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EDU in 90 is a video series from Google for Education, with new episodes three times each month. Each episode, we'll focus on an important topic for educator...

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All over the world, people live in diverse regions, and climates with different animals, plants, and interesting nuances. As I have traveled the world working with teachers and students, I have tried...

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The 5 Clue Challenge was created for two reasons. First, my students needed a way to play a Mystery Skype type game with children in distant time zones who were not in school at the same time....

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A look at how teacher's are using PicCollage in the classroom!

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PicCollage Kids is such a versatile, creative and fun app for students, that it's a perfect tool to celebrate the end of the year! This post will share three of my favorite ways to use it with K-2nd grade students.

Digital Selfie Scoot from Erintegration
This idea from Erintegration is so awesome and makes a terrific end of the year keepsake for students. I modified it a bit for the young learners I work with, and here's what I did!

Mrs. Tieszen began this activity by reading the story One Word Pearl by Nicole Groeneweg, which is a wonderful introduction to generating describing words about their friends. After reading the story, the first graders created an anchor chart of adjectives we can use to describe one another.
We then used the app PicCollage Kids to begin our digital selfie project. Students began by taking a selfie, then used the clip tool by double tapping the image and chose the scissors to trim the background off of their selfie photo.
Once done, they clicked the checkmark to insert the photo into their collage, and then used the + sign to access the background and stickers. I let students add whatever background they liked, and choose TWO stickers to decorate their collage with.

After the collages were created, students joined me at carpet and sat in a circle with their iPads on the floor in front of them. We played Scoot by scooting the iPads instead of ourselves. When given a signal, everyone passed an iPad to their left, added a kind adjective about their friend (Just one word! The anchor chart was a huge help!) using the text tool, and then when I said "Pass!" they passed again. We did this until every student had written a describing word on each friend's collage.Doing them this way helped manage these young learners and allowed me to provide them the support they needed. They were seriously SO ENGAGED while typing on their friends' collages. The finished projects turned out fantastic, and we shared them on
Seesaw. They could also be printed and given to students as an end of the year keepsake.

My Summer Looks Bright!
For this activity, I adapted this fun writing project from the blog elementary-mydear.blogspot.com into a digital collage.
We started by taking a selfie and trimming it using the clip tool (double tap the image and use a finger to trim away the background). I then had each student use the text tool to type "My Summer Looks Bright!" on the top of their collage. They could use the text tools to change the font and color.
Students then used the web search tool to search "sunglasses png". Adding the "png" is a fun trick I learned from fellow PicCollage Ambassador Erintegration. This allows students to find images with a transparent background, and allows them to build some super creative collages!

They chose a pair of sunglasses to add to their collage, then used the same web search trick (using png) to search fun things they plan to do this summer. They could also add text explaining their summer activities, or upload to Seesaw and add their voice to explain.

End of the Year Photo Collages to Share with Parents
PicCollage is a great way to collect photos from a fun end of the year event, like a trip to the zoo, music performance, field day or end of the year party. I have PicCollage installed on my phone to quickly create collages and share with parents via Seesaw.

I hope these ideas will be fun and easy for you try with your little learners during these last couple days or weeks of school!

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PicCollage Kids is such a versatile, creative and fun app for students, that it's a perfect tool to celebrate the end of the year! This post will share three of my favorite ways to use it with K-2nd grade students.

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Made with Seesaw - Student Driven Digital Portfolios. Free for teachers!

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Using Book Creator for Formative Assessment

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Regularly checking for understanding during a lesson or project is vital. This book covers workflows for students and ways to use Book Creator to make sure your learners stay on track.

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Made with Seesaw - Student Driven Digital Portfolios. Free for teachers!

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Student collaboration in shared Google Slides

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Rule, after you find the solution whatever way you want, you have to do it another way. Too often we focus on algorithm procedures rather than number sense or place value. In an age where you can ask the universe "Ok Google" and the answers come to you anywhere any time, we can shift from what is the answer to how do you understand the answer?

27 + 8

While 27 + 8 is a relatively easy math problem to calculate it can make for some very interesting ways to look at it.

Google Slides

Add a slide to the collaborative Google Slides. Add a textbox to the slide and share your thinking, your strategy. Don't worry if someone else did the same strategy. What is another way to think about this than the standard algorithm?

Link to the Google Slides

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018

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How Many Ways Can You Write 27 + 8? - Teacher Tech

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How Many Ways Can You Write 27 + 8? Rule, after you find the solution whatever way you want, you have to do it another way. Too often we focus on algorithm procedures rather than number sense or place value. In an age where you can ask the universe "Ok Google" and the answers come ...

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Sign in to the Education Community. Discover great learning resources and learn new skills to become an Apple Teacher.

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With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games.

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Check out the multi-media mash up in this project. Students built a physical house out of blocks and then used the clipping tool in PicCollage to place themselves in their block house! They chose a background for their house and added a sentence. You could then place this project in Seesaw, Book Creator, or Chatterpix to add voice or more text.

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This student found herself in the pages of a Dr. Seuss book without using a green screen!

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Create an account for Participate to keep up with the latest Twitter chats.

