Our target skill for this week was conclusions. We began by watching the YouTube video below. After watching the video, we talked about drawing a conclusion. We were able to conclude that the cake was made for his mother. After our brief discussion, we wanted to practice our skill. I put together some QR Codes to assist with practicing conclusions. I had my students use their LearnPads to scan codes using the ScanLife app. In addition, I had created a quiz using Socrative. Students opened up both apps and were able to toggle back and forth. They scanned a code with the ScanLife app and then provided their answer within the Socrative app. The QR Codes provided three of four statements. These statements were clues that students could use to conclude what was taking place. For example, 1) Your mom takes your temperature, 2) You have to stay in bed all day, 3) You eat soup. Based on these clues, a student could conclude that you are sick. If you would like to use the QR Codes, you can access them here. There are a total of six "mystery conclusions" for students to solve. You can add the Socrative quiz by using the following: SOC #: 13411210 This activity got them out of their seats as well as provided some practice with drawing conclusions. During our reading group rotations I had students apply their understanding of conclusions by creating their own mystery conclusions. To accomplish this, students used iClipart for Schools. They located three to six pictures that they could use as clues for an activity of their choice. Once they had their pictures, they opened up the Pic Collage app and created a collage of their three to six pictures. Their collage was saved to their Google Drive accounts. The final step was to create a new post using Kidblog. They titled their post Conclusions and inserted their collage from their Google Drive account. Tomorrow we will be spending time during reading rotations leaving comments on each post about conclusions. We will leave our "conclusion" guess in the comment box on each of our classmates. This process of creating their own conclusion collage required them to think critically about which pictures should be used to represent their activity. In addition, they had to apply their understanding of conclusions in order to leave a comment on each others' blog post. Below are some example collages that my students created during this process. Share This:
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**If you are unfamiliar with this project, check out my first post introducing my pilot project with LearnPads and comparing them to iPads. We have been learning about the vowel digraph "oo" as in the word cook. We practiced with this vowel digraph as a whole group frequently throughout the week. In addition, students had the chance to demonstrate their understanding of this new digraph by creating a picture quiz for their classmates to complete. Above is an example of a completed product made by a student. There were pictures posted around the classroom. Students had to snap a total of three pictures. One of the pictures had to be an example of the "oo" digraph while the remaining two pictures did not. When they were done snapping pictures, they had to label each picture with a number. Their final picture collage was added to their blogs. The next day, students spent time looking at all their peers' posts about the "oo" digraph. They left comments with their guess as to which picture was an example of the "oo" digraph. By completing this activity, students had to apply their understanding of the digraph as they sorted through pictures. In addition, by posting it to the blog, students had to differentiate between the images as they made their guess as to which number/picture combination represented the "oo" digraph. So how did my students accomplish this activity. I needed a way for them to snap the pictures, put all the pictures on the same page as well as be able to write a number under each image (1, 2, 3). Check out the methods below that could be used on both the iPad and LearnPad. Pic collage--LearnPad or iPad PicCollage is both an IOS and Android app. It allows you to snap pictures or add them from your library/gallery. You can then add text to your collage. Below are the steps for creating the collage that my students would have followed. When students had the image saved to their camera roll, they would then open up their blogging app (Edublogs on the LearnPad and Kidblog on the iPad). They would then publish a new post with their newly created collage. LearnPad: Lensoo Create App Below is an example of using the Lensoo Create app to create a pic collage. You are not recording with this screen casting app but using it as a blank canvas. You can see the directions below for completing the "oo" assignment with Lensoo Create instead of the Pic Collage app. iPad: Educreations App Below is an example of using the Educreations app to create a pic collage. You are not recording with this screen casting app, but using it as a blank canvas. You can see the directions below for completing the "oo" assignment with Educreations instead of the Pic Collage app. Share This: We have been learning all about short vowel sounds. During this time we have been working to sort pictures based on their middle vowel sound. We used the app Pic Collage to utilize our iPads, do a little formative assessment and create some cool collages. I had posted some images around the classroom. Each image modeled a short vowel sound (a,e,i,o,u). Students were to pick one short vowel that they would be hunting for during our center time. Once students chose a short vowel, the mission was set. During center time, students opened the Pic Collage app and created a new canvas. To add an image to the canvas, you simply click anywhere and options are displayed. My students chose the option to use the camera. They would then snap a picture of their short vowel picture. This picture was tacked onto their canvas. They would then repeat this process until they felt like they had found all the pictures for their chosen short vowel. The last two steps were for students to take a picture of themselves as well as add some text. The picture they took of themselves was then added to their canvas. This allowed me to see who created each canvas. The text was added to label which short vowel they were hunting for during this activity. Below is the final product of our short vowel hunt. We are learning about action words this week. We watched a short You Tube video about action words. This required students to get out of their seats and mirror what was happening in the video. In addition, we used a the Word Play game on Between the Lions website to learn more about action words.
