We are starting a new year and so we have created our first digital book about our school this year! We read a story in one of our books about a school. We decided to create our own version using the iPad. First, we decided which places we needed to have in our book. Then, we went around the school and took pictures with an iPad of the places in our school the children thought were important. The Big Rock and Chester were key items on our list!
The next step was to take the pictures and import them into a neat app called Strip Designer that lets us add captions to our pictures. We saved those pages to the camera roll and then imported them into another app called Explain Everything which lets us create a book! We imported each page onto its own page in Explain Everything and then recorded our voices saying the words on each page.
After we finished recording, we saved our book as a movie. Then we watched and listened to the book we created about our school. We hope you enjoy it! You may recognize a voice or two!
This is the alphabet book that we created this year using augmented reality! We think it is pretty cool!
We used a combination of apps to create this project. The children have been using the app AR Alphabet Flashcards this year a lot!
They love trying to hold the augmented images that appear when you hold the iPad over the trigger images.
We created the pictures for our pages in our book by having each student pick a letter. Then they searched the classroom to find other real objects that began with the letter they had chosen. We grouped the letters together around the trigger image picture. Then we opened up the app and took a picture of our collections with the trigger imaged engaged.
The children then imported the picture they took into the app Strip Designer from the camera roll. We used a simple frame to title each page. They then used the balloon option in this app to label the objects in the picture.
I imported all the pictures into Explain Everything in alphabetical order. Then we had Owen, Celia, and Elsa narrate the story!
We then saved it to the camera roll and I uploaded it to our Youtube channel to share with the world!
We have been working with some Augmented Reality apps in the classroom over the last few weeks. The newest one is AR Flashcards Shapes and Colors.
This is a really neat app that introduces colors and shapes in a fun way. The children hold the iPad over the trigger images and these lovely augmented images appear. You can change the color of the shape by tapping the color icons at the top of the screen. Lots of fun practice learning about colors and shapes.
There is a story in one of our beginning readers that talks about shapes. We decided to make our own book using these augmented images as a starting point!
The students searched our classroom for the different shapes and then we arranged our collections around the trigger image picture. Then we took a picture of the shapes within the app with the trigger image engaged. Next, we opened up the Strip Designer app, imported the picture and added a sentence about the shape to the page.
Then we opened up the Explain Everything app and imported our pages to make a book. The students volunteered to narrate the pages. We saved our book to the camera roll and uploaded our book to YouTube. This is the result!
This was a fun project! They had a great time searching for the shapes we needed and arranging them around the trigger image! Great practice and fun, too!
We have been having a lot of fun during the first few weeks of this school year! We have had a lot of fun creating a book using the iPad based on a story we have been working on in one of our readers.
The story focuses on introducing the school in the story. We decided to create our own book about our own school using the iPads.
We had a great time travelling all around the school taking pictures of the important sites in the school according to the children! Then we imported the pictures into an app called Strip Designer and added the text. Then we imported these pages into another app called Explain Everything to create our book. Then we recorded our voices reading the text. We saved our book to the camera roll and exported it to Youtube. We hope you enjoy our efforts!
I have also been experimenting with Aurasma again this year. This app allows us to attach files to a trigger image such as a picture. When you view the picture within the Aurasma app it triggers the attached file to display. You need to follow our class on the Aurasma app to see the Aura.
To see our auras, please follow the following steps.
1.Download the app Aurasma on your device. It works on iPads, and iPhones. I believe there is also an android version. The app is free. It will ask you if you want to register. You do not need to register to see the auras.
2. Search for our channel and follow it. Our site is
mrsantonsclass or mrsantonsgradeone
You can do this by choosing the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen. Type in either site name. Our channel should come up! (I have tried it on every device in my house and had my family try it so it should work!) Then choose the Follow button. The text will change to Following.
(image from KPM Doodles)
You should then see a little snapshot of the picture above.
3. You can then trigger the aura by choosing the option at the bottom of your screen that has the four corners (the one in the middle).
Aim your device at the trigger image above on this screen on your computer and you will see the aura activate with a purple swirl. The attached file should then display. The attached file is the book that we created above. It is pretty cool! Now you have two ways of viewing the same book!.
We tried it out this morning in our classroom with my iPad and the pictures! Lots of fun!
As we create other auras this year we will share them to this channel.
You can share the aura by choosing the share button. You can share it via email or twitter.
I have also shared the book on our Twitter site. Our twitter address is @mrsantonsclass.
I have added the twitter feed to the blog on the right hand side! You can see some of our tweets.
Today we tweeted about the Global Read Aloud 2014. We have joined with a large group of teachers worldwide who are completing an author study of the Peter Reynolds stories. This week’s book is I’m Here. We watched the trailer about the book. Then we posted about it using the Global Read Aloud hashtag. You can see our tweet in the twitter feed on the side of the blog. We are hoping to connect with other classrooms in the world and find out what they think about the books too!
Isaak’s Mom has voluteered to help us with our Twitter page. We have started sharing our news on the twitter board and will soon be posting our tweets on our Twitter page on the computer!
