Year 5 students discussed cities and what they are made up of, what is important and so on. Later they were asked to design their own cities. They used Comics Head Lite to plan their cities and state what was important and why they had hospitals, police stations, playgrounds among other things. Later students used the City Island iPad app to build virtual cities and make sure they functioned well, keeping communities happy. below is a screen shot from the game.
0 Comments
We all learned from a student who showed the class how to use the 30 Hands iPad app to annotate an image and use it in Tellagami to create a short commercial. He connected his iPad to the Apple TV and explained the steps he took. The concept of using two or more apps to produce media is called 'app smashing'. Year 2 students learned about plants. How to grow them, take care of them and why we need them. They used the My Story iPad app to create digital books teaching others how to grow plants. Here are a couple of books picked out from one class; Book1, Book2. My Story is a paid iPad app that teachers and students can use to create digital books using clip art, their own pictures or drawings and voice recordings on each page. Dear Parents,
Please find below a list of recommended apps for your children's iPads. If you have a device other than an iPad please let us know so that we can try and recommend equivalent apps where we can, or suggest alternatives. Please note that in some cases your child may wish to install other apps that are not on this list depending on the nature of their individual or group project. All apps on this list are FREE. Presentations:
Video Editing:
Multi-Media Creation:
Documents: Creation, Editing and Sharing. This is based on the Google Apps platform used at school.
Year 5 students practised accessing a shared Google Document on the iPad using the Google Drive, which opens the Google Docs app. They learned that it takes patience and cooperation to edit the same document with 10 or more people at the same time. The class will use Google Docs to create a student handbook in the form of an e-book. Its the beginning of the school year and we discussed the way we would use iPads in the classroom. We need to have essential agreements on how to and how not to handle iPads in the classrooms. We will always refer back to these agreements when ever we need a reminder. Students signed off to show their commitment to the agreements discussed. Our iPad agreements will be posted in every classroom.
Students in Year 3 studied a variety of habitats during their unit of inquiry. They gathered facts from a number of sources and built physical models of the habitats. The students used the 30 Hands iPad app to capture images and record their voices telling a story about their habitats. It was good to see the students helping each other capture images, record and record their voices and make necessary corrections. During a mini exhibition in the classroom, parents were invited to listen to the Digital Stories about each habitat and have a look at the physical model. Students worked on their speaking skills as they had to speak loudly and clearly in-order for the viewers to hear their stories. We were lucky enough to have headphones to avoid noise from others' voices in the room. Kindergarten2 students learned about directions in the classroom and later used the educreations iPad app to show directions on a simple map. We used a picture as a background and the students drew the directions using the different colors based on the teacher's prompts. Educreations recorded the teacher's prompts and captured the students' annotations. The activity also involved, on another page, students finding specific buildings on the map based on their street numbers. This was an opportunity to assess students' knowledge of numbers. Students watched each other's recordings on the projector's screen to do peer assessment as a whole class. This was a good way to capture student learning and be able to share it with parents via a link or their classroom blog. The students also enjoyed to peer assessment on the big screen. To support their Music lessons, learning about the different types of musical instruments, students are creating a budget for a Music Studio. We created a spreadsheet listing all the musical instruments and what they cost. Students used their maths skills to figure out how to calculate the totals. They learned to use formulas that would calculate their totals automatically. Now that formulas are in place, during the next few lessons, we will use iPads to access the spreadsheet and pick out musical instruments and what quantities we need for the Music Studio. We have a limit of $400 to spend so our formulas will help us keep an eye on our spending. Students will use the comments feature in Google Spreadsheets to explain why they choose a particular musical instrument for their Studio.
Kindergarten students explored Kids Doodle Coloring Book HD - Kids Games for the iPad. They drew a picture of themselves and added some stickers to decorate their drawing. We shall be using Kids Doodle Coloring Book to trace and practice writing our names.
Kids Doodle Coloring Book HD - Kids Games is a free iPad app that children can use at home to draw something and then explain it or in the classroom for a variety of activities. |
This blog is currently not active. I am currently writing about teaching and learning with technology here
AuthorKahlil Danai Maramba, Categories
All
Archives
April 2016
|