Third Grade Cloud Research

My third graders have been learning about weather. As a final piece to the science unit, they have been working on a cloud research project. They already gained knowledge on what clouds are, so for the next step students were partnered up and directed to chose a cloud of interest from the four main types of clouds; stratus, nimbus, cirrus and cumulus. Then using the Pebble Go Earth and Science database and non-fiction books students completed the graphic organizer below. Throughout the year we have been focusing on note-taking format. Students are taught to focus on the main idea and supporting facts while using a bullet point format.

After the students finished their research they began work on a Photostory. Photostory is a computer program where students can create media presentations that combine images, text and voice recordings to make a short movie . The program is very user friendly and easy for students to navigate. So far, students have worked on creating a script for their video and  also drew a picture to illustrate the type of cloud they learned about. This week they will start to record the Photostory. I will post their videos soon!

They loved that nimbus clouds bring stormy weather!

A drawing depicting the good weather brought on by Cirrus clouds.

A third grade teacher approached me about using IPADs to create some sort of math video. She wanted the students to create rhymes that would help them learn and teach others the math facts. She had divided her class into groups with each group being responsible for a certain multiplication math fact set. At first she as thinking of recording the kids saying their facts, but then I mentioned the app Educreations. I had been wanting to use it with a class and this seemed like a great opportunity. We scheduled some extra time for her class to come to the library to learn how to use the app. I went over the basics with the class and then they had time to explore and play with app.

The following day they came back down with their rhymes completed. I showed the class an example I created so they could get a better understanding of what the final products would look like. Then they started to create their slides. Students were encouraged to keep it around five slides and reminded that their words would provide the additional information. They continued working on the slides in their classroom and then came down for one final library time to record. The groups were various sizes. The classroom teacher and I learned that groups of two were able to create and record smoother than the larger groups. The groups of four and five students struggled a little with the wait time until they were able to record or add graphics and how to divide up the work load.

Overall the students did a really nice job. They were having fun, smiling and laughing, but were on task and working hard. They were very excited when they shared their videos with the whole class.

The 3's Facts

The 8's Facts

The fifth grade social studies teacher and I worked in collaboration on an Explorer unit. Students were given five questions to research. They worked with a partner. Students then were told they had to present to the class before February vacation. They can present in any format they want. Some students took the opportunity to try something new while others chose a presentation method they had experience with already. Students created Power Points, Photostories and then some used apps to for their presentations. They had to include the answers to the five questions, but it was neat to see how they creative they can be.

One of my groups created a short movie using the app Tellagami. Tellagami allows users to create an avatar. Then they can type in text and the avatar will read it. They stumbled upon two problems. One, the free app limits the amount of text you can add. They decided to create two separate Tellagami's so they could include all of their information and then combine them together in IMovie. The second problem was, the avatar didn't always pronounce everything correctly. They girls had to figure out how to phonically sound out some words so they avatar would pronounce it the right way.

Explorer Tellagami

Another group used the app Educreations to create a short video. Educreations is basically a way to screencast a series of pages and add images and recordings. This group liked how accessible and easy to use Educreations is, however they learned the hard way the apps biggest downfall. Unfortunately, you can not save the project as a draft. It needs to be created straight through or you will loose your work. Even once logged in their doesn't seem to be a way to save and unfinished product. (If anyone has figure out how to, please share!) After a third attempt the group created a successful video.

Explorer Educreations