Maths stories- Shadow Puppet

Maths stories

This week I have introduced a new app to the students:  Shadow Puppet http://get-puppet.co/ is a great app that uses the skill taking photos with the camera and bringing them to life through the recording of voices.

There are lots of different ways Shadow puppet can be used.  I chose to use it by solving maths problems.  This can be done at a range of levels, adjusting for each abilities.

It was very pleasing to see the teachers using this app the next day, reinforcing their learning or putting their own spin on it to use it for another subject they are learning about.

Below are photos of  students preparing their story.

Credit from TPT(c)2014ThinkAppyThoughts&Tunstall’sTeachingTidbits

Drawing Pad: Reading Response

Reading Response:  Prediction                       It could have been worse  By A.H Benjamin        

Another day teaching Room 8 gave me a chance to use the Drawing Pad app again.  They did such a great job with their book covers about Edwin the Otter (see previous post) that I knew they would be very capable to do something else.

I began by showing the children the front cover of the book, from here they wrote in their books what they thought the book was going to be about. 



 We began to read the story and I stopped on the page where there was a fox.  They were then left to discuss what they thought would happen next.

They all wrote a sentence and then using drawing pad illustrated their own page for the book.

It was definitely a challenge for everyone, especially trying to draw a fox!  I was very impressed with the ability of the children and the final outcomes were very good.

We are still working on fine tuning the final products to make sure the overall display has the best layout but this is all learning and the more they do the better they results they will get.

Check out the awesome work below:
Using Drawing pad:  Students drew their pictures, added backgrounds and clip art.  Added text to write a sentence for the page to match their illustration.  This was done in one block (1 1/2 hours)

Reinforcing Learning

iPad in the classroom

Well I'm back after 6 weeks away on holiday in London!
 It was so great to come back and walk into a classroom of Year 2/3s to find them working away independently on their iPads.  The thing I love about this class is that after I have taught them a skill or new app on the iPad they continue to practice it on their own or with their teacher to reinforce what they have learnt or extend their learning by putting their own spin on it.  I can definitely see a difference when I work in all the classes throughout the school: like anything, when a student has been exposed to something, then has had extra time spent on it - the results are very telling.   I am blown away by the skill and ability of these young students and it is great when I get to spend a whole day with them instead of my normal 1 1/2 hour block.

Here are some photos of the students, voluntary working on the iPad before school.  You can see they are using the following apps:
1.  Puppet Pals
2.  Drawing Pad
3.  Chatterpix

Book-creator and Drawing Pad

YAY- so happy today, I get to have a whole day to teach Room 8, so of course I will be teaching them some new techniques to use on the ipad!
I saw a really cool idea on scoop it - which I need to locate to give credit to.
I took the idea and changed it to suit my Year 2 class.

Aim:  Students will respond to a book they read

Outline:

• I shared the title with the students and got them to share everything they new about otters.  (was great to have a totally random topic with little background knowledge)  through images I showed them we came up with a great list of ideas.
• They then did this task at their desks with a partner, including some drawings on paper
• Next step was for them to create a new book cover for the story- they needed to draw an otter in Drawing pad
• They then uploaded their picture into Book creator- and included a title and their name
• We then predicted what the story was going to be about- again  lots of discussion and sharing the students they then went and recorded their voices on book creator on the next page.
• The class loved reading the story- it is very interactive with videos and photos to watch on the way as well as enjoying the cleverly written rhyming story.

• If I had more time I would of loved to continue to add more pages and complete more responses to the story.  I think they did great considering the time frame and especially since it was their first time using both the apps.  Most students completed 3 reading responses, these included, Patterns in the text, Their favourite part, Something they learnt 

Book creator

Fiona's Photo on Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Planning for book creator story

Recording voices- Chatter kids and Aging booth

Today was a real learning curve for me and the whole process of teaching iPad!  After teaching throughout the Junior and Middle school I was left to teach our Senior classes.  Presuming I would need to extend these students I adjusted my lesson plan to the learning needs that I thought I would  be facing with these children.  I was very surprised to find that they were very interested in doing the aging booth app and were quite happy to spend the whole lesson using the chatter kids app.  They were fully engaged and on task and with each new recording their voices became more fluent, expressive and creative.  So I scrapped the iMovie idea and stuck to the first two ideas.  Just made me realise how clued up the Junior classes are as they have more access to the iPad where the seniors only use chrome books.

Tasks

• Students aged them selves using aging booth
• Completed a task card, writing 4 headings with a supporting sentence about what life was like in the olden days
• They then put their face into chatter kids and created a character, recording their voices to tell their story

Grandparents day- Aging app

Check out the video Room 9 created. It's great to hear how they are spoilt by their Grandparents!

Tellagami

Tellagami timelines

 Room 11 have been making a timeline in their class. They had a to pick an event that was significant to New Zealand between 1915-2015. They found out so much. The video shows a small snip it of their recordings. They found a photo of their event then recorded their voices to describe what happened at that time.

Fiona's Video on Sunday, 13 September 2015

Fiona's Video on Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Fiona's Video on Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Fiona's Video on Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Grandparents Day

Lesson Objectives:  We are learning to reinforce prior learning by been able to: 

• take a clear photo
• record voices clearly
• use a range of familiar apps

Apps Used:  Aging Booth, Chatterpix, IMovie

Today I worked with the  Year 0-1 classes.  They are learning about the 'olden days' and we are having a Grandparents Day at the end of term.

We discussed as a class, all the things we love about our Grandparents and brainstormed a big list on the board.

The students came up with lots of different ideas.  The older children wrote down some ideas.

