Here is another fun activity we did called If A Snowman Could Talk. Students created their snowman in Wixie. In Wixie, they’re able to use stickers and choose backgrounds from the Wixie library. Students also had to learn how to export their photo to the camera roll when complete and upload it to Chatterpix. Once their picture is uploaded to Chatterpix, then they have thirty seconds to record a message. There are also different kinds of effects students can do to their photo in Chatterpix. Once completed, students download to the camera roll and upload to Seesaw.

Students are having a really fun time with Chatterpix. They love creating characters of any kind and making them talk. In this clip, students used Seesaw to create a talking math problem.

As a fun Valentine’s Day project, each student created a talking Valentine for mom and dad. Students took a photo of a friend, then each student designed their background on a program called Wixie. Then, students used Chatterpix to record their heartfelt messages.

Students have been using a program called Chatterpix. It is an ipad app that allows students to make their creative drawings speak. Senora Lepe came to our class one day to learn how this program works. I made a “Spanish” folder for students to organize their work. First, students made their drawings in a program called Wixie. Students were directed to draw themselves and their moms. In the clip, students introduce their moms and their hair color.

This is the questionnaire I created (in Google forms) to share with the parents in my classroom to get some feedback about how the use of social media has informed them of their child’s learning. I’m hoping the use of social media has had a large impact on discussions during family dinners.

Click here for the survey

Students are learning how to write and record their book reviews. Students took a picture of the book they read in the camera roll of Seesaw. Students voice recorded their book review.

Here’s another example from our class Seesaw blog of a recording from our tree unit. At this point, the students have learned to take photos, upload photos, record and use the drawing tool.

It was a tough road getting started with technology. When the kids leave second grade in June with all the technology skills they learned this year, it just makes starting with a new bunch of students that much harder. They’re still babies with a first grade mindset. When given a device, you just have to let them play and explore. Give some guidance and set up parameters. But otherwise, let them learn on their own. They’ve known how to swipe a device since they were two.

I always think about a lesson or unit in mind before I decide on what app or device to use. I started the year with the ipads. My first few lessons were to get the kids to access the camera roll. My goal was to teach the children how to take a nice picture. I discussed how one picture can tell a story. Another goal was just to teach the students the basics of taking a photo; i.e. center the photo, zoom in, zoom out. I wanted students to capture the beauty of a photo and be able to talk about it too.

We took our ipads outdoors. We had just completed our science unit on trees. The assignment was to take pictures of the characteristics of trees we had just learned. I gave students an example. I took a close up of the bark of a tree. Then we had a discussion about the caption we could write to go with the photo.