It has been a while since I have done a Friday Recap post; honestly, most weeks I’m just lucky I’ve made it to Friday!
This week I have some fun things that I couldn’t wait to share! This is what I was up to when I wasn’t blogging:
The first share is an INCREDIBLE poem written by 5th grader, Emma at Anastasis Academy. The kids were writing poems ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas style, Emma wrote the brilliant poem below about the night before braces. 🙂 Clever!
Twas The Night Before Braces
Twas the night before braces, my teeth were all clear,
not a spot of silver, or a rubber band near
I knew it would be painful and bring on a tear,
but I knew someday they would come off, and I would
celebrate and cheer
I stopped and smiled and looked in the mirror,
my teeth are all crooked and need to be cured
Tomorrow is a bad day and I wish it would pass,
I wish it would happen super duper fast,
Which nearly wouldn’t happen like I have heard in the past,
now I need to pick my colors and make sure they don’t clash
Now Pink! Now Purple! Now White and maybe Red!
Maybe after my appointment, I’ll be happy instead
I shouldn’t be complaining, I sound like a drag,
My dad works so hard for me, I don’t want to make him mad
So I’ll go in with a smile, it might take all my might, so….
Happy Smiles to all and to all a straight bite.
What did I tell you? We have the MOST brilliant, creative kids at Anastasis! (I’m sure every teacher reading this could say the same!)
At Anastasis Academy, each Friday we have a learning excursion. Sometimes these are field trips out of the building, but this week we had a local artist, Scott Beckley, come to us.
Scott taught the kids how to paint in acrylic using palette knives. The results were fantastic! Some students made curvy cartoony pencils. I wish I had caught more of them to take pictures of as they were heading out the door!
Thank you Scott!
Did you know Flat Stanley has his own app? Very cool! You can check it out on my other blog iPadCurriculum.
What it is: I am late on this post, but it is too good to skip a mention! Little Bird Tales is a new way to digital story tell with primary students. With Little Bird Tales, students can upload their own artwork, record their voice, add text and email their finished creations to family and friends. Sign up on Little Bird Tales requires an email address for verification purposes. This can be a parent or teacher email address (the site is geared for 3 to 14-year-old children so a student address is not necessary). Little Bird Tales includes a built-in art pad where students can create pictures online. They also have the option to upload photographs and images they have created offline. Each page give students a place to add a picture, text and voice recording. Finished books can be saved and accessed online or sent via email.
How to integrate Little Bird Tales into the classroom: Little Bird Tales is a brilliant option for digital storytelling in the primary classroom. I love that it includes both online and offline student creations, as well as student voice recordings. Students can use Little Bird Tales for creative writing and imaginative stories, as a way to reflect on learning, or as a keepsake for parents. Students can take pictures of science experiments and create a digital science journal detailing the experiment with text and student voice reflections included.
Use Little Bird Tales to create whole class stories where each student contributes a page. This type of book can be made over a few weeks using classroom computers as a writing center. This would be a fun way to create an A to Z type book of learning, reflections by students after a unit, a 100 day book, fact vs. opinion book, an interactive glossary, a class book of poems, a phonics book, or a class book about a field trip that students took. The finished product can be shared with parents and families easily through an email. For a back to school night activity, take a picture of each student to add to a class book and record students sharing what their favorite part of the school day is. This same idea could be used in preparation for parent-teacher conferences. Students can upload pictures of their best school work, record thoughts about why they are proud of the work they did, and add reflections in the text field. These can be shared as a starting point for conferences, at the end of the conference, parents have a keepsake.
Because of the voice recording capabilities, Little Bird Tales, would be a great way for students to practice a foreign language. They can illustrate a word or phrase accompanied by the audio. Classes could work together to create a “living” digital glossary.
Do you have a planned absence coming? Why not create a digital story that your substitute can share with students? Upload pictures that support learning, text, and your voice.
Tips: If you have parent email addresses in Google, Yahoo, or Outlook, they can be directly imported into Little Bird Tales as contacts.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Little Bird Tales in your classroom!
The following is a re-post from my other blog: iPad Curriculum. I shared Send Felicity a few weeks ago as part of my advent collection but thought I would give everyone a little more information about this incredible site and invitation for play. Even though Send Felicity has an iPhone/iPod Touch app, the app isn’t necessary to engage in the creative play which is also available on the Send Felicity website and Facebook page. I encourage you to offer your students opportunities for play. I deeply believe that play is a strong catalyst for learning.
