Magical Hatching Writing

Recently, my daughters purchased some 'Magical Hatching Unicorns' and in school we used some hatching dinosaurs as a writing prompt.

With my daughters, toddlers, they knew that there were unicorns in the eggs and that they would hatch, but not how or why.

With the children at school, they knew the item was a 'toy' and that it would hatch, but not what was going to come out of them.

For those of you who have not come across these, it's a plastic egg, with an item inside and when it is placed in water for a couple of days, the egg hatches and the animal grows in the water.

To add to the excitement of the animal hatching, we used so augmented reality apps to make a dragon fly around the classroom.

The anticipation of what would come out of the egg, seeing it slowly appear and all the talk that went with it, created excitement and intrigue that lead to enjoyment of writing. 

What will you do with them?

Augmented Reality with Motion Stills

This week, I've found the Motion Stills app by Google.

It does three things:

- AR Mode

- Motion Still

- Fast-Forward

The 'Motion Still' takes a 4 second (I think) video/gif that will play and keep repeating. A rather contemporary way of recording video that the pupils should relate to. There are numerous ways this short video could be used in class...

The 'Fast-Forward' does exactly what it says. Easy way to record something and then have it sped up without having to involve editing software. 

The 'AR Mode' is the new addition to the app and the one I see being most useful. Augmented reality has been around for a little while now. I'm amazed by it, but Skype amazes me too! The thing about augmented reality that's brilliant is that whenever I've used it in class, it has enthused the children. They know what they are seeing is not real and I know it too. But it's like its real and we can all enter that imaginary world through the augmented reality and pretend we're there. The AR Mode includes: a dog, spaceship, heart, basketball, spider, dinosaur, chicken, alien, gingerbread man, globe and a robot.

I've been having a play. While me mam was eating her dinner and 'finding' bugs on the kitchen floor.

I can see this being a really useful writing prompt too, or for creating a story sequence, or any other ideas you may have...  

The gif or video can easily be exported to many apps for #AppSmashing or as a finished product. 

Proud of Your Work?

Lee recently published his 'Taking Teaching Back Episode 1 - Book Scrutinies' video. While watching it, one of his points really struck a chord with me.

The above image is from 5:14 in the video. I've seen this online many times and thought it a good idea, but never got round to it. Lee's point is about the extra work this places on the teacher. His solution is something along these lines...

This is a poster we've now placed in our classrooms. We used 'iPad' as those are the devices we have and used 'Google Drive' as every child has access. You can adapt it for the devices your school has and whatever cloud the children have access to.

So, 'Request a Selfie' nice but no thanks. Take your own photo, put it in your own cloud and show the adults at home: yes please.

Any similar ideas, please let us know. And, check out Lee on YouTube (Or Facebook - he's Facebook royalty!)

Hand Facts

Got a fact you want your class to remember? Try Hand Facts...

By the entrance to your classroom, place a hand and each week, below it, place a fact (we've used it for maths, but there could be one for English too, or the fact could change between subjects). 

As the children enter and leave the room, they place their hand on the fact and say it. This repetition helps them to remember the fact. Fact.

First Lesson with #GAfE

Our school had looked a making use of Google Apps for Education for a number of years. This current academic year, we were in a position to start making use of it. Starting in July 2014, we set in motion the wheels of getting started. By October 2014, we were ready to go. But, it wasn't until we met up with Peter at Bett 2015 and he basically told us to stop faffing around, it's not that hard to get going and to and, well, just get on with it, that we began using it. 

Image credit: www.google.com/edu

As we've blogged about in the past, we are very familiar with Google and the online tools offered by them, we were a bit unsure about how the 'child version' would differ. So Liam posted the following Tweet to get us started:

Starting #GAfE. Good first activity / intro. ideas anyone? @raff31 @ianaddison @jpotterx @whatkatepdoes
— Liam (@ThisIsLiamM) January 29, 2015

We were keen to get off to a good start and ensure the children were engaged. This lesson (entirely based upon the responses to that Tweet) ensured the children were engaged from the very start! Here's what we did:

- gave children a document to write a sentence about their week on to;

- asked for impressive words to be placed in a spreadsheet (this was then turned into a word cloud);

- filling in a form and seeing the responses arrive in a spreadsheet real-time;

- ALL drew on and edited the same drawing (30 children, together);

- we moved items into folders (tidy Drive);

- made a drawing and shared it with a friend for them to edit.

All while having the relevant documents displayed for the class to see on the classroom projection. This gave the class an insight into what Google could offer them

@raff31 @ianaddison @jpotterx @whatkatepdoes Thanks all. Very enjoyable #GAfE 3 hours. No child went to afternoon break! #FF all round.
— Liam (@ThisIsLiamM) January 30, 2015

Since then, we've used Google tools on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. It's aided children's learning and working both in school at home. We'll blog again in the future about what else we've done with it.

Here's how we introduced it to the rest of the staff:

Re-Blog: "From Me To You"

Recently, our Dropbox has been getting more and more visitors. This makes us happy - we like the idea of others benefiting from our online sharing. In part, this has been helped by UKEdChat starting to share some of what's in there.

On Staffrm, Liam explained why we set the shared Dropbox folder up:

"I make resources and I use them with my class. I'm paid to do that. However, if I put those resources somewhere that others can make use of them, other teachers and children can benefit from what I created. Why don't I charge for them?"

