Digital Books

What great authors and illustrators we have in this class! I loved reading all the wonderful fiction and non-fiction books that our students designed during the hour.  We had such a wide variety of topics - from animal books  to silly martian stories. Regardless of which topic ended up being chosen, each child used their imagination and creativity skills to produce a beautiful digital book full of text, pictures, and their own voice reading each page!  Digital writing is always one of my favorite days  of a session; I only wish there was more time to complete the book!

If your child would like to continue publishing these books at home,  I recommend the apps, My Story or Book Creator (there are also lots of other book creation apps in the app store - these just happen to be my favorite).

In the app, My Story, students first set up 'author' pages to store their own books.  After, they proceed to the blank pages, adding more as needed.  They have all sorts of digital art tools at their disposal built within the app; however, for those  children who do not enjoy drawing - personal photos, stock photos, internet pictures, stamps, and stickers are easily accessible.  Additionally, students can access different type fonts to include text on each page.  Finally - my favorite part! - the children can read and record their voice for each page!  What a personal touch when you share these stories with family and friends!  Check out these great stories created in class this week!

Some pictures of the kids working on their books:

For older children (and adults!) I definitely recommend the app, Book Creator.  It is somewhat pricey at $4.99; however, I find it very easy to use and has all the functionality you will ever need to publish a professional-looking book.  It is also fairly simple to transfer your completed book to the iBooks app on your device or share with a friend.

iMovie Trailers

The iMovie App for the iPad is a wonderful, multi-media app.  It allows students to tap into the imperative 'Four  Cs' of a 21st Century education - collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication.   

Students were given flexibility to choose any type of trailer.  

They worked together to plan, add text, act, and record. Such vibrant creativity and enthusiasm on display in class! Check out the pics from today:

These boys are focused on developing their trailer. They are so creative!

Collaboration is a critical 21st Century skill! 

Students work together and provide feedback.

Utilizing their critical thinking skills, this group is working on editing their trailer.

3….2…..1…… Action!

Many students brought their own 'actors' and 'props' to class.  What a great way to integrate home resources positively with technology! Thanks to Mark for sharing many of his items with his classmates!

Next week, we will move on to full-length movie features, as well.  To ensure we have enough production time in class, I encourage you to have your children write a script ahead of time and bring with you next Thursday.  Don't forget costumes and props, too!

Stop Motion

Amazing class tonight! Using only the iPad app, iStopMotion, students learned to create comprehensive stop motion videos.  We used this one-stop application (which combines a camera, sound, animation and speed variables) to produce a video. This stop motion animation technique - which once was a very difficult and time consuming process - now takes only minutes to see the results …. and is great fun!  Check out a few samples from our class below!

iStopMotion is a wonderful app to use for school projects.  I highly recommend its use as a visual alternative to book reports, biographies, demonstrating science experiments, and portraying historical events.  Technology, when used appropriately, can be a wonderful tool to be innovative!  I encourage you to urge your child(ren) to engage in this type of creativity and critical thinking when they are given the opportunity to demonstrate learning!