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Click on an area of interest to find a meaningful chat. There are chats for just about anything you can think of. Hear from teachers, administrators, authors, specialists, researchers, and more from all over the world who are using Twitter to share their ideas for best practices. Some of my greatest ideas come from the connections I've made with educators on Twitter.

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Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

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Grab a copy of this Class Kick assignment that Traci Piltz made! Your students can sort, graph, and reflect on the Valentine cards they receive. You could also create a template in Book Creator for your students to use.

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Classkick is a free app that shows teachers in real-time exactly what students are doing and who needs help so they can provide instant feedback.

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Students at CK Burns in Saco submit these forms when they see something newsworthy happening in their classroom! It's a great way to give students voice, teach responsible digital citizenship, and promote positive learning experiences!

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#socialmediainterns#grade3 pic.twitter.com/xdMulQ81zN
— CK Burns (@ck_burns) January 14, 2019

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Do you want to build a snowman?

Well now you can with this fun, and educational, Google Slides activity. This is a great way for students to be creative and to work on their writing skills by describing or writing about their snowman.

Here's how:

Make a copy of the Google Slides "Build a Snowman" template, found further down in the blog post.

The template has a blank snowman and several slides full of items to add to your snowman including eyes, mouths, hats, arms, feet, hair, and more.

Copy and paste the items to build your snowman.

If you need different pictures, you can search for more.

When done building, write about your snowman or snowwoman in the textbox. You can describe them, tell a story about them, or explain who they are.

When all done you can download a picture of your snowman and writing to share with others.

See below to get your own copy of the template, as well as more detailed directions and a video tutorial on how to do the activity.

📄 Get a copy of the template

This activity is created with Google Slides. To get your own copy of the template simple click the link below.

"Build a Snowman" template - Google Slides link
(Original version with movable snowman.)

"Build a Snowman" template - Google Slides link
(Version 2 where snowman cannot be moved. May be easier for younger children.)

Your students can click this link to get their own copy, or you can use Google Classroom to push out a copy of the template to each of your students.

▶️ Video tutorial (11 minutes)

If you would like a step-by-step video tutorial on how to use the template, see the video below:

❓ What's in the template

The Google Slide template has multiple parts for the activity. These include:

Slide 1 - The title slide

Slide 2 - A brief set of directions

Slide 3 - Links to connect with me

Slide 4 - The blank snowman. This is where you will build your snowman (or snowwoman) and where you will write about them.

Slides 5 through 11 - Items for building your snowman. These slides contain images that you can copy and paste onto your blank snowman. The items are grouped on the slides by topic including Eyes, Mouths, Arms, Feet, Hats, Hair, and Extras.

⛄ Building your snowperson

To build your snowperson, simply copy and paste images from the items slides onto your blank snowman. You can copy and paste in several ways.

To copy an item:

Click on the picture and press "Ctrl" and "C"

Or click on the picture and click "Edit" then "Copy" in the top menu bar.

Or right-click on the picture and choose "Copy" from the pop-up menu.

To paste an item, go to the snowman slide and:

Or click "Edit" then "Paste" in the top menu bar.

Or right-click and choose "Paste" from the pop-up menu.

Once your item has been pasted in you can adjust it in many ways:

Drag and drop it to move it around.

Press the arrow keys on your keyboard to move it around.

Hold down the "Shift" key and press the arrow keys on your keyboard to move it one pixel at a time.

Click and drag the blue circle on top of the image to rotate the image if needed.

Click "Arrange" in the top menu bar, then "Rotate" and "Flip horizontally" or "Flip vertically" if needed.

Click and drag the corners of the image to change its size if desired.

Click "Image options" in the top menu bar, and then "Recolor" to adjust the color (works better for lighter colors).

➕ Adding your own images

Although the template provides a large variety of items to use for your snowman, you may still want to add some more of your own. You can add more images as follows:

Click "Insert" in the top menu bar, then click "Image".

You can can now choose from several ways to add a picture including:

✍️ Writing about your Snowperson

When you are done creating your snowperson, now you will want to write about him (or her). You can type in the textbox to the right of your snowman to enter your own writing. This could include:

A description of your snowman.

A story about your snowman.

An explanation of who your snowman is and/or what he does.

Be sure to include your name at the bottom of your writing.

💾 Downloading your Snowperson

When you are completely done, you can download a picture of your snowman and your writing as follows:

Make sure you are on the slide that has your completed snowman and your writing.

Click "File" in the top menu bar.

Choose "Download" from the drop-down menu.

Choose "PNG image" from the sub-menu.

This will download an image of just the slide you are on and not any of the rest of the slideshow.

You can now share your image in several ways:

Email it to someone.

Turn it in through Google Classroom.

Post it on your class website.

Share it through social media.

Combine it with others to make a new slideshow with everyone's creations.

🏁 Conclusion

The "Build a Snowman" Google Slides activity can be a great way to let kids be creative and to improve their writing at the same time. One of the great things about creativity, is you never know what students will come up with. Below is an example of what I created.

Feel free to email me images of your students' creations. I would love to see what they make and will be glad to share some examples here to inspire others.

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Do you want to build a snowman? Well now you can with this fun, and educational, Google Slides activity. This is a great way for students to be creative and to work on their writing skills by describing or writing about their snowman.

