SNOWpinions

I had a blast over the past couple of weeks helping the first graders with their special SNOWpinion writing pieces. After talking with the first grade teachers, it was decided that we would have students type their pieces on a collaborative Google Slides document in order to get some authentic keyboarding practice while also exposing them to working on a collaborative document. This was the first time these kiddos have experienced working on a collaborative document and with a little careful planning, and a pinch of patience, everything went off without a hitch. Having an index slide definitely made this endeavor super easy.

 Headache Saver:  Make sure that all of your students are on their slide and that the cursor is blinking on the frame they're going to write on. We had a few deleted slides and kiddos working on others' slides in one class as they didn't click on their frame before starting.

After everyone finished their writing, we saved the file as a PDF and then printed off the file so each student could display their writing in the hallway along with a snowman art project they had created.


During our planning time, the teachers also shared that one of their objectives was to have students present their pieces as they wanted to focus on presentation skills such as voice volume, clarity, and speed. After some discussion, we decided that we would have students use DoInk's Green Screen app to share their piece to add an element of authenticity and fun. Students choose the background they wanted and then bundled themselves up to create their SNOWpinion presentations. The end results were adorable and the students did a fantastic job practicing and preparing for their speeches. As students finished, they uploaded their SNOWpinion to Seesaw where they were able to share it with their peers as well as their parents. 

 Green Screen Tip:  Have all of your background images saved to one iPad so you're ready to go. We did all of our videos "live" right in DoInk with the background image already inserted. As you finish each recording save it to the camera roll for ease of uploading it to Seesaw, YouTube, etc later on. 

 Add-on Alert:  After all of the students' were finished, I imported their DoInk movies into iMovie. (This was super easy to do because all of the videos were on one iPad!) I added a title frame from our shared Google slide deck and some background music and then shared the finished movie with the teachers for them to share with their students as well as parents via Seesaw. We also talked about how this video could be used at conference time by having it playing on an iPad on a continuous loop outside of their classrooms for parents to enjoy while they are waiting for their child's conference. Here's what the finished video looked like:

Plant growth and iMovie

Oh how I wish I had remembered to save a copy of one of the finished products before I cleared off the iPads this summer. Grrrrr... 

One of our science units in first grade is organisms and as part of that unit we plant seeds and observe their growth. This year we added a bit of a tech twist that really turned out nicely. Every other day when the kids would come in they would get their plant, water it if needed, and then take a picture of it. If there were any substantial changes they would also write about it in their Plant log. At the end of this adventure, we used the iMovie app to document our plant's growth. We started by using Max Doodle to make the covers for our movies. Students came up with a title, added a background and drawing and of course their author information they then saved their image with a screenshot so they could import it into their iMovie. Next they imported their plant pictures.  This was a great way for kids to practice sequencing of events. They then checked their transitions and added music to their creations.
Their projects turned out well and they were very excited to see their plant's growth from start to finish in fast forward. 
This is a project I will definitely do again next year. We may use Haiku Deck next year instead for something different and not as time consuming but we'll see how next year's kiddos are.  

Timmy, our classroom elf

It's amazing what an elf on the shelf can do for a rambunctious group of first graders who are eagerly awaiting Christmas break! Our elf, Timmy, has been at the forefront of our learning for the past two weeks. Timmy has helped us to become better picture takers, better email readers, and has helped us learn how to attach pictures to our emails.

2 weeks ago a package arrived straight from the North Pole with a book called, The Elf on the Shelf and a small, cute elf who we have now affectionately named Timmy. As we read the story we found out that our elf will be reporting back to Santa each and every night and that the next day he will be in a different location in our room. We also found out that once Christmas arrives, that our elf will return to the North Pole until next year. For that reason, we decided that we'd better document Timmy's adventures while we had the chance so... each morning when the kiddos come in, they immediately begin to scour the room for Timmy. Once they find him they get their iPad out and take a picture of him. 

Now that we have our email accounts sync'd to our iPads I usually write my kiddos a morning message similar to the one below. Each morning there is some sort of technology task to do such as replying to a question, taking a picture, or attaching a picture to an email. This has been a great way for my kids to practice their technology skills in an authentic way while also improving their reading and writing abilities.

Looking ahead at the big picture, my rationale for having them take a picture each day is that at the end of this "elfie" journey, we will document Timmy's adventures in our classroom by each uploading our pics into the app iMovie. It's my hope to then share our projects on our classroom blog and/or have each child send their project via email to their parents. I had thought about using PicCollage again but opted against it with the number of pictures that we will have and thought that the slideshow format would be better suited.

On a techy, but not really side note, we made these adorable techy Santas today. Being a 1:1 iPad room, these were just too cute to pass up. The kids got quite a kick out of his big black glasses. You can find the project here if you're interested.