Having lots of fun with technology! Definitely something to tweet about!
This is our Augmented Reality Alphabet Book! We think it is very cool! We have been working with the AR Flashcards app a lot this year! This book is a compilation of a lot of work!
The children each choose a letter of the alphabet and then scoured the room looking for items that begin with their letter’s sound.
Once they had a good collection of items we arranged them around the trigger picture for that letter in the AR Flashcards app! Then we opened up the app and took the picture of their collections when the trigger was activated! Very cool!
Then we used the Strip Designer app to import the pictures to create a page for each alphabet letter. We wanted to make an alphabet book to share with the kindergarten class!
We made a variety of pages using these pictures. We made pages with the trigger picture and other pictures using Doodle Buddy as well as taking pictures of items in the classroom or the school! Once the students got started they wanted to make more than one!
Then we decided that we needed the label the objects in our pictures. We used the text function in Strip Designer to add the captions to our pictures.
Then we took all the pages and imported them into another app called Explain Everything!
After we had the book put together with all the pages we had to record our voices on each page. Each student recorded their page!
Once the book was complete we saved it to the camera roll!
Then we watched and listened to our book! Too cool!
I uploaded the book to my channel on Youtube so we can share it with everyone! We think we might have made the very first Augmented Reality alphabet book!
We took all the pages we had created about Space using the Strip Designer app 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 so we can share it with everyone.
We wrote stories about a space trip using the pictures we created using the Spacecraft 3D app. Each child choose the spacecraft that they wanted to have their picture taken with and then posed with their choice.
I took their picture within the app with the trigger activated and we used this picture as the spark to trigger some creative writing!
I also attached the space video using Aurasma to the creative writing project!
They wrote and they wrote and they wrote!
The trigger for the movie is on the cover of their project. I will send home the aura I created in Aurasma via email.
They love viewing their work augmented reality style!
We have been having a lot of fun creating a lot of cool things on the iPads! We are working on an augmented reality alphabet book! Each of the students has chosen a letter of the alphabet and have collected a variety of things found in our classroom that begin with their letter. Then we put the collection together with the trigger picture from the AR Alphabet app. Once the trigger is activated we take the picture of the collection!
We are then taking the pictures and importing them into Strip Designer to create a page for our alphabet book!
The children are also creating a page with text using Strip Designer. The children are importing pictures they created using Doodle Buddy. AR Flashcards, and taking actual pictures using the iPads for their letter.
Some students created more than one page about their letter!
We can’t wait to share them with you! We are hoping to compile all the pages into a book with audio using the Explain Everything app! Stay tuned!
We have been working on a space theme this month. The children have been using the iPads to create these awesome pages about space.
We have been learning about the moon and the sun. We watched a few cool videos on Brain Pop Jr. about the phases of the moon.
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 also found an really neat math app called Fetch! Lunch Rush.
It uses augmented reality in a really neat way to help the students practice their adding skills.
You need to download some pages with the number trigger images and cut them out first. The students have to help find the correct amount of sushi to complete the addition sentence.
The funny little dog talks them through the process. Several children can play at the same time. They choose the player they would like to be and then take turns solving the problems. When they aim the iPad at the correct answer the sushi rolls appear in 3 D! It keeps score and there is a bit of a time element! Very popular!
We have had a great time this year working and learning with the iPads. Here are just a few of the highlights of our journey!
We used them to create stories.
And poems,
And comics!
And alphabet books!
And life cycle studies!
And mind maps!
And math books!
And 100 collections for 100 day!
And movie trailers!
And labeling a diagram!
And some amazing illustrations!
We learned a lot! Thank you for sharing our journey with us and supporting our efforts! We really appreciated your help and encouragement! Too much fun!
A week ago we made a twitter board with our buddy class! They had created a twitter bulletin board with “tweets” about something they wanted to share! Really interesting to read and find out about what’s important to them right now! So they showed us how to do it!
The children are writing on their own personal strip each week and sharing something important to them! An upscale “show and tell”! The bulletin board “twitter board” lets each child share their important moments.
I have been researching class twitter boards and decided to take the plunge this week! We now have our own Twitter account. It is a protected account. That means that to post to the account I must approve the comment. That protects us from posts that are not appropriate. The blog posts are also posted on the Twitter account!
We tweeted to Chris Hadfield to let him know that we enjoyed his videos about life on the space station. We also tweeted to another class that has a Twitter account. There are some really neat uses of Twitter that we will be exploring in the future.
The children are continuing to create their frog life cycle pages on the iPad using the images that I have downloaded for them and Strip Designer. When they are complete I will figure out some way to share them with you! Here is another sample that is complete! Love the Hello and Boing!
We did a research project on frogs this week! The children had to sort facts about frogs into four different categories. We read them and decided which category fit the best. I was so proud of their reading. Some of the words were hard!
They did a great job! We are collating all our frog stuff into a frog folder!
Mrs. Anton's Class! 