Posts Tagged ‘Pic Collage’
Pic Collage Kids
I came across a fun idea a few days ago that would be a great way to introduce the Pic Collage Kids app to our first graders. Spooky Good Costumes is a cute way to introduce students to several of the tools in an app that is useful across the curriculum.
First, why Pic Collage Kids ($1.99) rather than Pic Collage (free with in-app purchases)? Both have the same interface but there are two very important reasons why I prefer Pic Collage Kids.
- The kids app is rated 4+ while the otheris12+. This is a huge help inavoiding the inappropriate “stickers” and images that sometimes pop up on Pic Collage.
- Even though there is a charge for Pic Collage Kids, it is not that much considering that there are LOTS of free stickers that come with the app. And, younger children LOVE stickers!!
If you want a more detailed comparison of the two, click here.
Back to the project . . . I followed the instructions from the above blog post and, let me tell you, those first graders did a fantastic job! I told one class that we had only 40 minutes to do something that should normally take twice that long.
We opened the app and students had one minute to take a selfie. Really, if you give them longer, they can’t ever seem to take the “perfect” photo and they end up taking way too many!
I was a little worried about the clip tool – would it take too long to “cut” around the head, taking out the background? The kids absolutely loved this! They had so much fun cutting without scissors!
What concentration!
Look at our heads!
Next step – showing the tools for drawing (doodle), changing the background, and adding fun stickers. Students were asked to use stickers to create their name.
I love these letter stickers for a Halloween collage. I did impose a limit of 5 stickers (excluding the name). Otherwise, there’s a temptation to cover the page with every sticker available!
There was lots of concentration as the students created their collages.
As the students completed their drawings, they airdropped them to me. The first couple of children who finished became “tech helpers” and were they fantastic (not to mention, proud!).
Here’s the animoto video of the costumed first graders. Enjoy!
Everywhere, as the first graders discovered!
On a chilly, blustery day we took our iPads out for a shape hunt. To correlate with their math unit the children were searching for circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons. Students could also photograph solid shapes if they wanted.
After two quick reviews – one over shapes and one about taking quality photos, we picked up our iPads and started the search.
After searching for a bit, we returned to the lab where the students used the Pic Collage app to insert and label their photos.
Next, the students uploaded their collages to their blog. They were asked to reflect on the shape hunt.
- Was it hard to find all the shapes?
- Were you surprised at where you found shapes?
The students enjoyed their search and were surprised at some of the places where they found shapes!
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!
After discovering a tweet from a student in Kristen Wideen’s class telling how the children were representing 2-digit numbers, I shared the idea with the 1st grade team. They were excited to have another way for the children to practice number sense.
After brainstorming with the teachers, we decided to use a combination of manipulatives and apps to represent numbers. The children use concrete manipulatives throughout the year so they had lot of experience working with money and base ten blocks before moving to apps.
Individual White Boards – to draw tally marks of their number.
Dice – We first started out with 2 regular dice (1-6). Those students who had chosen a number with digits greater than 6 quickly discovered regular dice didn’t work! This turned into a perfect problem-solving activity. Should we change the number? What else could we do to show our number?
Hundreds Chart – We chose the free, easy-to-use SchoolKit Math app. The hundreds chart is one of 10 activities within this app.
Base Ten Blocks – We used the Number Pieces app. (Thanks to Mrs. Wideen’s class for recommending the free app!) We asked to draw a T-chart and label it with tens and ones.
Money – One of the choices of the SchoolKit Math app is money so this is what we used. The students were asked to represent their numeral using a couple of different money combinations.
Process:
Before starting, we reviewed how to use the camera and tips on taking a clear picture. Then we practiced taking a screen shot. We also talked about cropping images and I was amazed at how quickly the children picked that up!
Next, we went through each method and “built” our numbers.
Finally, we were ready to pull everything together in Pic Collage. The students LOVED building their collage and trying out the wide variety of backgrounds!
Because we ran out of time during our first session, we met later to have the children post their collage to their blog.
The children loved the activity (as did the teachers). Plus, it was a great way to check to see how students were doing with their number sense using 2-digit numbers.
The students at work:
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!