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Share the Google Slides Activity with Students

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Share the Google Slides Activity with Students

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Download Google Slides from Self Service. Scan the QR code and when the template opens in Safari tap Open in Google Slides.

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Lesson Plans, Activity Ideas & Other Resources for Teaching MLK Day

Lesson Plans

Dr. King's Dream
Students in grades K-2 learn about the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., listen to an excerpt from his "I Have a Dream" speech, and create picture books about freedom for Americans today.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Me: Identifying with a Hero
Students in grades K-2 learn about the life of Dr. King, record information on a KWL chart, and keep a journal of thoughts and ideas.

How Big Are Martin's Big Words? Thinking Big about the Future
Students in grades 3-5 listen to a reading of Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and then analyze excerpts from King's speeches for "big" words, words not necessarily as large in length as they are in importance: Freedom, Peace, Love.

Let Freedom Ring: The Life & Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Students in grades 3-5 view photographs of the March on Washington, read Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and investigate how Dr. King used language from "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in his own speech.

Activities

Martin Luther King Jr. Interactive TimelineAfter listening to a reading of A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr. by David A. Adler, students in grades 3-6 use sequencing skills to create a timeline of MLK's life.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quiz A printable ten question quiz.

King Crossword This printable crossword for elementary students includes an interactive version and an answer key.

Background Resources

I Have a Dream: Celebrating the Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. A source of activities, lessons, and websites.

Martin Luther King Jr. NY Times archive of articles on MLK.

Commemorate the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.This K-8 teacher source provides whiteboard resources, book lists, and activities.

Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site: Lesson Plans and Teacher Guides
This curriculum package for K-8 teachers includes a teacher guide, lesson plans and units, exhibits, a problem-solution project, and references. The package is available in 5 PDF sections totaling 303 pages.

MLK Websites

Printables

Videos
last updated: December 7, 2017

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Classroom Resources for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Grades K-5

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Dr. King's Dream Students in grades K-2 learn about the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., listen to an excerpt from his "I Have a Dream" speech, and create picture books about freedom for Americans today. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Story Read by LeVar Burton - Reading Rainbow Story Time

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instant access to thousands of great kids books.

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Instantly access 25,000 high-quality books for kids

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The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

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Book Creator Fluency Practice Task Card (1)

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Contact

Feel free to contact us. Your comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome! We speak English and French.

Feel free to contact us. Your comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome!

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TextingStory iPhone and Android app : write a text conversation, create a video from your story, watch your creation and share it !

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ANYWAY...Catherine mentions how teachers can use the iFake Text Generator for:

Morning Meeting Messages

Reading Journals

Introduce/Review Vocabulary

After seeing Catherine's post, I did a lesson with a 2nd grade class who used the iFakeText Generator to write a conversation between George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as if they were alive today. They LOVED it. It required A LOT of thinking for those 2nd graders to weave in as much information as possible but it ended up being a wonderful activity.

THEN..last week..I saw a Facebook post from TechChef4u that was advertising the FREE app, Texting Story. Once again, I lit up!

Not only does this app generate text messages, it turns your work into a text conversation MOVIE. Check it out:

If you are interested in creating a conversation that plays continuously so you don't have to keep pressing play, upload the saved video into the app GifToaster and turn it into a GIF that you can embed in a Google Doc/Slide, blog or website! Here is an example (the only issue is that you don't get to hear the cool texting sounds when it is turned into a gif)

This app is so easy to use and very intuitive. You can even upload pictures for each character as well as send images and emojis🙌 in the texts.

Under Settings you can add your two names, select their text color, add a profile image as well as choose some other options:

Note: It documents your every move. If you type a word/phrase and then delete to add something different, it will show up. The Clear Story button under Edit Story needs to be pressed if you want to start all over.

Students would have a ball using this tool in the classroom and it would truly make your lessons memorable. What are some other ways we could use this with students?

I hope Texting Story comes to the web for all of you Chromebook users! I haven't found a web tool like it. Let me know if you run across one that makes these type of texting conversation movies. In the mean time, check out Gone Google Story Builder. It is similar but instead of texting, students create a Google Doc interaction and can have multiple characters.

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Make Your Lessons Memorable with the Texting Story App

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Make your lessons memorable with the free ipad app, Texting Story. This digital tool is a great way to get your students thinking, creating and writing while using technology in the classroom.

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How To Make A Chat Story (Text Story) | via the Texting Story App | Tutorial

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The Game of Quotes: Getting once reluctant readers whispering "I want to read that!"

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Are your students reluctant to read during SSR time? Level up silent reading time with a Game of Quotes

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Use this template to play Game of Quotes in your class! Click on Make a Copy and then you can edit the prompts.

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Explore, play and learn with Santa's elves all December long

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To Be a Kid by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko

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To Be a Kid by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko

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Students map their thinking of what it means to be a kid after listening to the story.

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Sara Frater's task card linking Scratch Jr. to standards.

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Sara Frater's task card linking Scratch Jr. to standards.

