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