Category Archives: Story Buddy

Today we continued to explore and learn using the iPads in our classroom. 

We used the iPads as a workspace to work on spelling simple long vowel words.  We have been working on the long vowel rule “When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and he says his alphabet name.”  They all jumped in and enjoyed using the ipads this way.  We saved a lot of paper too!

We are trying to become more familiar with Story Buddy.  In particular, we are trying to use the text element to write our own stories.  In the morning the children drew snowmen and then on a different page or on the same page tried to write a story about their snowmen.  Learning how to write using a keyboard is one thing.  Learning how to correct your work  is another.  It is a little tricky to manage the “select” and “cut” options as well as using capitals and periods.  I wish that there were at least 4 Mrs. Antons to help!  We managed though! Miss W. helped too!

In the afternoon, we tried to write a journal entry about the iPads using Story Buddy.  Part of the process is finding the app, opening it,  learning how to create a new book, name it, create some pages, and choosing the correct tool, font, and so on.  That’s a lot for little ones to grasp even before they start their work.  But they constantly amaze me by jumping right in and getting it done!  I was very happy  to see them trying to write their own sentences in addition to the frame sentences I provided for them.   The really cool change they made was changing the “I like the iPads” frame to an “I love the iPads” frame! 

We also did some math using the iPads and the app Doodle Buddy!  They had to create a math story using the stamps and then go around and record all their friends stories in their math scribblers.  The stamps in Doodle Buddy have a sound attached to them when you use them.  It is fun to listen to all the giggles from the children as they make their stories.  

We also used the iPads for Silent Reading time!  They were able to use the I Like Books app once again to find a story that they wanted to listen to or try to read by themselves. 

The day just flew by!

On Friday we continued our exploration of the iPads.  We started with a chance to practise our Dolch words using the Sight Word Bingo app again.  I have to admit that it was really fun to see a student pump the air with happiness when he got a Bingo!  It is a really neat app because I can encourage the children to practise the Dolch word list tailored to their current individual needs! 

Later on in the day we worked with an app called I Like Books.  It has a lot of books on a variety of topics.  After introducing the app I let the children choose and explore to find the story they wanted to read.  They can choose to read the story themselves, have it read to them as they “turn the pages ” or let the app read and turn the pages for them.  Once again, nice to see students choosing books that appealed to their particular interest.  

To complete our exploration for the day, we worked with Story Buddy again. On the second visit, it became clear that the children were getting quite comfortable with this app.  The children drew pictures and then using the text function they were able to add a comment to their picture using a sentence frame copied from the board.  I love that the children are producing such vivid illustrations with lots of detail and it is fun to hear them talk about adding “text”.