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RT @rmsaenz3: @bentsenljisd GT 2nd grade S’s use a digital web by Popplet to show Main Idea and Supporting Details of their Animal Adaptions article and to organize their research. Research assignments enhanced and saved in digital journals on @Seesaw

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RT @rmsaenz3: @bentsenljisd GT 2nd grade S’s use a digital web by Popplet to show Main Idea and Supporting Details of their Animal Adaptions article and to organize their research. Research assignments enhanced and saved in digital journals on @Seesaw https://t.co/iu4Y7e4TMb

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RT @rmsaenz3: @bentsenljisd GT 2nd grade S’s use a digital web by Popplet to show Main Idea and Supporting Details of their Animal Adaptions article and to organize their research. Research assignments enhanced and saved in digital journals on @Seesaw pic.twitter.com/iu4Y7e4TMb
— Popplet (@poppletapp) September 11, 2018

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RT @rmsaenz3: @bentsenljisd GT 2nd grade S’s use a digital web by Popplet to show Main Idea and Supporting Details of their Animal Adaptions article and to organize their research. Research assignments enhanced and saved in digital journals on @Seesaw https://t.co/iu4Y7e4TMb

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RT @rmsaenz3: @bentsenljisd GT 2nd grade S’s use a digital web by Popplet to show Main Idea and Supporting Details of their Animal Adaptions article and to organize their research. Research assignments enhanced and saved in digital journals on @Seesaw https://t.co/iu4Y7e4TMb

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RT @rmsaenz3: @bentsenljisd GT 2nd grade S’s use a digital web by Popplet to show Main Idea and Supporting Details of their Animal Adaptions article and to organize their research. Research assignments enhanced and saved in digital journals on @Seesaw

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Made with Seesaw - Student Driven Digital Portfolios. Free for teachers!

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Good to know for compiling a class book!

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Working collaboratively? You can work on separate books (and even on separate iPads) and then combine them all into one book when you're finished. The pages of other books can be added to the end ...

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Join me as we dive into ways to create reading responses with Book Creator!

Reading responses can take many forms and Book Creator gives you the space to set up students for success.

This book includes 15 ways to use Book Creator for reading responses. You can tailor these ideas to both collaborative and independent student products and scale each one to make sure it meets the needs of your students.

Create models for your students so they understand the expectations for the reading responses you introduce to your group

Design tasks that can be differentiated for your group of students so everyone has a way to respond to what they have read

Reading responses can also include reflections on text students have listened to in the form of read alouds, audio recordings, or podcasts

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15 ways to use Book Creator for Reading Responses

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Book Creator is an excellent tool for students to enjoy creating and reading books together. This book highlights 15 actionable ideas for encouraging student literacy and helping them enjoy reading.

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Editor note:

This book was published in 2018. While a lot of the ideas are still relevant, most of the examples come from 2013 to 2017, when the Book Creator for iPad app was much more prevalent.

We suggest you check out our new resource, published in May 2023 - The Book Creator Toolkit for Schools & Districts.

Book Creator launched on iPad in September 2011. More than 6 years later the app is still going strong, used in classrooms all across the world in a variety of different subjects. And with the launch of our Chrome web app in 2017, we hope students will continue to benefit from using Book Creator.

We love seeing how creative teachers and students can be when using Book Creator. We're lucky that many teachers over the years have shared their tips, ideas and lesson plans as case studies on our blog.

This book brings together those ideas in one place, so you can browse through them and hopefully be inspired. Thank you to all the teachers who've contributed.

We've started off with 50 ways to use Book Creator, but we're certain there's a lot more than that! If you've got a great idea and want to share it with others, please contact us!

Happy book making.

Dan & Dan
from the Book Creator team.

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50 ways to use Book Creator (2018) in your classroom

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This book draws on 5 years (2013-18) of case studies from classrooms across the world to inspire you to use Book Creator in diverse ways. What will you create?

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If you would have told me 6 months ago that my 5, 6 and 7 year old kindergarten kids would be using iPads to create books and upload them to a folder so their parents could see them, I would have NEVER believed you! Following 2-3 step directions seemed like the biggest challenge for some of my kids! We practiced sitting still, raising our hands (without blurting out answers to questions) and we practiced lining up. We practiced so many basic skills of being in kindergarten. I was proud of the littlest accomplishments!

Fast forward 6 months, and I can tell you how much prouder I am of my kids. Sometimes I have to sit back and smile and watch my kids as they are working. 6 months ago I would have NEVER believed they could follow 45+ steps to create a book on an iPad and share it with their parents! But they can!! They love it and I love watching them in action.

We use our iPads all the time. So much that I had to come up with a new way of organizing them and keeping them easily accessible to my kids because they want to use them so much. We have these wonderful carts that we can store our iPads in, plug them in and charge them. Up until last week, I would take the iPads out of the cart and then have the kids keep stacking them on the table when they were done using them. It was hard to find the correct iPad the next time they needed them and I was afraid that they would get knocked down.

These dish racks from Ikea solved all my problems. We have 12 iPads in our room so 2 dish racks were enough to fit all my iPads. I put them in the front of my classroom, right under our Smart Board. I have a couple helpers take the iPads out in the morning and a couple helpers put them back at the end of the day. It's worked so well. I wish I would have thought of this a long time ago.

