Up in Pieces is app that I have blogged about before here. After this post I had some people inquire about sharing the puzzles with their students. I wanted to elaborate a little more on the process of sharing your created puzzles. Below is a screen cast about creating and sharing Up in Pieces jigsaw puzzles. The app provides you with the option to share via Facebook, Twitter or email. In my screen cast I talk about sharing via email. However, what if Facebook, Twitter and email are not set up/allowed on your student iPads? I also discuss using QR Codes to share your created puzzles with your students.
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To kick off our new school year, my principal asked me to put together a short presentation on iPad apps. Below is a the presentation that I put together of apps. My focus was on free apps that could be used within the classroom. While the iPad is a great consumption device, a majority of the apps listed can be used for creation. This is by no means a complete list of the apps to use in a K-6 classroom. If you have any suggestions that should be added I would be happy to add them. Feel free to share the presentation with your teachers/staff. I came across this app recommendation from Tony Vincent's Blog Learning in Hand. Tony does a great job of highlighting the features of this app. I wanted to add to the highlights of this app by providing a screen cast of the app below. If you are looking for a fun way to turn photos into jigsaw puzzles, Up in Pieces is the app to accomplish this. Once the image is loaded, you are able to choose the type of jigsaw puzzle you would like created. Open up your newly created puzzle and drag the puzzle pieces from the tray to create your picture. I can see a lot of potential for this in my 1st grade classroom. Each of our Journey's reading lessons via Houghton Mifflin Harcourt introduces students to new words each week. This curriculum even comes with pre-made photo cards of the words that could be downloaded and inserted into this app for students to practice. At the recent iPad U hosted by GWAEA I learned about three new apps to help primary students hone their spelling skills. These apps are created by @Reks While they make a variety of apps, I am highlighting the three apps are below:
1) Build a Word Easy Spelling learn to spell sight words, long and short vowels--with 700+ words, students can choose to learn, practice or test. The app keeps a history of the students progress. You can use upper/lower case letters as well as toggle audio feedback on and off. ($2.99) 2) Build a Word Easy Spelling with phonics--same capabilities as the previously listed app with more emphasis on phonics. Toggle on audio and/or visual prompts. ($2.99) 3) Build a Word Express--this is the free version that allows a lot of the similar functionality as the other apps but there are in app purchases needed in order to reap the whole benefits of this great app. I was going through my blog list using Feedly and came across a post on Kevin's Meandering Mind. It was titled The Coding Video. I have embedded it below. I couldn't help but think how much of a connection there is between being literate in today's society as well as being literate with coding. Take a look at the graphic below that is from Gary's Social Media Count. I am not sure how much validity there is to the numbers but I think it paints a good picture for how digitally driven society is today. I also only let it run for 60 seconds. I am not trying to underscore teaching my first graders how to read but the coding video really made me think about the future. If society is dependent on computers should learning to code really be an overlooked skill in education. Teaching first grade, I know how much effort students and teachers must exhort to begin mastering the artful skill of reading our English language. The language where you have their, there and they're as well as a multitude of words that are nowhere near close to being phonetically spelled. I wonder if the logic and reasoning of learning to code would assist in a student's ability to decipher unknown words? Would their comprehension of text improve? I feel that inferring, cause/effect, and synthesizing to name a few would benefit from the critical thinking challenges encountered in learning to code. What do you think? Take the poll below to share your opinion on coding in elementary school. Resources for Learning to Code---iPad Resources for Learning to Code---Web Based Google Blockly A simple design to learn to program. Drag commands into order to build your application. Much like a puzzle where the commands will only fit where they will work. Snap Users put their jigsaw piece commands in order to build their application. Test your application at anytime to see the progress and then return to add or delete more commands. Very visual for assisting younger kids in learning to program. This resource was originally posted on the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning Blog. There are always great resources available on that blog so make sure to check it out. The embedded presentation below has many great apps and quick explanations about each app. Enjoy. Jumbled sentences is a total of six free apps that allow students to practice their word recognition, reading and comprehension skills. Each of the six apps has three levels. In each level, words are displayed all jumbled. The objective is to unscramble the words to make a meaningful sentence. If a student does not know the word, he/she can click on the word to receive an audio cue. After all the words have been unjumbled and placed into a sentence, the student can check the sentence. The sentence will be read aloud if correct or the incorrectly placed words will be returned to their jumbled location. Jumbled Sentences 1
Jumbled Sentences 2 Jumbled Sentences 3 Jumbled Sentences 4 Jumbled Sentences 5 Jumbled Sentences 6 Techtastic Teaching While I am not always a huge fan of utilizing an iPad as a gaming device, this series of apps does a good job of helping to reinforce word recognition, reading and comprehension. Students must use their comprehension strategies to determine the correct order of words. What: Bindle is a simple app ($1.99) that allows you to quickly create PDFs of your pictures. 1) From the main screen choose to make a book or an album. 2) Click the plus sign to add pictures. 3) You can import images from your camera roll, take a photo as well as import from a few other sites like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Picasa. 4) Once you have your selected images read to import, click done and let Bindle ad them to your grid. 5) Once Bindle is done working its magic, you have the option to share it. How to use..... We have been using this app as a simple tool for create digital e-books coupled with FlipSnack. FlipSnack turns your PDFs into flippable, digital books. Simply upload your PDF and let Flipsnack do the rest. Students could use this app to curate their learning. Send students on a scavenger hunt and use Bindle to catalog their learning. Use the app to snap some photos during PD sessions and turn into PDFs for later reference. |
Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |