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Showing posts from May, 2015

Resources for Summer Learning and Enrichment

Play, Learn, Do with these Digital Tools Reviewed by Common Sense Media Teachers and parents worry about summer brain drain as students take a break from school. Knowing that most school age children will probably spend some of their downtime on digital devices, Common Sense Media has developed a  Summer Learning Guide  to help parents make good choices about websites, games, and apps to pursue.  Not only is the guide differentiated by age, there are six different categories for the parent and child to explore: Explore the World, Hands on Science, Get Creative, Tinkering and Tech, Learn Together,  and  Multimedia Memories.  In addition to their Summer Learning Guide, the  Common Sense Media website  rates movies, books, and apps, and their blog gets parents thinking about "parenting, media, and everything in between." If you are not familiar with Common Sense Media, check it out as it is a digital tool you will want to have in your inventory. Originally po

The Newspaper Clipping Generator

I was cleaning out a curriculum binder today and found my notes and samples from when my fourth graders used the  Newspaper Clipping Generator  website to publish newspaper articles about the events leading up to California's Statehood. The Newspaper Clipping Generator can be used for any number of content areas and grades, and it is compatible with iPads. Here are some notes for using and publishing using the generator that may help you and your students get started generating a newspaper article using iPads. Newspaper Clipping Generator www.fodey.com Name of the Newspaper  (it will get truncated) Add a historically accurate  Date  if you are writing about a historical event Add a  Headline  (Pay attention to capitalization!) Write your story using Google Docs, Pages, or another word processing app or program (this makes the actual drafting of the article easier to edit and save) Copy the text and paste it into the  Enter Your Story  text box  GENERATE  (read the resul

Mind-mapping with Popplet Lite

Popplet Lite is a free mind-mapping app that's easy to use for brainstorming, classifying, and creating timelines. Student can easily show their thinking and knowledge, and share their ideas. The app allows the student to share their finished map as an image to their Camera Roll. The lite version only allows the user to create one popplet at a time; when a new one is created, the previous one is deleted. Here are some ideas for using Popplet in the classroom: 1. Vocabulary Mapping 2. Timeline Ready to get started? Here is a tutorial for getting your students ready to create a Popplet. Want a little more? Check out this Popplet Lite  challenge . Here's another  challenge . Originally posted by Paula Noda.

Aurasma Ideas for the Classroom

What is Augmented Reality? Augmented reality is when a layer (typically a video or another image) is added over an existing image to enhance it in some way. Think of it as 4-D, or four-dimensional. If 3-D enhances visuals to appear more realistic as we view them, 4-D actually alters the object(s) you're viewing not only by enhancing their appearance, but also by offering additional information in a more interactive manner. Click here to see an engaging example. Yet Another Example of Augmented Reality How To Make an Aurasma from the iPad These instructions explain how students can create Auras on their iPads and how to load them to the teacher channel for easy access. Detailed Instructions   ||   Fabulous Video Tutorial Aurasma in the Classroom Student Created Book Reviews Students can create short video book reviews of the book they have read from the classroom library or school library. Place a small sticker in the corner of the books with book re