We have been using our iPads a lot during math time. This week we made math fact books with some math fact houses that I had hidden around my room. The kids used Book Creator to make the books and then uploaded them to their Seesaw folder.

One of our lovely Digital Learning Coaches was so helpful in my classroom two days this week. She worked with my kids and helped us learn how to upload our books to our Seesaw folder. We are all so grateful for her.

I posted on my Instagram account some pictures of my kids in action and said that my kids had so much fun creating math books in Book Creator. I had a follower ask how we used Book Creator in our math class, so I decided to post the steps here.

The first thing I did was create a new book in Book Creator, so that my kids had a template to use. I pushed it out to all my kids iPads through Google Drive, so that it was there for them when we did this project. I didn't take pictures of that step, but can, if anyone is interested in knowing how to do that.

Everything I do on my iPad, I do on my Smart Board so that my kids can see the steps. It only took about 2 times times showing the kids how to do these steps together, before they were able to make a whole book independently. Every once in awhile, we have to regroup and practice or do a step together, but for the most part they are completely independent.

Right now I am going to go through the steps of making our TIME books.

1. We opened our Book Creator App.

2. We found the Time book that I pushed out to all their iPads.

3. We clicked on the book and it opened up like this. We clicked on the arrow on the right side of the page to bring us to the next page in the book.

4. We saw a blank page with two lines that I already had on the bottom.

5. The kids pressed on the + button on the top of the screen.

6. This screen came up. The kids pressed the Camera button.

7. They then took a picture of one of the flowers that I had hidden around the classroom. Each flower had a clock on it.

8. On the bottom of the screen, they clicked on the Use Photo (if they liked it).

9. They then saw their picture across the entire page.

10. In the corners of the picture, they saw blue circles. They grabbed these and made the picture smaller.

11. They were then able to center the picture and see the lines on the bottom of the page.

12. They then pressed the + button on the top of the screen.

13. They chose the pen option,

14. They wrote the time above the lines.

15. They then clicked the done button on the top of the screen,

16. Now they had the picture of their clock with the time that they wrote.

17. Now they clicked the + sign again.

18. They selected Add Sound.

19. When they saw the circle they pressed it to start recording.

20. When they saw the red square, they said the time that they had written. When they were done, they pressed the square to stop recording.

21. They saw a little speaker sign.

22. They selected YES for wanting to keep their recording.

23. They were then able to move the speaker sign to where they wanted it.

24. When they were done, they clicked on the > sign to move to a new page.

25. They repeated the steps above to add a new picture, writing and sound.

26. When they were completely done with their book, they pressed the My Books button,

27. All of their books came up.

28. Underneath the book, they pressed the i button in the middle.

29. They clicked in the title box and typed the title of the book. They then clicked in the Author box and typed their names. We learned the hard way that if you click the Delete Book button, all your hard work is gone. It is really important to stress NOT to do this.

30. After they are done typing their names they click Done on the keyboard.

31. All of their books will come back.

32. Under the time book, they clicked on the square with the arrow.

33. They selected the EXPORT AS A VIDEO option.

34. They then clicked SAVE VIDEO option.

35. This screen came up. They had to practice patience here and wait until it was done loading.

36. Once their book was done loading, they pressed their home button and got back to the main screen. They then selected the Seesaw app.

37. They saw all their choices and selected the camera roll button.

38. A little box came up that said camera roll. They pressed this,

39. The last picture in the camera roll was their time book with a little video camera on it. The clicked on this picture.

40. Their time book came up. In the corner they saw a green check mark.

41. They clicked on the green check mark.

42. Our class list of names came up. They selected their name.

43. They clicked the green arrow in the corner.

44. They got a message saying their book was uploading. This step took a couple minutes to upload.

45. Our book was finally uploaded to our Seesaw folder. Parents were able to view them.

I am now able to go through each kids folder and assess whether they got the concept of time or not. I will be able to tell if I need to reteach them by looking at their books.

I have to throw these pictures in. As my kids were working today, we looked out the window and saw the biggest snowflakes ever! We could have stopped and made a book about snow falling on April 10th! It was crazy!

I hope this post helps you so that you can create your own books and share them on Seesaw. Have a great weekend!

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Making Math Books Using Book Creator and Sharing in Seesaw

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If you would have told me 6 months ago that my 5, 6 and 7 year old kindergarten kids would be using iPads to create books and upload them to a folder so their parents could see them, I would have NEVER believed you!

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4 Compelling Reasons to Use Book Creator

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4 Compelling Reasons to Use Book Creator

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Technology Coach Chris Loat shares his ideas on how Book Creator can be used effectively in the classroom.

Book Creator is a versatile and intuitively set-up app that allows students to easily create digital content in a variety of ways. In Richmond, teachers have used their iPads and Book Creator to publish ebooks on a variety of topics and in a variety of genres. Below are some ideas for using Book Creator in your classroom.

1. 'How to...' books

Kirsten Wallace at Steves Elementary first taught a series of lessons on procedural writing to her grade 5 class. After learning the skills required for procedural writing, the students used Book Creator on the iPad to explain 'How To Tie a Shoe'.

Each student wrote about this topic and explained the process with text, photos, audio recordings, and video. The ebooks were shared with their little buddies in grade 1 (a true test of if their explanations were clear!).

