Research + Chatterpix!

A tool I love using for research is the YouTube Kids app.  When provided with proper search parameters, it allows young students to take control of the research they are conducting, and make choices as to the sources they are using.  Today, we used it in Mr. Anderson's first grade, as a part of their biographies unit.  We decided to begin by having all of the students research and share about the same person, and we chose Martin Luther King, Jr.  The students used the YouTube Kids app to search for videos about MLK - and one of them blew my mind by suggesting they use the microphone tool to speak (instead of type) the name of the person they were searching for.  Um, yes! Brilliant!  #whydidntIthinkofthat #notsmarterthanafirstgrader

It is really important to use headphones during this part, or you might lose your mind!  :)  We gave them about 10-15 minutes to choose some MLK videos to watch.  I showed them how to look at video length and recommended they choose shorter videos to gain more information in a smaller time period.  As they watched, they used their whiteboards to take notes of the information they were learning.

After they watched the videos, they were invited back to carpet, where I demonstrated how they would share the information they learned.  We used Feltboard to create MLK characters (this was just a quick way to do it, you could also have them take photos of artwork they'd made, take a screenshot from one of the YouTube videos, draw using a drawing app, or take a photo of a book that MLK was in).  They saved their Feltboard characters to the camera rolls, then opened ChatterPix Kids, uploaded the Feltboard MLK, and used the microphone to make their character talk and tell the facts they had learned from the videos.

The students then saved the videos to their iPads and uploaded to Seesaw (I love how easy this is becoming for them to do independently!)  They turned out so great.  Here are a couple examples:

Apparently MLK was a huge spaghetti fan?  LOL :)

Another ChatterPix project we did in first grade was making habitats.  Students chose an animal, then used Feltboard to create a picture with the animal and items found in that animal's habitat.  We saved those pictures to the camera roll, then uploaded to ChatterPix and the students made the animals talk and share about their habitats.  They really turned out cool!  This is such a fun and versatile app!