Category Archives: iPads

December 3, 2012 · 9:21 pm

The iPads are Here Again!

IMG_1069Today was awesome!  The iPads for the iPad project arrived today!  I definitely did a happy dance!  I unpacked them from the cart and we got started right away!  I wanted to have the children get oriented with the iPads and we had a talk about how we need to take good care of them.  Then we got started!

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The first program I showed them was a favourite of mine from last year’s project called Doodle Buddy!  Doodle Buddy is an awesome tool for drawing and writing.  I use it for almost anything.  This morning and this afternoon we used it to draw, do some spelling, and make some patterns in math!

First we learned how to use the tools in this program to draw.  Here are some samples of their work!  Love that glitter pen!

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We also did some spelling and simple word families using Doodle Buddy.  Basically we used the ipads as our own personal whiteboards!  Works just great!

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Later in the afternoon, we used Doodle Buddy to make simple patterns using the stamps.  We just used the Christmas ones.  After the children had started their patterns, we got up, went to a friend’s iPad and continued their pattern.  Lots of fun and learning too!

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We also worked with an old favourite from last year called I Like Books.  It has a lot of different stories that the children can either listen to, read with, or read by themselves.  I had the children use their headphones from the computer lab to listen to the stories.  Why didn’t I think of that last year!  It worked great.

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This last weekend, I picked up a really cool headphone accessory!  It allows five headphones to plug into one iPad!  Really worth it!

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See, wasn’t it an awesome day!

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November 25, 2012 · 6:54 pm

The iPads are Coming Back!

Last year this blog started because of a project we called the iPad project.  We put in a proposal and we were one of the lucky schools that were able to have 15 iPads for about six weeks.  To chronicle our progress this blog was created.  You can take a look at our journey if you look at the older posts.  We had an amazing time and learned a lot.  We created books with the children, and used the iPads in a variety of ways.  I hated to see them go….

So, I applied to have them back!  Mrs. Marshall and I wrote a new proposal and we found out this week that it was accepted and we are getting the iPads back!  I don’t think that either Mrs. Marshall or myself have touched the ground since we found out on Thursday!

One of ways we will to use the iPads is writing our student blogs.  We plan to write and write and write!  Hopefully you have had a chance to view your child’s blog.  The student blogs are only accessible with a password and are closely monitored by Mrs. Marshall and myself.   If your child has forgotten the password just let me know and I will send it to you!

I forgot to mention that we get to have the iPads for an extended period of time.  Three months!!

So, this blog will continue to report on our journey with the iPads, Version 2!

Did I mention that they are coming in December!

Talk about a great Christmas present!

 

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May 16, 2012 · 9:02 pm

Frogs and Flutterbies??

We have been working on a mini unit on life cycles.  We started with frogs and are now moving on to butterflies.  My husband always says they should be called flutterbies.  I started looking around for apps that would relate to frogs.  I found a really cute app based on the Mercer Mayer book Where is My Frog!  It is a neat little app that allows the user to have the story read to you or the option of reading it yourself.  I like that it highlights the words that are being read too.  Like most of the iPad story apps there are “hot” buttons that animate parts of the screen.  I have also found a version that can be found online. I will put a link to it on the WIKI when I get a chance!

We are also working on the life cycle of the butterfly.  Today we started adding some math to our study by looking at symmetry.  Butterflies are awesome examples of symmetry.  It is fun to put math, science, and art together!  TMF!  The children worked in partners taking turns putting pattern blocks on each side of the butterfly.  One partner got to be “the boss” and put a block on one wing.  The other partner had to put the same block on the other side to make both sides symmetrical.  Then, of course, the other partner got a turn to be “the boss”!

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May 9, 2012 · 9:26 pm

TMF! It’s Okay to Have Too Much Fun!

I love to collect sayings and if you came to my house you would see them all over my house.  One of my favourites is “It’s Okay to Have Too Much Fun!   or   TMF!