What it is: Everyone could use a little more magic and enchantment in their lives and Send Felicity brings students (and teachers/families) just that. Take a look at the video below to watch some of that magic unfold.
Felicity is six and three-quarters years old. She loves imagination, making things, and magic. She comes from a magical place called Thin Air. Felicity invites children everywhere to join her in play. Every day there is a new special surprise waiting for children. Each surprise invites students to engage in creativity, play, imagination, and learning. It is an enchanting-ongoing place that involves technology, imagination, and the real world in new ways. The artists, geeks, and minds behind Felicity are deeply committed to keeping the childhood experience one of magic, imagination, and exploration. They bring these values to life beautifully as an application, website, and social experience. What I love about the Send Felicity experience is the storyline behind Felicity, and the invitation to be part of something that is engaging, meaningful, and magical. The combination of the three makes Send Felicity a unique learning and interactive experience. So, how does Send Felicity work? Children can visit the application or website to learn of a new craft (adventure) to take with Felicity. Felicity takes every day objects like paper plates and makes them magical. Children follow the adventures and create and pretend along with Felicity. Children can take pictures of their finished masterpieces and upload them to the Send Felicity website, sharing the creative experience with others. The application is truly unique and takes what is real and adds a bit of magic (as you saw in the video).
How Send Felicity can enrich learning: Play is an important part of learning. It provides the building blocks for self-regulation and executive functions, promotes creativity, imagination, and divergent thinking. Unfortunately play is often stripped from the classroom. Send Felicity weaves together a wonderful tapestry of play and learning in the form of an application, a website, and a social movement. Felicity uses open-ended play and experimentation that leads to an attitude of fun learning. Felicity helps your students turn ordinary objects into creative works of magic. Use Felicity’s daily dose of magic to spark your students imaginations. Set aside some time for your students to do a little creative play. The benefits that play has on the rest of the learning day will be well worth the time invested. Go beyond the crafts and invite your students to write stories, poems, or secret letters in connection with the imaginative play of the day. Activities for Felicity are open-ended and include art, language arts, literacy, and even math and physics. Send Felicity marries technology and real life in new fun ways. The application is just a piece of the bigger picture. The application takes students physical creation and adds a little magic to it.
Today we are boldly making mistakes.Today, our children will make a small mess.
Today, we’ll set out on an adventure and begin with an “oops” and end up in a place where we can look and wonder. Together, we can do something mistaken and wrong; and audacious and wonderful to surprise everyone.
This project shows children that it is okay to make mistakes, and that, in fact, those mistakes can be turned into something wonderful, new, and meaningful. Students don’t hear often enough that it is okay to make mistakes and that it is indeed an important part of the learning process. Take a look at what these beautiful oops turn into:
The Send Felicity App has not yet been released to the iTunes store, but don’t let that stop you from using Felicity in your classroom right now, the Send Felicity website is full of fun activities, instructions, and even a bit of magic. You can also check Felicity out on Facebook where she shares creations made by children from around the world! Send your students home with a wonderful gift this holiday season and point them toward the Send Felicity website. Students will love the opportunities for play and imaginations, parents will love the ideas to keep their kids learning and playing. Let parents know about Send Felicity along with this article from Geek Mom for a little explanation.
The wonderful people over at Send Felicity are so passionate about creating a world of wonder and imagination for children to play in that they have made the technology that Send Felicity is based on open source. Interested parents, educators, and developers are invited to sign up to play along with them.
Devices: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch iOS 3.1.3 or later
What it is:Bemused is another site from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. BeMused helps students be excited, aware, informed, amused, and involved in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. Through videos and activities sections students can discover more about the museum and gallery. Students can get involved by visiting the Your Say section or submitting their own artwork to the online Gallery. Students can watch videos including an introduction to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and short poems created by kids inspired by the issues surrounding slavery and Olaudah Equiano’s life. The online gallery holds beautiful artwork created by students. Your students can create and submit their own artwork for the online gallery. The activities section has interesting quizzes and activities about art, history and museums. In one activity, students try to find the faces in famous works of art as quickly as possible. The Your say section gives students an opportunity to talk about history, art, and museums. Students can add to an existing topic or start their own topic for discussion. Currently discussions include what would you like to see in an art gallery?; who is your favourite artist?; and Is graffiti art?
