
After collecting 4 or 5 pictures, the students returned to the lab where they labeled each noun, added a title, and typed their name. The next step was to email the image to me. This was the first time they’d done that but all did quite well. I love observing how they help each other too.
The collages were printed for the students. What a fun way to review nouns!