Yesterday the children asked to watch the Monster at the End of this Book during storytime/eating time.  As I suffer from allergies I leapt at the opportunity to save my voice and set up the story.  I had the special helper of the day turn the pages as he had already gobbled up his sandwich and was eager to have the job.  It was delightful to watch the engagement of the students in the story, but especially the engagement of the page turner!!  During the story, the monster pleads with the reader to not turn the page by clasping his hands together and saying “Please, please don’t turn the page!” .  The student turning the pages on the iPad actually was so involved in the story that he was acting out the story as it happened complete with pleading hands! Magic!  Definitely TOO MUCH FUN!  Of course, then we had to listen to Another Monster at the End of this Book! Love those monsters!

I have continued to bring my iPad to school each day and when the children have completed their independent projects they have the opportunity to sit at my desk on my chair two at a time working with the apps I have downloaded onto my iPad.  Two other children sit on my other big chair at our classroom computer.  Little people in big chairs totally wrapped up in what they are doing is definitely Too Much Fun to watch!  Needless to say those chairs fill up fast.  At the end of the day I shut down my iPad and shut down the apps that have been opened and I get to do a little survey to see which apps are the most popular…  Really fun!  The Monster at the End of this Book and Peter Rabbit are really popular which tells me that I need to find more story apps!

The class WIKI is also really popular on the computer.  It is neat to see what their favourite sites are.  I need to find a way to let two children use the headphones…  There must be a gizmo for that!

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April 11, 2012 · 5:44 pm

25 and Counting!

Today I introduced a new app to a small group of children who had finished their independent assignments.  Actually, I didn’t have to introduce it…. I mentioned that I had a new app for them to try and was about to explain how to use it when the child calmly pointed out that it wasn’t necessary because “they could figure it out!”  And they were right!  I had found a storybook app based on Toy Story.  It lets the child read the story or have the story read to them.  I like this one because it highlights the words as they are being read.  It also has a variety of other activities that the children really enjoy!  The children taught each other about the app and they were off!

Over the past few months we have been experimenting with iPads in our classroom.  I have been having a grand time researching other websites and searching for ideas and apps that would work well in a classroom.  Tonight I decided to review our journey and just see how many different apps or strategies we have used so far on the iPads.  Guess what!  If I have counted correctly today was number 25!

Now I am thinking and wondering if we could get to 100…  I would sure love to try!

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April 10, 2012 · 6:51 pm

Another Monster?

We have continued to have fun with the Peter Rabbit apps.  It is hard to figure out which app is the most popular.  They all seem to be getting a lot of use!  I love the coloring one in the official Peter Rabbit website app.  The magic paintbrush colors the pictures in the same lovely colours that can be found in the books.

We did a story map based on the story Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown.  You can’t go wrong with a Margaret Wise Brown story!  The children sequenced the story and then we made some boo-boo bunnies for them to use as a story prop to retell the stories!  We didn’t manage to get them all finished on the day we did the story maps so we didn’t send them home until the next day when everyone could take their bunnies home!  They were pretty popular bunnies and they had a lovely time “resting” in their Easter bunny baskets.

I love the app The Monster at the End of this Book so I couldn’t resist getting the next story called Another Monster at the End of this Book.  Really cute story!  I used the projector to show the story using my special adaptor cord so we could all see the story on the big screen.  One of the students took charge of turning the pages.  Another hit!

Poor Grover!  He sure doesn’t like monsters!

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April 3, 2012 · 9:37 pm

Peter Rabbit has an App!

Today we continued our bunny projects with the beloved Beatrix Potter story Peter Rabbit! I am a bit of an Beatrix Potter nut.  I have all the books and we have been reading some of them.  I also have a really good version on video.  So, of course, I went looking for Peter Rabbit apps!  I found three in the short time that I went looking and we tried them all today!  All were big hits!  Not everyone got a chance to work with them yet but we had several children demo them on the big screen using the projector.  I have a special cable that lets me show whatever is on my iPad using the projector.  That makes it really easy to share with the students and I always have lots of volunteers who want to be the “demo guy”!