The next assignment was to explain the steps to their Science experiment for the annual district Science Jam event. Again, the students used Book Creator to write, verbally explain, and show with photos/videos the series of steps for their Science experiment. Students used the performance standards (adapted to student language) to self-evaluate their assignment on 'How To Tie a Shoe' and then made changes to improve their work.

Using Book Creator allowed for easy edits to the digital work the kids had completed so far. These same criteria were used to self-assess their Science experiment procedures and make changes along the way.

2. Collaborative books

Sandy Sanderson and Susan Fawcus at Kingswood Elementary used Book Creator to make a collaborative ABC book on Ancient China, their theme for Social Studies.

Each student was given a letter of the alphabet and came up with an idea that started with their letter and connected to Ancient China. Students researched the topic and presented their information on one page in Book Creator.

The pages contained text, images, audio explanations and videos. Some students created their own videos with the animation app NFB Pixstop or by filming themselves with the iPad camera, and then embedded them into their page.

When their page was done, students emailed their work to the teacher who collated all pages into one book.

Sentence starters

Another idea for a collaborative book is to give primary students a sentence starter to complete (e.g. One spooky night, I saw...). Students made a page in Book Creator and wrote their completed sentence on the page.

They then illustrated their sentence with a drawing app (e.g. Doodle Buddy or Drawing Box). After the drawing was finished, students saved it to their camera roll on the iPad and then placed it on the Book Creator page. When the page was finished, students emailed it to their teacher who collated the pages into one book.

How to combine books in Book Creator

3. Non-fiction books

Sonya O'Neill at Steveston London Secondary had her Spanish 9 students learn about a Spanish speaking country by researching the country and then making an ebook.

Students were asked to incorporate Spanish on each page, and since the audio function in Book Creator is easy to incorporate, it was a favourite among the students to complete this part of the criteria. Other students also filmed themselves speaking Spanish and included these videos in their books.

At the end of the project, students did a presentation about their country by sharing the book on a flat screen TV.

4. Photo books

When she taught at Blair Elementary, Janice Novakowski would take photographs during walking field trips and would make photo books for the class to reflect on the following day.

Using Book Creator, she would present each photo on its own page, along with a simple sentence for the Gr. 1 students to read. Since the iPads were set to automatically sync books, the book could be put on all 30 iPads for each student to see.

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4 compelling ideas for using Book Creator in the classroom - Book Creator app

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Technology Coach Chris Loat shares his ideas on how Book Creator can be used effectively in the classroom. Book Creator is a versatile and intuitively set-up app that allows students to easily create digital content in a variety of ways.

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Directions for using the built in screen recorder on your iPad

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Directions for using the built in screen recorder on your iPad

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Students can screen record while they're reading digital books from Unite for Literacy or Epic!

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Made with Seesaw - Student Driven Digital Portfolios. Free for teachers!

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Students can screen record while they use the whiteboard app to model a math strategy.

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Made with Seesaw - Student Driven Digital Portfolios. Free for teachers!

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Made with Seesaw - Student Driven Digital Portfolios. Free for teachers!

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Couldn’t be any prouder of my students and their @ChatterPixIt. Best play dough Alexander Hamilton I’ve ever seen. #bdjhpride #T2T #Hamilton #katyisdss #katyisd

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Couldn’t be any prouder of my students and their @ChatterPixIt. Best play dough Alexander Hamilton I’ve ever seen. #bdjhpride #T2T #Hamilton #katyisdss #katyisd https://t.co/vv4LyhbHMf

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Couldn’t be any prouder of my students and their @ChatterPixIt. Best play dough Alexander Hamilton I’ve ever seen. #bdjhpride #T2T #Hamilton #katyisdss #katyisd pic.twitter.com/vv4LyhbHMf
— Megan Chriss (@megan_chriss) February 9, 2018

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Couldn’t be any prouder of my students and their @ChatterPixIt. Best play dough Alexander Hamilton I’ve ever seen. #bdjhpride #T2T #Hamilton #katyisdss #katyisd https://t.co/vv4LyhbHMf

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Couldn’t be any prouder of my students and their @ChatterPixIt. Best play dough Alexander Hamilton I’ve ever seen. #bdjhpride #T2T #Hamilton #katyisdss #katyisd https://t.co/vv4LyhbHMf

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Couldn’t be any prouder of my students and their @ChatterPixIt. Best play dough Alexander Hamilton I’ve ever seen. #bdjhpride #T2T #Hamilton #katyisdss #katyisd

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Martin Luther King Jr. @ChatterPixIt @CFBDLS @KentCardinals #IHaveADream #kentrocks #kindergarten

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Martin Luther King Jr. @ChatterPixIt @CFBDLS @KentCardinals #IHaveADream #kentrocks #kindergarten pic.twitter.com/7JCThO2rcI
— Shannon Eikenhorst (@KinderEik) January 25, 2018

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Martin Luther King Jr. @ChatterPixIt @CFBDLS @KentCardinals #IHaveADream #kentrocks #kindergarten

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Google Expeditions: over a million students, on trips to virtually anywhere

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A look at how teacher's are using PicCollage in the classroom!

