Make "My School" Books Using the Book Creator App

Our Phase 2 TILT group visited Mrs. Rott's 2nd graders at Broadwater Elementary and helped them make some amazing books about their school using the app Book Creator. Click the link below for a wonderful guide on using Book Creator made by Linda Bernard of Redefining Learning.

Book Creator costs $4.99, but is truly one of my favorite apps to use in the classroom. The possibilities for creating across all areas of your curriculum are endless, and the the app is suitable for users of all ages. It's simple enough for young learners, but has plenty of customization features to make it a good choice for older kids, too. Read on to see some examples of these awesome books!

We used this lesson as an introduction to using Book Creator for the 2nd graders. They made books about their school, using the camera tool in Book Creator to take photographs of important people or places around the school. We began by creating the cover of our books, adding a title and author name, and then exploring the formatting tools to change the look of the cover. A photograph of Broadwater Elementary was shared with all students to use on the cover of their books. They were each instructed to take 3 photographs, so each student had a cover + 3 additional pages. We discussed some digital citizenship rules - no photos of other students, no photos of teachers unless they asked for permission, etc.

Since we were there with a group of TILT teachers, we were able to take the students around the school in small groups and allow them to take photographs for their books. They chose things like the principal, the library, the playground, the gym, etc. Alternatively, the teacher could take photographs that she wants each student to write about, and share out with students using Seesaw, AirDrop, or another method.

Once students had their photos, they were able to add text and their voice to their pages. These books then easily share to Seesaw or can be exported to the camera roll of the iPad as videos. If you're not sure how to do this, click here to see a short YouTube video by the amazing Heather Marrs. 

Click the images in this post to see examples of the 2nd graders' awesome work!