We watched the video first today.  I had already read the story previously.  Then we did an sequencing activity.  I chose 12 pictures from the book, and the corresponding text.  The children had to sequence the pictures, find the corresponding text, and then collate it altogether into a personal little Peter Rabbit book.  We also made a paper bag puppet to go with the book.

Later we worked with the story again using the three iPad apps I found.  One app allows you to either read the story yourself or have it read to you.  It has neat little pop-ups on each page that the children enjoyed.  It is called PopOutPeter!

There is also another Peter Rabbit app created by iActivecom that also reads the story.  It has a neat addition in that each page can be made into a jigsaw puzzle.  That was fun! 

The last Peter Rabbit app is the one from the Official Peter Rabbit Site.  It also tells the story.  It has some neat features as well.  There are some fun games and pictures to colour.  I liked the coloring one where you could use the magic pencil that colored the picture the same as the book.  The games are cute too.  I suspect that all three apps will be popular picks. 

I would find it really hard to choose between them.  I like them all too!

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March 14, 2012 · 9:11 pm

Little Teachers!

Today I went to a sharing event for the iPad project at the DRC in the morning.  It was awesome to see all the projects that the teams have been working on over the past five weeks!  When I got back to school the children wanted to know where I had been so I commented that I had been sharing their awesome projects with other teachers in the district.  They wanted to know all about it of course and then their comment was “that I should have brought them (the class) with me because they know lots about iPads!”  They were right of course!  They would have been great “little teachers”!

One of the teachers actually did bring a few of her students with her to share their projects and it was awesome to see how skilled and comfortable they were with the technology!

Because I had my computer with me today we watched our Photostory about our project again as some of the children were away on our sharing day and it was their first chance to see it!  Then we had to dance to the music!  Lots of fun!

Some of the students got a chance to play with DoodleCast today and it is a hit!  What amazes me is how quickly the children catch on to the apps!  One demo and they are off!  They seemed to really enjoy talking about their drawing while they were drawing and then enjoyed watching the instant replay.  Unfortunately I forgot to show them how to save their work!  Three little boys totally engrossed in their drawing and storytelling!  Too cool!

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March 12, 2012 · 9:38 pm

I Wish I Had 100?

Today we talked about 100.  If we could wish for 100 of something what would we wish for…. If we could eat 100 things what would it be?  What kinds of things would we prefer not to eat 100 of…. What could we make 100 of?  We got some really neat answers.  The children brainstormed items for each category.  Then they chose the ones that matched their personal preferences to complete the story frame.  The final item was to indicate what they liked best about our 100 day celebration.  They liked the 100 day cake, the 100 fruit loop necklace, the 100 trail mix snack, reading 105 stories together, and making 100 stamps on the iPads the best. To culminate the activity we mounted their story frames and then they had to surround their story frame with 100 stickers!  10 sets of 10 equals 100!

I promised to post more of the snowmen pictures made by the parents at our iPad open house!

 

Have to admit that I really miss the iPads!  Wish I had 100 of them!

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March 1, 2012 · 10:11 pm

Finishing Up

Today we worked on finishing up our books.  We had some pages that needed to be tweaked!  I have uploaded all the books to the Pictello server and made PDF copies of all the books that were created.  After our Show and Tell Day I will email these to each family that would like a permanent record of their child’s work.

Our books have four pages in them.  Each page represents a project.  Each project explored different concepts and provided a variety of learning opportunities.   The books themselves take only a minute or two to view but they represent hours of  learning.  I think that the children really liked creating their projects on the iPads and are eager to share their efforts.  I am very, very, very proud of the work they did!!  And the best part is that they had a really good time doing it!  I bet they didn’t even realize that they were learning!

We are also sadly finishing up the time we have with this project.   We have had the iPads for five weeks.  I wish we could have them forever…..  They are moving on to the next lucky group of students and teachers next week.  We will have our final day with them next Friday.  They have been an absolutely fabulous addition to our classroom and our learning.   Boy, will we miss them!

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