After our introduction to action words, we decided to put our understanding to the test. It was super nice weather and decided to take our iPads outside for some action word adventures. Having 5 iPads, I put students into groups of five or six. They had to use the playground and model an action. When they were modeling the action, another group member would snap a picture. Once each member of the group had a picture of an action, they used the Pic Collage app to assemble their collage of action words. Once the app was opened, students were able to import all their pictures at one time form the camera roll. After imported, they worked to move them around for their collage so that all of the pictures could be seen. The last step was to add a label to each picture with its corresponding action word. Our collages will be printed and hung up in our classroom as we continue to study action words. In addition, we Tweeted out some of our final collages to see if other classes could add their own action words. *Our class Twitter is @fenstysfirsties As my 1st graders continue to learn about short vowel sounds, I try to find different ways to enrich their learning experience using the 5 iPads that we have in our classroom. We have talked about the short "a" and "i" sounds so far this year. In our previous exploration of building words, we used the Educreations app and picture cards to build words. Read about it here. Our goal with our new activity was to hone the skill of differentiating between the sound represented by the short "a" and the sound represented by the short "i." Furthermore, I wanted them to practice their collaboration skills by working in small groups to sort pictures. There is some initial prep, but the kids loved this activity. I created a screen cast about this process which may help clarify some of the steps that are listed below the video. Step 1: finding pictures with short "a" and "i" The first job I had was locating numerous images that could be used to represent the short vowel sounds of "a" and "i." Luckily for my district, we have access to iClipart for Schools. If you do not have access to clip art, check out my clip art resource page to find resources for finding royalty free clip art. Step 2: Saving pictures to the cloud After you have found the pictures you want to use, you can save the to a cloud service such as Google Drive, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Box, etc. I used Google Drive for this step. There are a couple reasons I saved it to the cloud: 1) I can reuse this or tweak it year after year instead of reinventing it each time, 2) I can get a URL for my image stored in the cloud. Step 3: Create QR Codes Now that you have your images saved to the cloud, you can obtain the URL for your image. In Google Drive, you can choose to share your image and change the option to "anyone who has the link can view." By doing this, you are given a link for your shared image. If you are not familiar with QR Codes, check out Common Crafts explanation. You can use any QR Code generator you would like to create QR Codes for your images. I used QR Code Generator which I have as an app in Chrome. I copied the link of each image, and created a QR Code for each image. Step 4: Save QR Codes As you are creating a QR code for each of your images, it is a good idea to save them into a document or spreed sheet. Since I was using Google Drive to store my images, I just created a Google doc to house the QR codes for this activity. I inserted a table and began adding my QR codes. This allows me to have them for future reference as well as label them so I know what the QR code represents without having to scan it. Step 5: Print, Cut and hang QR Codes Once you have all your QR codes created and saved, you can print them out. I printed out two copies. One that I could cut up and then one that I could keep as a master while students were doing the activity. While I was cutting, I put a "1" on the first QR code that was to get hung up and then put a "1" on my master copy. *Remember the master has a caption telling what each QR Code is without scanning it. However, I don't want my students to see what the QR Code is unless they scan so I just put a "1" on it so I could compare it to the master. This was repeated for all of the QR Codes as I hung them around the class. I had a total of 12 QR Codes hanging around. STep 6: Groups, Pic Collage and have fun! The final step is to put your students into small groups. Also, if your kids haven't used the Pic Collage app, it would be good to go over it first. Basically, the Pic Collage app lets you insert multiple pictures onto one "poster." You can resize, crop, rotate, layer and much more with your images. In addition you can add text to your "poster."
Each group chose either short "a" to "hunt" for first or the short "i." They set out scanning QR Codes using the Qrafter app. Once the QR code was scanned, the correlating image would be displayed on the iPad. If it matched the short vowel their group was "hunting" for then they would screen shot the image (home/power button simultaneously). After the students found all the corresponding pictures for their chosen short vowel, they opened up the Pic Collage app. Once inside the pic collage app, students were able to create a new poster. One option is to add images from the camera roll (this is where all their screen shots saved). After they loaded all their images from the camera roll, they could add text telling what the pictures represented and move onto the next short vowel hunt. |
Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |