Write About Halloween Costumes! Activity Using Draw with Us App

I really like the app Draw with Us ($2.99), particularly for the feature that lets students take a selfie of just their face. They can then use the drawing tools to add details to themselves. This is especially fun when writing about Halloween costumes. Today in Mrs. Westrope's first grade, we took selfies, then drew in our costumes using the drawing tools in Draw with Us. Students then added Halloween details like spooky owls, bats and candy using the stickers.

What do you like to do in the snow?

I had a fun day in the Gear Up Lab at Orchard on Wednesday, showing their primary teachers and kiddos how to use Draw with Us and Seesaw on the iPad lab.  We did a simple, fun activity based around the story The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  After reading the story (I found a version on YouTube, then downloaded it to my computer using savetube.com, just in case the internet wasn't cooperating!)

We used the Mimio to interactively write some of the things we enjoy doing in the snow, and then compared and contrasted that with what Peter from the story liked to do.  After thinking of and choosing our favorite, I showed the kids the Draw with Us app ($2.99), where their job was to take a "selfie", then draw themselves doing their favorite activity in the snow.  CLICK HERE to download the Mimio Notebook file, where students can interactively write about what they like to do in the snow.

When they were done, we saved the images to the camera roll of the iPad (This is a little tricky: click the "home" key in the app, then click on the image you want to save. Now, the kids will click the camera roll and it will save to their iPad camera roll.)  We then opened Seesaw and uploaded the image, then wrote about our favorite snowy activity and used the microphone to record our sentences. This was a fun, simple activity that really motivated the students to be creative and write! 

Elf Yourself with Draw with Us!

We did this fun activity in Mrs. Bishop's kindergarten this morning, and I wanted to share in case any of you have time to try it!  We used the app Draw with Us (it's $2.99) to have the kids "elf themselves" and then post their drawings to Seesaw, along with a sentence.  They turned out so cute!

Using the Draw with Us app, students opened the camera area and took a picture of their face. This app allows you to change the outline of the photo from just a face, to a heart, to a star and a whole photo.  I love this feature!  After they took their photos, they used the drawing tools to add details - elf costume, Christmas trees, presents, sleigh, etc.

  

Once their drawings were finished and saved to the camera roll, they opened Seesaw, uploaded the drawing, and wrote a sentence.  Most wrote simple sentences utilizing World Wall Words.  We modeled some ideas beforehand.  Some examples are: "I can help Santa."  "I see a reindeer."  "I see a Christmas tree."  Once they wrote, they used the microphone tool in Seesaw to record their sentences.

When the students were done, they were encouraged to view classmates' work and "like" or post comments that were about the drawings.  I also love how Mrs. Bishop shows the work whole class, and in this way models positive comments.  Students need to learn to be good digital citizens from an early age!

Here are some finished projects ... so cute!  Merry Christmas!








Amy Westrope used this same app in her 1st grade class, and shared some examples with me.  I love this idea!  Thanks, Amy!

We used the Draw With Us app for holiday stroll art - pretty much like the elf yourself post, except they got to turn themselves into any Christmas character. I printed the pics out at Costco and hung them in the hall. Now we're using them for their Christmas cards to go home with their parent gift. They turned out so so cute! 

  

Numbers Book Using Book Creator

Mrs. Bishop invited me into her kindergarten class this morning to help her students finish up some eBooks they created using the app Book Creator.  These turned out so fantastic, I asked her if I could share!

The kindergartners made number books, "app smashing" Feltboard, Draw with Us and Book Creator. They each used Feltboard to create a cover for their book, then save to their camera roll on the iPad. Next, they opened Draw with Us and used the writing tool to write each numeral and number word (0-10) and then used the stickers to show the quantity.  They made a separate drawing for each number and saved each of these to their camera roll.

The students then opened the Book Creator app and started a new book.  By clicking the plus sign, they could add an image to each page from their camera roll by choosing "Photo".  They added each of their number pages, making sure they were inserted in the correct order.  Here is what the layout looked like on each book.

I then helped the students record audio into their books by clicking the plus sign and "Add Sound."

When the books were finished, they could be exported as an ePub file to iBooks.  To do this, go back to the My Books screen and select the share button (the little square with the arrow).  If you want to read in iBooks, you'll export as an ePub.

Then, click "Open in..." and select iBooks.  This will automatically export the book into iBooks on the student's iPad.  The audio will be there, as well, so they can hear themselves read!  So cool!

You can also export the book as a pdf or a video ... I use the video option to export to students' learning journals (like Seesaw).  If you click "Export as Video" you can connect apps to it.  For example, from Mrs. Bishop's iPads, we could export directly to their Seesaw journals.  Parents will now be able to view the students' books as videos from their Seesaw journals.

They worked so hard on these projects, and they turned out great!  Here is an example:

Well done, Mrs. Bishop's kinders!  Thanks for the awesome idea!

What I Want to Be for Halloween

Today in Mrs. Bishop's kindergarten we began a class ebook about what the kids are planning to be for Halloween.  The apps we planned to use were Book Creator and Draw with Us, but we also ended up using Seesaw and students were able to post to their learning journals.

Draw with Us is a really fun drawing app!  It includes drawing tools, as well as a huge variety of fun stickers to help embellish students' drawings, and use for math story problems, etc.  Students can also upload items from their camera roll, or take photos to insert into their drawings.

In Mrs. Bishop's class, we used the Draw with Us app to illustrate their Halloween costumes.   They added a selfie of just their faces, then drew in the details of their costumes.  The students then saved them to their camera rolls, to insert into Book Creator.  They turned out so cute!

Next, we added the students' drawings to Book Creator, to make into a class ebook.  They each opened the Book Creator app and started a new book.  Once they choose to start a new book, they are given a layout option.  It can be portrait, square, landscape, or in a comic grid.  THIS IS IMPORTANT: If you're planning to combine the books into one class book, they all need to choose the same page orientation.  The book won't go together if the pages aren't oriented the same.

Students added their drawings and then wrote their names and the name of their Halloween costume using the pen tool in Book Creator.  Students have the option to add text, record their voice, and format the pages.  However, we didn't use any of these tools today, as it was the first time they used this app.  Then, using the sharing button, we were able to AirDrop each of the students' books onto the teacher iPad.  We shared the books as an epub file, so that we could re-open in Book Creator and edit together.  You can see below that you also have the option to share directly into students' learning journals by clicking on Seesaw.  In order to share here, you would need to share as a video or pdf file.

From the AirDrop menu, we chose the teacher iPad and sent it there quickly and easily.  On Mrs. Bishop's iPad, her screen looked like this:

 We clicked "Accept" and then she saw this screen:

Because we exported as an epub file, we needed to tell the iPad where to open the file.  If the book was finished and we just wanted to read it, we would open in iBooks.  Since we wanted to continue editing the book, we chose to open in Book Creator.  We did this on each iPad (only took about 10 minutes).  Once in Book Creator, Mrs. Bishop created a new book and designed the cover for the class book.  Her next step was to choose "combine books", and put all of the student books together into one book (using the one she created as the cover).  We did this step in about 10 minutes, as well.

I loved this project because: 1) it was fun and the kids were really creative with their costumes, 2) they were able to share onto Seesaw, and 3) the finished book can then be AirDropped back to the student iPads and opened in their iBooks, so each student will have a copy to read on their iPads. This.  Is.  So.  Cool!!!

Book Creator is one of my absolute favorite tools and I would love, love, love to share it with you and your students.  If you're interested and want help, book me!  tracipiltz.youcanbook.me

Happy Halloween!