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Green Screen in the classroom is an engaging way to have students express their creativity. In my classroom students collaborate with each other on script writing and preform a little skit to teach others about a concept or skill they learned. Students also write class stories and then act them out together. Sometimes it is hard to find class time to do a large production with Green Screen. Even finding the space to film can hinder some teachers from trying it. What about a mini Green Screen? You only need a tiny space. Students use mini toys such as LEGO minifigures or generic brand figures to create a little movie. These are easy to store in one container and students can film right at their desk or a small table.

Mini Green Screen on A Budget

Here is everything you need to have a Mini Green Screen in your classroom on a budget. I got all my items at Dollar General. I did share some affiliate Amazon links for some items that I could find.

*A Green Screen

Some things that work for mini green screens are: 2 pocket green folders, pieces of green felt or cloth, a green lego base plate, a green cutting board, play dough, a green plastic table cloth, a green placemat, green painted pizza boxes, green tri-fold science boards, or even a piece of green construction paper.

I found that blue tri-fold science boards work great too. The Green Screen app by Doink actually works with lots of colors but I find green and blue work best. I really like the trifold boards because they fold up flat and are super easy to store right by my filing cabinet.

*Small Toys

Dollar stores have very inexpensive character toys that students can use for their project. Lego Minifigures or Dollar General generic figures work great for this. A set of eight characters runs about $5.95. Just remember to make sure none of the characters have green on them. Students may even want to bring in their own mini toys from home. What about having students make their own characters out of paper? That has practically no cost at all and students love to do this for projects too.

*Clip Art Puppet

Another fun thing to do is to print your clip art on a sheet of paper that has a green background. Students can add this to a straw and the green background makes it look like it is just the item without having to cut around it so carefully. Search Chroma Key background on images and then take a screen shot and save to put behind your clip art. Then print it out and you have an instant puppet for a show.

*Green Straws or Sticks

Some restaurants have Green Straws you can keep from your visit or even ask them to donate some to your classroom. I know Subway has them right now. They are also pretty inexpensive to buy at Walmart or Amazon. This link gives you 250 for $6.00. You can buy for your entire school or share the cost with some other teachers.

You can also paint BBQ skewer s to use. Walmart also has a small pack for one or two dollars. You can get 100 from Amazon for $12.95. I used Clark and Kensington Luscious Green to paint mine. What is really neat is you can have the Green Screen Doink app on your phone and hold up the paint samples at the store to figure out which color of green you want to use. That's how I found this color.

*Green Silly Putty (optional)

This works great in place of tape. The green Silly Putty or any off brand of Green Putty works to hold minifigures/small toys to the stick. Students have to be careful and move the sticks carefully which is good for the filming and to help them stick to the putty. If they start coming lose readjust the putty. The putty comes off super easy when done filming. Dollar General had this off brand for $1.00.

*Storage Containers

I also found some great green storage containers for $1.00 each at Dollar General. A basket for supplies, a two pocket basket for straws/skewers, and a little container with compartments to hold character.

What's Next?

Take all these products and put them into a little area in your classroom. You could add them to an unused student desk or small table and you now have a Mini Green Screen Workspace. Students can use this as part of your writing time in class or maybe early finishers can create a little movie.

How Does It Work?

Students write a little script on a sheet of paper. Students then rehearse to prepare for filming. Once they are ready they take their puppet and film on a green screen. They add a straw with tape or silly putty so they can move their character while they are recording their video. Their green straw will not show. (See the fish photo below.) Students need to remember not to move their characters to much or it will just be a blur. Slight movement while their character is talking is best.

You might also be interested in my Green Screen Puppets and Blank Scripts product in my store to add to your Mini Green Screen Station. It has everything you need to do a fun little movie on a mini green screen 30 different characters to print and add to green straw or stick. 9 backgrounds for green screen. You can scan a QR code and load them right to your iPad camera roll. 12 different blank script templates. 4 movie idea posters packed with lots of story ideas to help students write their movie script.

Pin for Later

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Mini Green Screen on a Budget - Goodwinnovate

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"Unleash your students' creativity with a Mini Green Screen in the classroom! Discover budget-friendly materials like green folders, LEGO minifigures, and green straws to create a captivating movie-making experience. With minimal space needed, students can write scripts, perform skits, and act out class stories using these mini toys.

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A lot or a little?

The parents' guide to what's in this app.

Kids can learn to make and tell stories with Superheroes Comic Book Maker. The app offers kids ideas to get started by providing options for settings and characters. Kids can even take pictures of their own to use as the background for their stories. The app also gives kids plenty of opportunity to express themselves with their artwork. Once the ideas start flowing, the open-ended approach allows kids to decide what direction the story takes. Though Superhero Comic Book Maker offers no guidance in how to create a good story, it does offer an easy and fun way for kids to get creative in art and storytelling.

Superhero Comic Book Maker is simply laid out and easy to use. There are no instructions, so some kids may need a little help getting started and with some of the editing features.

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Themes & Topics

Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires

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Our editors recommend

Cute, silly, animated preschool fun -- if a little short.

Audio, easy animation help kids create and enhance stories.

Colorful spelling game with lots of ways to customize.