How to integrate BeMused into your curriculum:Bemused is a good place for students to be inspired by art and history. This site encourages student interaction. Students can join into forum discussions about art or history and even submit their own artwork to the online art gallery. In the video section, students can watch a video of student created poems centered around history. Use the video for classroom inspiration. Your students can create and write their own poetry inspired by history. If your students have visited many of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery sites, they may enjoy challenging themselves to the quizzes in the activities section of the site.
Tips:BeMused was created for the Birmingham Museum and Art Collection. They have several excellent websites that I will be reviewing.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using BeMused in your classroom!
What it is:Life is is an incredible site from BBC Earth. The beautifully interactive site is full of images, video, and stories from BBC Earth’s most captivating documentaries. Each month features a different theme with September’s theme, Life is…Colorful. The astonishing images and video capture life’s most colorful displays in nature. The search page is equally stunning, offering an on-screen widget that lets students adjust the pictures in the grid by filtering by hot/cold, slow/fast, sea/sky, or color.
How to integrate Life Is from BBC Earth into your curriculum: Life is would make for an incredible discussion starter or creative writing prompt. This month’s theme is Life is Colorful. Ask students to come up with descriptive words for the pictures and images they are seeing. Students can use the descriptive words they came up with to write a Life is… poem. The poem could start with the line Life is… include descriptions of what they observed in the video and end with …Colorful.
This site can be used on classroom computers or in a lab setting, but I think it would be absolutely stunning on an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer!
Tips: The left and right arrows on the site let you view each picture in the theme series separately. Each picture has an overlay with additional information about the image.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Life Is in your classroom!
What it is: April is national poetry month, the Poetry Idea Machine is sure to help you infuse your classroom with some inspired poetry writing. Students learn about different kinds of poetry by selecting from Haiku, Limerick, Cinquain, or Free Verse. The Poetry Idea Machine takes students through the steps of making each type of poetry. The Poetry Idea Machine makes an excellent introduction to types of poetry and will have your students writing their own in no time.
How to integrate Poetry Idea Machine into the classroom: The Poetry Idea Machine does a fantastic job of introducing students to different kinds of poetry. After students learn about the poetry, they have a chance to create their own poem with the Poetry Idea Machine interactive. In my classroom, I use the Poetry Idea Machine with the whole class using the interactive whiteboard or projector. I invite students up to create their own poems as we talk through the process. Choose one type of poetry each week so that students have an opportunity to practice writing the poems. During the week, give your students time to write their poems, allowing them access to the Poetry Idea Machine on classroom computers as an idea center. Let students work in small groups to create unique poems using the Poetry Idea Machine.
Tips: Read poems by Jack Prelutsky, Karla Kuskin, and Jean Marzollo for inspiration. Ask students to determine which type of poem each is based on what they have learned with the Idea Machine.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using the Poetry Idea Machine in your classroom.
What it is: In honor of national poetry month (April), Kenn Nesbitt is offering his book “My Hippo Has the Hiccups” as a free ebook. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I just opened a “happy spring” present! If you aren’t familiar with Kenn Nesbitt, he writes poetry that hooks kids and makes them instant fans of poetry. It is funny and engaging for readers of all ages. The ebook is available to view online or to download (can you believe it?!).
How to integrate My Hippo Has the Hiccups into the classroom: This ebook is a winner no matter what age group you teach. You can read the poems as a class using an interactive whiteboard or a projector connected computer. Because you can download the ebook, it would also be a wonderful addition to your classroom library on the classroom computers. Students can visit classroom computers with My Hippo Has the Hiccups as a poetry inspiration station. Invite your students to create their own silly Kenn Nesbitt inspired poetry. Make a class book of the silly poems and post them as a class ebook on Issuu.
Tips: You have to have the Zino Reader installed to view this ebook, it is a simple click and download.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using My Hippo Has the Hiccups in your classroom.
I came across this video recently on YouTube. As I understand it, a 15 year old wrote this poem as part of a school assignment. Amazing! This video would be wonderful to use as inspiration for a teaching staff or with students. It would be a great opener for a creative writing class! The video speaks for itself, I’m sure you’ll come up with great ideas for using this video with your students (share those great ideas with the rest of us). 🙂
Did you know Flat Stanley has his own app? Very cool! You can check it out on my other blog iPadCurriculum.
