*Originally posted August 6, 2015* This Spring I found out about the PhotoStory app by Shutterfly. They were looking for schools to pilot the app in the classroom with students. I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with a classroom teacher and try out a new way for students to demonstrate their learning. I collaborated with a 1st Grade teacher incorporating technology into a science lesson on animal habitats. The class studied animal habitats together in their classroom and we talked about research during their time in the library. The students were divided into groups of 5 to work on the project. We then spent a couple of Fridays using Pebble Go to research animals that the students would see on their field trip to the zoo. They took turns researching an "interesting fact" about a zoo animal using PebbleGo by Capstone and various library books. Pebble Go is a great resource for research in Kindergarten through 2nd Grade. Many of the go to databases are written on an older elementary student reading level and/or to hard for younger students to navigate. Pebble Go is easy for the students to navigate on their own. The information is written on a level that the students can read and understand. For the students that may have trouble reading the information independently it offers the option of reading the text aloud to them. Each article has great photographs and videos to accompany the written information. Pebble Go is a great way to introduce students to searching for information using a database and prepare them for using other databases in later grades. The students typed the "interesting fact" into the PhotoStory app and then added an illustration of the animal using the Doodle feature of the app. This feature was a hit! The kids loved looking at a picture of the animal and illustrating it for their book. After the writing and illustrations were completed it was time for the field trip to the zoo! The original trip was rescheduled due to rain and I couldn't attend The Zoo: Take 2 because it fell during our week of testing. :( I sent iPads with the class to the zoo to capture the images for their books. When they returned from the zoo we added the photos to the writing and illustrations and the books were complete! We were also able to add the students voices reading each page to the online copy of the book (there is a qr code with the link on the back of the hard copy of the book). Through the pilot, all of the kids recieved a copy of their book. The day that orange Shutterfly box arrived was the BEST! The kids were so excited to see their work in the form of an actual book. One students said "Ms. Bishop I can't believe we are real authors!" Here are a few pictures of the students working on the research and illustrations: The Final Products! Below are the links to the digital copies of each group's book! The first 2 links have audio of the students reading their books.
Book #1 (audio enabled) Book #2 (audio enabled) Book #3 Book #4 The app was very easy to use and the kids picked it up faster than I did! They were able to type their text and change the color and size by themselves. They especially loved the Doodle feature where they could draw the animal themselves. I think we so often underestimate what our students are capable of doing. I am so very proud of how they worked so well together! They picked up where their group members were struggling without being ask and without pointing out their classmates struggles, to complete their project together as a group. These kids continue to amaze me! We will definitely be using PhotoStory again! It was such a fun project that met so many standards across multiple content areas. We are already talking about ideas for next year combining multiple content areas. The only thing that we will have to really plan for next year will be how to pay for the books. Each child received their book for free through the pilot so we may need to find some fundraising for their final products in the future. If you have any ideas we would love to hear them! It was a great way for the kids to show what they've learned in a new and fun way and a product they can keep and share with their family. Thank you Shutterfly for such a fun project and for providing our kids with copies of their work! It was such a special treat for them at the end of their 1st Grade year! Shutterfly PhotoStory App Pilot Lesson Plan
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Part #1: Little House on the Prairie Virtual Field Trip Part #2: American History Virtual Field Trip 3rd Grade's Virtual Field Trip location was a little selfish on my part. NYC is my VERY FAVORITE place to visit! I couldn't go in real life so this was second best...right? Week 1: Welcome to New York! For the first week I did an intro to New York City with a virtual tour of Times Square. YouVisit also has a great photo tour of New York City! It has really great 360 degree HD photos of most of NYC's most popular tourist attractions. Put these up on the Promethean Board and its almost like you are there...almost! We also explored the New York Philharmonic's Kids page. This is a great interactive page that the kids loved exploring later! During check out time I let them watch a few of YouTube clips of Disney Broadway shows. *We looked at several live web cam views of NYC. These are great...but you might want to preview them ahead of time to make sure there is nothing inappropriate! You never know what might be in Times Square....hello Naked Cowboy. Week 2: Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty Scholastic has a great interactive tour of Ellis Island. It walks you through each step of the journey a new immigrant would have taken. It has videos, photos, and audio that tells the stories of real immigrants that came through Ellis Island. It is a great first hand account of what coming to American would have been like. The National Park Service has a link to a couple of great live webcams of various views from and of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Week 3: NYC Museums I began this week by introducing some of the many great museums in New York City. I showed the kids a few pictures of the museums I have visited while in NYC. Several of the museums have really great interactive websites for kids. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great Kid's Zone! It has videos that teach about different artists and pieces of art featured in the museum. There are also some interactive exhibits that introduce pieces of art that are in the museum, the artist, and allows the kids to try out the technique used by that artist. The kids really enjoyed revisiting this site later.
The MOMA Art Lab App - The app includes information on art featured at MOMA and the artists' techniques. It allows the kids to try out many of these techniques. They can create a mobile, sound composition, line design, shape poem, draw with scissors, experiment with paint, and draw from instructions. This app was VERY popular with the kids. They could have spent the entire library time on this app alone. They had to work in pairs because we don't have enough IPads for everyone to work alone. It was really neat to walk around and hear the discussions about what they were creating and why they should use a certain object, color, ect. They wouldn't have had these same types of discussions working alone. We have revisited the Art Lab several times even after our Virtual Field Trip was over. Week 4: Central Park and The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade The last week of our virtual field trip fell the week before Thanksgiving. I had planned on visiting Central Park for the last week but decided to also visit the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Central Park: The Central Park Conservancy website has a great guided virtual tour of the park. You are able to "walk" through the park and read facts about the park and well as hear narration along the tour. Throughout the tour there are photos, videos, and 360 degree panoramas of some of Central Parks most famous landmarks.
*I put many of the links for both the 3rd and 4th/5th Grade Virtual Field Trips on my library website so that the students would have access to continue learning and exploring on their own in the computer lab, classroom or at home.
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AuthorI am an elementary educator in Birmingham, AL. I have previously taught preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. I now have the BEST job as an elementary school librarian or "The Library Lady" as I'm called by the kindergartners! Archives
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