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Superhero Comic Book Maker - by Duck Duck Moose - App Review

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Engaging way to make stories with great graphics and audio. Read Common Sense Media's Superhero Comic Book Maker - by Duck Duck Moose review, age rating, and parents guide.

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Click to read this book, made with @BookCreatorApp

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Free for educators! Give students unlimited in-class access to the best books & videos on Epic

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You can create collections of books and videos from your teacher (or parent!) profile (like a reading list), and then assign the collection to your students (you can assign collections individually...

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Students can #BookSnaps their Epic! Books in PicCollage and collate their snaps in Book Creator or Seesaw

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Students can #BookSnaps their Epic! Books in PicCollage and collate their snaps in Book Creator or Seesaw

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12 Best YouTube Channels for Kids and Teens

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From Mother Goose rhymes to physics lessons, YouTube has some incredibly educational and entertaining offerings for kids. Advice from Common Sense Media editors.

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"kids yoga" "yoga for kids" "yoga for children yoga story for kids" "children's yoga" "yoga adventure for kids" "kindergarten yoga" "preschool yoga" "kids me...

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YOGA | MINDFULNESS | RELAXATION FOR KIDS! Screentime that gives kids SUPERPOWERS! ⬇️ D O W N L O A D T H E C O S M I C K I D S A P P ⬇️ 🍏Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cosmic-kids/ 🛍️Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cosmickids 🖥️ Desktop (great for teachers!): https://app.cosmickids.com/ 📺 Roku: https://rb.gy/44r8d -------------------------------------------------------------------- Why watch on the App?

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Hour of Code

This year, we're taking Hour of Code to new heights by offering coding opportunities that encompass both artificial intelligence (AI) and non-AI components.

Want to keep learning? Go beyond an hour

Teachers: Host an hour or read the How-To Guide

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Use computer science to explore and learn about AI!

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Storytime & Sound Effect App For Educators | Childrens Books App For Teachers

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Expressive music and sound effects communicate stories to students with learning disabilities or visual and other impairments, exercising their listening and attention skills.

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As an early childhood educator and now a parent, I know how exhausting it can be to squeeze in all the classroom activities you need in a single day. We created Novel Effect so that story time can be an achievable daily goal for you and your students, especially the ones who may find it extra hard to sit still until the end of a book.

Novel Effect is an aid for those of us who don't like to read out loud, for those of us who are too tired to make "choo-choo" train noises or roar like a lion, or for those of us looking for something to jazz up the old classroom routine and get the wee one's attention back to the basics of listening to a good story - all with a little magic thrown in for good measure.

If you're newly discovering Novel Effect in this blog post, you're in for a treat. Novel Effect is a completely free mobile app that will respond to your voice as you read out loud. It will follow where you go and at your own pace, and along the way, you and your students will be entertained by sound effects, theme music, and even character voices that will bring the story to life. You can download the app for free on iOS devices here. If you want to be one of the first Android users, email us at droid@noveleffect.com and we'll add you to the list.

Once you have Novel Effect on your device, it's easy to use, but if you want to maximize the learning experience in your classroom, I thought I'd share a few tips that I use in my own story times.

This isn't crucial when reading to one child. You can simply use your device by itself for smaller audiences. In the classroom though, you want to use something that the whole class can hear. I recommend a speaker that doesn't stand out so that no one is distracted by all those fun buttons and flashing lights. There are plenty of great speakers out , but my personal favorite is this economical .

We're following you in the text! If you don't hear sounds right away - give it a few words, and it'll find you. If you want to skip around the story, or stop to ask comprehension questions or talk about the illustrations, you can (all of which I highly recommend doing to increase comprehension - use teacher guides like this one for recommended questions for the Lee & Low titles in the app). We'll be ready, listening for the text as you pick back up again. Once I've read a story a few times, I know where all my favorite sound effects will be, and it helps me to slow down and pause for those moments.

Have the children read lines to trigger sound effects and music. The students can participate by reading their favorite parts or lines aloud and get instant positive reinforcement with a fun sound effect or musical note. This promotes an even deeper engagement with the text, asking students to remember their favorite parts to share with the class. For younger classes, you can have students dance along to the music in certain parts or mimic the sound effects they heard (I bet you have some great monster roars in your students!!).

Every time I read to a group of kids with Novel Effect, I'm reminded that storytelling is about the possibility of something new. It's about the wonders and mysteries in life, those new experiences that we wouldn't otherwise be able to share. Stories allow us to learn things about ourselves and the world around us. What a joy it is that we as educators get to give that gift to our students. Join us in sharing the Novel Effect magic on Instagram and show us the wondrous ways your students are joining in the story.
Melody Zagami Furze is Chief of Education for Novel Effect and is a certified special educator with an emphasis on early childhood populations with blindness and visual impairments. With over a decade of education experience, Melody does research and development on Novel Effect's application in educational settings. She lives in Olympia, WA with her husband, toddler, and fluffy white dog.

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Adding Magic to Your Classroom's Storytime

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If you're newly discovering Novel Effect in this blog post, you're in for a treat. Novel Effect is a completely free mobile app that will respond to your voice as you read out loud. It will follow where you go and at your own pace, and along the way, you and your students will be...