Techie Fun! ISTE Part One!

The past few months have been amazing!  This is me with Mobey at the Brain Pop booth at the ISTE conference in Atlanta Georgia!  I was lucky enough to attend this conference as part of a prize package in a contest I entered!  

  A while back in late January I created a short video about how we use technology in grade one and entered the 6th Annual Mind Share Learning  Digital Learning Video Challenge contest.   I thought it would give me a chance to learn how to use some different apps and be a great learning opportunity to help me become more proficient using the various apps.  I never dreamed that we would actually win!  Our entry was one of three winners in this contest in Canada.  

Needless to say we were very excited!

We won $15,000 worth of new technology for our school to use!   Still pinching myself everyday!  The video we entered showcases the work we have done in grade one using technology.

My principal  Mr. Brick took our picture just after the call to send to Mr. Robert Martellacci at Mind Share Learning for the press release.

We are extremely lucky to receive a wide variety of amazing products to use in our classroom and our school as part of the prize package.  It definitely feels like Christmas! 

Another one of the prizes was the registration for the ISTE conference in Atlanta!  What an amazing conference!  I have always dreamed of attending this conference and it was so great to actually be able to achieve this dream.  I learned a lot at the conference and met some amazing people!  Too much to tell in just one post so I am going to spread it out over several!!! 
Watch for Techie Fun, Part Two! 

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Space Travel AR Style!

We have been having a lot of fun with a variety of apps I have found about space.  This one has become a favourite!  It is another Augmented Reality app called Spacecraft 3D.  This is an app from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.

You download a marker and then place the iPad over the marker and this lovely 3D image appears.  The best part is that you can take your picture with it!  There are 13 different spacecraft that you can view including the Curiosity and Hubble telescope!

There are animations and information about each of the spacecraft!

We had fun looking at the spacecraft and choosing which one we wanted to have a picture with.  The children then posed with the image and these are some of the cool results.

We have been working on a space theme this month.  The children have been using  the iPads to create these awesome pages about space.

I downloaded some neat space images from the internet onto the camera roll of the iPads.  Then I showed the children how to import the pictures from the camera roll into an app called Strip Designer.  It is one of my favorite apps.

After that short demonstration I handed the iPads over to the children.

They worked as partners and chose the pictures they wanted and placed them in the cells on the page. Then, with a little help, they added a text box describing the image.

The children are fearless.  They pop in and out of the camera roll, sizing and re-sizing their pictures to fit the spaces and then deciding on the various options for captions and the accompanying text with ease.

I think the product looks amazing!  Grade One students can do a lot, can't they?

We took all the pages and put them together to create a book using the Explain Everything app! 

Then the students recorded the captions on each page and we saved the project to the camera roll.  I uploaded the video to Youtube and we can share it with everyone.  

I also attached the video using Aurasma to a creative writing project we did.  We used the pictures we created with each student using the Spacecraft 3D app. 

The pictures served as a spark for a creative writing exercise about a space trip!  They wrote and they wrote and they wrote!

While we were learning about the Curiosity spacecraft I found a cool NASA website that focused on the Mars expeditions.  There are a lot of cool links on the site including one that lets you send a postcard to the Curiosity spacecraft on Mars!  Too cool! Of course, we had to send a postcard!

Another app we have had some fun with is called  Space Journey.  I love this app!  It lets you choose a planet and then see it in relation to its place in the solar system!

You can pick from any of the planets in our solar system and then see it in space in relation to the other planets and the sun.  Of course we had to try them all!

We got a little dizzy spinning around our solar system!  You can move the planet around and see what it sees around it!

We are having too much fun with all the space apps! And there are many more!

Snowman iPad Project

The snowmen project is one of my favorite projects.  The snowmen pictures were created at home as a family project!  Then at school, the children used a variety of apps to create a book on the iPads about on the wonderful snowmen they created with their families at home!

This year we have turned our iPad snowman project of each book into a movie which we have uploaded to our Youtube channel.  
The children used a variety of apps to create their project based on the wonderful snowmen they created with their families at home!  We used a combination of Doodle Buddy, using the camera on the iPad, and Explain Everything to create our projects!  

