The Day the Dinosaurs Came to School - Augmented Reality Style!

We have been having way too much fun with the pictures we created using the Walking with Dinosaurs, iMovie and Aurasma apps!

We decided to make a movie trailer using iMovie using the pictures.

 
The children brainstormed the phrases to go with the pictures!  We voted on the best phrases and then put them in!
Then I created the trigger picture so we could send the movie trailer home!

But there is still more!  

The pictures were so awesome we used them to trigger a creative writing activity! 

We called it The Day the Dinosaurs Came to School! 

I printed off the pictures of each child with their dinosaur on my color printer at home.  Then I made up a writing sheet with the title The Day the Dinosaurs Came to School!

We looked at all the pictures together and brainstormed about the pictures and possible things that could happen if a dinosaur came to school! And we had the pictures as proof!   What fun!  Then the children started writing their stories!  We have some amazing stories!

I also placed the trigger for the aura we made on Aurasma on the writing page as well as a special bonus! The aura is linked to the iMovie trailer we made with the pictures.

I sent the aura link home to everyone in an email already but now the picture trigger is embedded in the creative writing that the children did as well!  You need the picture to trigger the Aura!

After the children finished working on their stories, we used the iPads to trigger the auras.

They all came running to see the first one! I have put the finished products out in the hallway for everyone to see.  The pictures alone are really cool and getting a lot of attention!  (So glad I found this app!) The stories are amazing and fun to read.

Adding the aura with the iMovie trailer we made with the dinosaur pictures adds a fun extra! 

 Sometimes, we have people who stop to look at the pictures and read the stories.  

Then if I can, I have them use my iPad and have them try our “secret code” trigger  picture as well.  They are always surprised to see a picture start an iMovie trailer!

 Way too much fun!  

Still working on another project with the dinosaur pictures on the iPads….

Takes a bit longer and still trying to figure out the best way to share them…..

Stay tuned!

AR Dinosaur Fun!

We are having a lot of fun with Augmented Reality this week!  We worked with the Augmented Reality cards for dinosaurs that I downloaded with the AR Flashcard app on our iPads.  It is really cool!

You print off the cards with a color printer.  These particular cards came with the AR flashcards for the alphabet that we blogged about on my classroom web site a few weeks ago!  Once you have the cards all you have to do is activate the app and then hold the iPad over the picture.  Magic happens!  A 3 D image of the dinosaur appears!

If you tap the screen, a child’s voice says the name of the dinosaur.  I thought you had to hold it over only one card at at time but the children discovered that they could get all the dinosaurs at once by putting the cards closer together! 

 Even our principal gave it a try!  

We have already played with the AR Flashcard app for the Alphabet.  

The app is called AR Flash Cards.  AR is short for Augmented Reality.  It is a fantastic app!  I printed off the Alphabet cards on my color printer at home.  Then I cut them apart.  I had already downloaded the app.  You basically open the app, place the ipad over the card and wait a little bit.  Magic happens!!

A three dimensional animation of the animal on the alphabet card appears on the screen.  When you touch the screen the audio component can be heard.  It tells the child the name of the letter and the animal!

I was able to let all the children see the magic at the same time using the projector and the special adapter cord I have for the iPad.  Later, the children used the iPads independently to try it out by themselves.

I wish I could have taped the looks on their faces when the first animation appeared!

The alphabet cards are really neat and I know we will get a lot of use out of them!  They were free!  Very easy way to get students interested in alphabet skills!  We will be having lots of fun with alphabetizing, letter sounds, spelling practice, and so on with this app!

There are more cards coming soon but they have a cost attached.  I think they will be worth it! 

We also worked with another augmented reality app I have discovered.  It is called CoLAR Mix.

I was a bit sneaky!  I had the children color a special coloring page that I had downloaded for them.  I told them if they did a really good job we would do something really cool with it!

After they finished coloring, I loaded this app and just held the iPad over their coloring.  The look of their faces was priceless!  

We started a new theme this week!  Can you guess?

We started off with a mini research report about dinosaurs.  Specifically apatosaurus!  I prepared a small list of facts about apatosaurus that we read together and sorted into different categories!  They were What They Look Like, What they Eat, About the Babies, and Cool Facts.  We read the facts together and as we read them we applied a code to the facts.  L for What They Look Like, E for What They Eat, B for About the Babies, and C for Cool Facts.  The children thought they should all be cool facts!

Then they cut out the facts and glued them to the appropriate page.

Then I staple them into the covers I had premade for them.  They attached the head and drew a face and had a funky dinosaur report to display!  

Lots of dinosaur fun!

Dinosaur Days!

We have started working on a mini unit about dinosaurs in my classroom.  We did our first mini research report about Apatosaurus.  I managed to find a variety of interesting facts about apatosaurus from a variety of sources and made a fact list.  The children and I then categorized the facts into four groups.  They were: what they look like, what they eat, about the babies, and cool facts.  The children liked the cool facts category the best and I think they wanted to put everything in that category.  I guess they think that everything about dinosaurs is cool.

To add a "super funky" element to the project I prepared some covers for the booklets that could be made into dinosaurs.  I find that if I go the extra mile and create a "super funky" product to strive for, the children will go the extra mile and give me an excellent effort in their work.

I had fun creating a backdrop for their booklets.  I think we both had fun!