Posts Tagged ‘Dr. Seuss’

Dr. Seuss Week eBooks

For our Parents:

In celebration of Seuss week, we have done a variety of activities in the computer lab. First graders read Wacky Wednesday, by Dr. Seuss and created a “wacky” self-portrait in MS Paint. For silly sock day, the 2nd graders illustrated their colorful socks or their sock monkey. After reading My Many Colored Days, the 3rd graders wrote their own color poems and added clip art.

The 1st and 2nd grade pictures have been combined and converted to ePub books which can be opened in iBooks (free app from iTunes store) or Adobe Digital Editions software (free download for PC and MacOS). If you have a Nook reader and Adobe Digital Editions, you can transfer the books to the Nook (the formatting isn’t perfect but it still works). The ePub books will not work on a Kindle.

The 3rd grade poems have been saved in PDF files which should be able to be opened on any computer.

You will need to have either iBooks or Adobe Digital Editions on your iPad (or other iOS device)/computer in order to open and read the ePub books. If you have an iPad or iTouch with the iBook app, you should get a message asking if you want to open in iBooks. If you are on a PC with Adobe Digital Editions, the ePub book will open in that software and you can then plug your Nook into the computer’s USB port and drag the book to the Nook. You can also read the book straight from Adobe Digital Editions software.

Click on the following links to open in iBooks or with Adobe Digital Editions.

Cantrell Wacky Self-Portraits

Kee Wacky Self-Portraits

Orehek Wacky Self-Portraits

Cooper Silly Socks

Garcia Silly Socks

Shapard Silly Socks

The third grade poems are in PDFs and can be opened on any computer. You should also be able to open the files in iBooks or Adobe Digital Editions.

Gramentine Color Poems

Prescott Color Poems

Weth Color Poems

Making ePub Books


Thanks to a how-to tip on creating ePub books by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, I figured out how to make an ebook of student work. 2ePub is a free ePub converter that is easy to use. Our first graders had drawn their “Wacky” self-portraits in MS Paint so I inserted those pictures into MS Word, saved it as a PDF, then uploaded it to 2ePub. Extremely easy!! Following Silvia’s instructions, I pulled the book into my iTunes account and added artwork for the cover. To put it on our school iPads I had to email the file to myself then opened it in iBooks.

I didn’t have as much success with the 3rd grade poems! The 1st grade books are just pictures; no text. The 3rd grade students included clip art with their poetry. I tried all kinds of formatting; uploading several different documents. Unfortunately I wasn’t pleased with any of the ePub formats. Page breaks weren’t where I wanted them to be. Occasionally, words were split. I ended up saving the poetry as a PDF and opening them in iBooks that way. You don’t get the “book” feel that you have with an ePub book but it works.

When I showed the students that their work was on the iPad, they were ecstatic! 

1st graders

I’ll email parents with the ePub and PDF files so that they’ll have access to them. It seems that many of the students have either an iPad or an iTouch so they could easily add these to iBooks.

From what I’ve read, it seems that the ePub conversion would be much easier if I had a Mac but, alas, that isn’t in the budget now so I’ll just work with what I’ve got.

Cantrell seuss (open in iBooks or open with Adobe Digital Editions)

Dr. Seuss Projects

The 1st graders finished their self-portraits this week and I added their faces to the drawings. Here are a few samples:

           

       

 Second graders drew their silly sock (or sock monkeys) pictures using MS Paint. Photoscape was used to combine the illustrations into a paper quilt.

         

One 4th grade class met with me during Seuss week. It was Crazy Hat day and the students certainly enjoyed drawing the very interesting hats that adorned their heads!

It was a fun week!

 

Wacky Wednesday and Terrific TCU Students

We love to celebrate Dr. Seuss and thanks to our creative librarian, Mrs. Murphy, we have an event-filled week. Today was Wacky Wednesday with teachers and students joining in with some very interesting outfits!

Our first graders visited the lab today and, after reading Wacky Wednesday, used MS Paint to create a “wacky” self-portrait. The children draw their picture, print it out, and glue a picture of their face to the illustration.

For most, this was their first time to use the paint program so it took some getting used to the tools (that didn’t always do what the students wanted!). This is where our fabulous TCU students were so helpful. They came to observe technology lessons and jumped right in to help the little ones with ideas, suggestions, and guidance. Not everyone finished this week but that’s okay. We’ll complete the project next week then I’ll bind the papers together so each class will have a book of wacky self-portraits.

Pictures of Mrs. Kee’s class with their TCU visitors:

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