I made a special page on my classroom website to showcase them!

They worked very hard on them!

You can hear how proud they are in their voices!

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!

Fun with Elves!

We had a lot of fun  with elves this month!  We have Sparkles, our Elf on the Shelf who teamed up with Gus, our resident ghost mischief-maker working together to leave surprises for the children almost every day!  They left messages, puzzles, stickers, suggestions for stories to read, and sometimes special treats to eat!  I managed to catch them in the act using a special app called Santa Spy Cam!   They built a castle using the blocks in the classroom at our Christmas center and filled it with candycanes.   The video above is the evidence! 

Thank you to Ms Pana Says blog for the info about this app and how she used it in her classroom!

We also filled out applications to become elves.  Found this idea last year on Pinterest!  Thank you to whoever created this idea!  It is one of my favorite Christmas activities now!  They loved doing it!  

The Christmas tree in the middle has some of the cards we received as part of the Christmas Card exchange we took part in!  Lots of fun!  Thank you to everyone who sent us cards!  

We made Christmas cards for a special project that we are took part in this year!  It is called the Holiday Card Exchange Project which matched us with 29 other schools across the continent of North America.  It is part of a variety of projects coordinated by Jennifer Wagner’s Projects by Jen.  This lady is amazing!  She must spend hours and hours coordinating her projects!  Thank you so much!  

We sent cards to a variety of places in the United States as well as one other school in Canada in Ontario.  We sent one card to each of the schools on our list and they send us a card back!  We will be mapping out where our cards originate.  A fun way to learn more about the world.  I an trying to find pictures about each of the places our cards come from!  The theme of the cards was supposed to be Mittens, Caps, and Scarfs.  We focused on the mittens.

It was so much fun receiving mail each day!  Love snail mail!!  

We had a great time on our Polar Express Day!  We listened to the story first and then we each got a jingle bell just like in the story.  Luckily, no one had a hole in their pocket!

 We had hot chocolate and yummy cookies that my parents provided!  We used the left over graham crackers from our gingerbread house building activity to make S'mores!  It is the first time I had ever had S'mores!  Won't be the last!  

Each year we take part in our school's Door Decorating contest!  This was our entry this year!

We also made these lovely poinsettias!

The children loved having the snow sprayed on them for that extra "pop"!  Fun project! 

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Snowman Fun

Aren't these guys cute?  We made these snowmen ornaments as a Buddy project!  

Last year I was wandering around our local craft store trying like mad to come up with an idea I realized that if I combined two different ideas together I had a quick and easy solution to my buddy project. One of the ornament ideas I saw on Pinterest had tinsel in the ball and another used ornamental snow in the ball to make a snowman face.  I pinned both ideas on my Pinterest site.  Brainwave!  Use white tinsel in the ball instead of the snow and draw the face on with sharpies!  Bought some tinsel that had snowflakes mixed in to the tinsel and experimented at home!  A three inch piece of tinsel pushed into the ornament with a pencil and a sharpie face drawn on and we are done.  Add the name and the date on the back and we have a keepsake for both the big buddy and the little buddy!  It was a huge hit last year so of course it was on the list to do this year. 

I love how they all have such personality!  

We are also making some snowmen for Christmas presents for the parents.  Each year my husband cuts up enough blocks to make these cute snowmen with my class!

I posted about how to make them last year here.  We are just finished painting our blocks and we should be putting them together later this week or early next week!  The children had a good time sanding their blocks and are eager to put them together!  

We have been having fun using Doodle Buddy on the iPads to create Christmas trees.  We are saving our pictures to the camera roll and when everyone has made a picture we are going to import them into a story making app.  

They just love drawing on the iPad and are eagerly waiting for their turn!  I love Christmas! 

We also made a Christmas tree count up book today.

The children did a great job! We added a new cover this year.  Very simple but a huge hit!  I bought some glittery stars at our local craft store and we put them on the top!  

You can find this activity in my Christmas Fun package at Teachers Pay Teachers! 

Hope you are enjoying the season!