Kindergarteners creates a "How we use iPads in Kindergarten" book.

Mrs. Wittenbach brainstormed 2 categories with her students:

1) Tips for using iPads
2) Ways we used iPads in Kindergarten

Then they took pictures and recorded the students' ideas in Book Creator.

4th Grade Regions of the USA Google Tour Builder

The 4th graders are using Google Maps and a Map with lines of latitude and longitude to plot various scavenger hunt cities in 5 regions of the USA.

This required a lesson in latitude and longitude using a globe.

We then composed a Tour in Google Tour Builder to "travel" around the country.

1st Grade "Advice from a Pro" eBook reflections

The first grade teachers and I were brainstorming how to publish an eBook with an authentic audience. We came up with the idea of a book entitled:

After reading, Workflow and iPads by Kristi Meeuwse, I decided to have students illustrate their thoughts using Doodle Buddy so that the images could be imported directly into Book Creator. This was to avoid the shaky, shadowy pictures of their hand drawn work or waiting for the next lesson to upload the scanned version of their artwork to the iPad. What I appreciate about Kristi's blog is that she focuses on content and learning, rather than tools. Her blog posts are also about lower elementary.

Our ultimate goal was to create a multimedia eBook for kindergarten students. First grade students would record their voices reading advice to the kindergarteners while their drawing is displayed on screen.

Students have recorded their voice quite easily using the SeeSaw app, but the class had not taken a photo and recorded in Book Creator yet. In past lessons, I had taken pictures of their artwork before class. I uploaded the images to their iPads. This time, we planned to collapse the lesson by having students illustrate the advice and record their voices over its image in one lesson. By using Doodle Buddy, students create a digital image that does not require an upload either by camera or a scanner to the iPad. 

What we realized later, is that students loved using the specialty tools in Doodle Budy, like the stamps, emojis, textured paint, etc. which detracted from their hand drawn art.

Stamp fun!

Some of the art was more hand drawn:

At the same time, we decided to change up our thinking and go with the hand drawn pictures. We would have students take pictures of their hand drawn work and record their advice using SeeSaw, which they were familiar with doing in the past. My hope was to move the video from SeeSaw to the Camera Roll and then to Book Creator.

However, I wasn't able to export the video from SeeSaw into Book Creator. The video you see above was captured using Quicktime screen recording from the iPad.

We are now attempting Plan C. I have scanned in all of the students' hand drawn pictures. I will import them into the student iPads.

In Book Creator, the students will select the image on their iPads, record their voice reading their message and then post a selfie of the author on each page.

Stay posted. More to come . . .

Update: So we used the new Snowball Microphone and individually recorded each page with students taking a selfie and also recording their voice on their own.

Here is the eBook posted to YouTube: