The Knuffle Bunny is Loose in Billings, Montana!

Inspired by Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny stories and illustrations, I worked with Mrs. Westrope's first graders to app smash DoInk Animation & Drawing app ($4.99) + Book Creator  ($4.99) and make our own Knuffle Bunny books! Keep reading to see how we did it!


We began by brainstorming a list of local "hot spots", and each student chose one to feature on his or her page. (Initial choices were Walmart, Chuck E. Cheese, and McDonald's, LOL.) Once each student had a different location, they used the image search feature in Safari to find a good image of each location. They long tapped the image, chose "save image", and saved it to the camera roll of their iPad.

We then used the app DoInk Animation to set this image as the background, then draw a Knuffle bunny over the top and make it hop across the page. These turned out super cute, and the kids loved experimenting with the bunny's movements. If you're unfamiliar with this app, you can find a tutorial here.

We then saved this video, and each student uploaded to Book Creator. We began a new book, and everyone chose the same page orientation. (I would suggest the landscape orientation, as when I chose portrait, it left a blank page in the front of each cover when we combined the books.) Students created a cover with their name, and formatted it using different fonts and colors. They added their Knuffle bunny video, as well as some text and their voice to the next page.

Once the pages were complete, students AirDropped to me by exporting the books as ePubs. From my iPad, I could open them all in the Book Creator app, then combine all books into one class book about the Knuffle Bunny! Our class book shared easily to Seesaw as a video for all to enjoy!