Halloween and Pic Collage

I think my standard beginning post this year is going to be.... "Sorry I haven't posted in awhile" Gosh, I'm just not sure where time is going? I know it couldn't possibly be working full time, being a mom to 2 active little boys, being on several committees, reviewing apps, and doing staff presentations. I promise to try my best to be better at getting our projects, successful and not, up here for the world to see. Sometimes the worst projects can lead to the best brainstorms!

So here it goes...
This year as part of our Halloween celebration, we did The Candy Corn Bandit project from Abby's The Inspired Apple blog. If you've never checked out her blog, it's a definite "must do" on your ever growing To-do list! The kids had a blast inferring and predicting while following the clues that had been left around our building in hopes of retrieving our stolen jar of candy corn.

To put a tech twist on it, we learned how to use the cameras on our iPads. We discussed many of the basics such as holding still while taking the picture (something that is difficult for many of my munchkins), as well as how to zoom in to get a closer picture. Then as we went in search of our missing candy corn, we took pictures along the way to document the various clues we found. 

Later that day, we learned how to use the app PicCollage. This is a free app that allows the user to import pictures and then crop and rotate them however they'd like to create a collage. I've used this app before with 1st graders with great success so was excited to try it again. So here's where it all falls apart... some of my kiddos did a fantastic job but other's really struggled. In hind sight, I think it was because we had taken so many pictures as many had become shutter happy that the sheer number of pics and the fact that many of them looked so similar became a hindrance. In hindsight, I think next time I'd have them look at their pics first and delete the doubles and ones that didn't turn out and then begin our project. 

I'm a firm believer in trial and error so I'm not saying this project didn't have merit, just needs some fine tuning.

Looking forward to the next time we use PicCollage as I'm sure it will go much better seeing as they now have background information to guide them as well.