I then took a photo of each child.  I used accessories such as glasses, hats and scarfs to add more affect.  I then used the 'aging booth' app to add 'years' to their looks.

They came up really well and the kids loved looking at their new image as well as their class mates.  There was lots of laughs and shrieks!

I then got the students to record their voices to the photos after we put them on 'chatterpix'.

I finished by putting all the chatterpix photos onto an iMovie for the whole class to watch and share with our Grandparents.

The whole process took a bit of time but the students really enjoyed it and the final results were great.  I'm sure their Grandparents will be very impressed when they see the movie!

Imovie about Plants

Today I taught a group of  Year 7/8 students.  To extend on the work we had been doing on taking photos and videos we combined these to create an iMovie.
The topic was plants.  Each student was given a sheet with QR codes that had links to videos, facts, songs and other information about the topic.
They were also given a think sheet that had 4 key questions that they needed to find the answers for.

The key was to get the students to realise that they could make a video about a non-fiction topic and that it is another way of sharing information.  Most of their previous video experience was from acting out a play or being in character.

The final product was the 4 questions on their Think sheets been answered through the students: taking screen shots, uploading pictures, taking photos (all needed to be edited before importing)  recording their voice, adding text, titles, music, sound effects.

All of the videos were very different although all giving similar information.
This was a one off lesson with no prior teaching about plants!

So far we have covered.....

We are now well into Term 3 and we have covered a lot in this time. 
Below is a list of  the areas taught and some of the apps that we have used.

• - IPad basics- familiarise using the iPad,
• - How to use the camera and take good quality photos and edit them
• - How to take videos and use and edit them in    Imovie
• - Digital Citizenship- online safety     Digital Passports
• - Scan and create QR codes  QR code reader
• - Display information   Pic Collage
• - Research about animals, using Augmented Reality     Zookazam
• - Recording voices and bringing objects to life tellagami, chatterkids

These apps have been used and implemented throughout the lessons: Popplet , show me, drawing pad, Skype- mystery callers and guest authors

Chatterpix

Fiona's Video on Wednesday, 26 August 2015

Fiona's Video on Wednesday, 26 August 2015

Fiona's Photo on Friday, 7 August 2015

Fiona's Photo on Friday, 7 August 2015

Fiona's Post on Friday, 7 August 2015

Chatterkid app This term we are focusing on recording our voices onto the iPad. We made sure we knew where the microphone was and made sure our hands weren't covering it! Since we have been doing speeches and poems at school we have been learning about how to stand in front of an audience and how our voice should sound. We used the same ideas when recording our voice. We used: - a clear voice - expression - a good volume - a normal pace - talked in a normal voice The students were able to use the skills they learnt last time in taking a photo of an object and editing it. Once they had done this they uploaded it to chatter pix and recorded their voices, describing their object. They had so much fun with it, it was great to see them using lots of different iPad skills.

Zookazam

I loved the way the students were so engaged and excited when using the Zookazam app.  So much learning and creativity going on.

Taking photos from a different perspective

I loved the way the students had to re think where they needed to stand and point their camera.  Some clever photos taken, lots of different angles and positions tried to capture the best result.

Ants view

Ants view- photography

Ants view

Fiona's Photo on Thursday, 2 July 2015

Ants eyes- photography

Ants eyes Working with the senior school, we discussed taking photos at different angles and from a different perspective. Or from the eyes of something else, in this case an ant. We looked at example photos and discussed how they showed a different view than what we normally see. The children walked around the school and chose different locations to use. They positioned themselves and their iPad cameras to capture the effect that they were an ant. Here are some of their end products.

Camera Skills

Letter Hunt

What Am I?

Pic Collage

Portrait Flip

Close Up

IPad Camera Lesson example

IPad Camera Lesson

 

Learning Objective:  students will be able to use the IPad camera to take quality close up photos with and without using zoom.

 

Students will

ü Identify what am I photos

ü Learn to take close up photos

ü Focus and zoom their camera

ü Take photos to show a different perspective

 

Lesson Activities: 

These will differ to each Year group and dependent on time.  Your class will be suited to the following numbered activities ______________________

 

ACTIVITY                                                              APP USED

1.   Create ‘what am I’ photo?                     book creator

2.   Create an “Ant eyes”                               pic collage

3.   Create a “letter of the week”                pic collage

4.   Create a “Portrait flip” in                       pic collage

5.   Create a “photo symmetry” in             drawing pad

Zookazam

After the students had a bit of time to have a look at a series of animals they had to: select one animal Take 3 photos of them Edit them Fill in the information worksheet about them, research more information if needed.

zookazam pic collage app smash

 

 

Zookazam and Pic Collage App Smash

The class is presented with a piece of paper with a photo of a patch of grass.  Conversation is created by suggestions as to what may live in their or on it.

With a simple hover of the iPad an animal magically pops out and appears!  The kids cant quite believe their eyes, some gasp, others look on spell bound while others just have to reach out and touch to see if they can feel it.



We go through many animals and have a look at different angles and how we can manage the climate and make it snow for our lion or rain for our ladybug!  Capturing each stage with the camera.

Lions roar, butterflies hover about, a tarantula crawls up my arm, ants busily come in and out of a hole at the top of the page.  There is a big variety and range of animals to choose from - too much to be able to contain in my 1 1/2hr lesson.

Now its time for the kids to have a turn.  Again the classroom is alive with excitement as the kids discover new animals and experience with how they can make the animals move about.

After a bit of time experimenting the class comes back together to share their favourite animals through the photos they took.