Click here to read the full post.

Need a Dropbox account? Get one here.

Writing on iPad (Tablet) Devices*

*or any internet enabled device

This is the second post of two. In the first, we wrote about writing using a tablet as a prompt for writing and now follow it up with a post about writing on a tablet.

1.

We've written many times about using Padlet.com as a tool for sharing writing. Those posts can all be found here. Padlet offers many levels of privacy for the walls created and can be easily accessed from a tablet with a camera using a QR Code. 

2.

TitanPad is an online collaborative writing tool that does not require a login. Again, easiest way to access would be through a QR Code. Collaboration could be within a class, across classes in a school or even between schools. We have used it to collaboratively write a text (instructions, story, recount), list features of a text type, improve a piece of writing, to practise sentence structures and more...

3.

Most recently, and based upon an idea from L Parkinson, we have used the tablet devices for peer assessment of written work. After writing, children take a photograph of their work and then, using Pic Collage (or similar), the children write comments about the work directly on to it and next to the part of the text that is being commented upon. 

4.

The iPad most recently comes pre-loaded with the Pages app, which is a powerful word processing application for writing on a tablet.

Writing with iPad (Tablet) Devices

In the past, we've posted many times about app suggestions. We thought it was about time we wrote about how we use some of them. In this first post of two, we'll write about writing using a tablet as a prompt for writing and will follow it up with a post about writing on a tablet.

We use iPad devices and therefore write about our experiences with those. However, where possible we also do our best to refer to other tablet alternatives. 

Epic Citadel

At a TeachMeet, back in 2011, we were introduced to Epic Citadel. In the app, the user can navigate their way around a fictional Citadel. We have used this while writing stories about Robin Hood and King Arthur. In addition, we have also used it as a 'one off' creative writing task in the first or third person. It's currently available for both iOS and Android. Oh, and it's free!

ColAR Mix

We downloaded ColAR Mix about 18 months ago. We downloaded it because of various messages we saw about it on Twitter. The first time we used the app, we put the colouring sheets on tables and simply asked the children to colour them in on entry to the classroom. Once the sheets were mostly coloured, children were instructed to open the tablets and scan the picture. It's one of the most amazing classroom experiences we've had! The children are amazed! The children were then instructed to, "Write about what's happening on screen". Some descriptive writing followed as the children were engaged.

Next, we made used of the ColAR Christmas and New Year resources. No writing this time, just a it of end of term colouring and enjoyment (that's allowed - isn't it?) Recently ColAR app released some more free images. We used the football playing sheep, and again after colouring, the children wrote recounts, diary entries, stories and more about the sheep. Most recently, we used the Pudsey picture and wrote a recount of 'Pudsey's CiN Disco 2014' (after colouring the picture of course). Colouring in the classroom? Yes! You get some great writing afterwards... Again, free and on both Android and iOS.

 

My Dragon Toy

Very similar to ColAR Mix as it uses similar technology. Give the child a target image, a tablet device, get them to scan, imagine and the write... Yeah, you guessed it - FREE!

Writing instructions

Give the children a game/puzzle to play on the device. Once they've had a jolly good play and hopefully enjoyed themselves, get them to write a set of instructions for how to use said app. These instructions could then be shared with staff, parents and so on... 

Epic Zen Garden

Very similar to Epic Citadel. Making a journey around a fantasy world that can then lead onto fictional writing. 

Using adverts

Advertisements can provide an excellent impetus for writing and this one from Cadbury in 2013 proved a hit with a Year Five class and some lovely writing. With tablet devices, children can watch, forward, rewind and so on in their own time. In addition, using QuietTube helps to remove comments, adverts and more. 

So, there are some ideas for having a tablet device on one part of the desk and writing on paper (the examples here have been typed up for ease of sharing): using it as a reason to write, inspiration for writing or to engage young minds. Writing and tablets does not have to mean writing on them, but that post is coming soon...

Playing Cards in Maths

This year, we are having a bit of a focus on practical maths and teaching maths using lots of apparatus. Earlier this year, we came across "41 Math Card Games" via Twitter. We clicked the link and came across an Australian website requiring a small payment to buy the 'book'. The book is delivered by email as a .pdf. So, we paid for the book and have not looked back since…

A pack of playing cards do not cost much.

They are designed to be handled, lots!

They involve looking at numbers in different ways (Ace, Jack can equal 11, the numbers are represented by the figure and pictorially and so on…)

Any game involving numbers 1 - 10 (or up-to 13) can be played with them. 

Children enjoy using playing cards (well, I know 30 Year Fives who have so far demonstrated this).

We're not going to write here about what is in "41 Math Card Games"  but certainly recommend making a purchase. It'll give you ideas, remind you of things you may have forgotten and give you starters, drop-in activities, pleanries and "Oh, I've got 10 minutes, what shall we do? Answers". Any associated resources we make will be placed here. The cards shown in our Dropbox folder game from Open Game Art.

This afternoon I had 30 boys playing one of the games and here's what he had to say afterwards.

School Twitter Account (Part 4)

Our fourth post about school Twitter accounts. Click to view: Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3. 

Image credit: www.twitter.com

This time, it's 'locked' versus 'unlocked'. The opinions here could apply to school accounts as well as personal/professional accounts. When we joined Twitter, we applied the lock to our accounts. Being familiar with other social networks, we wanted to ensure our safety was secure. However, in order to make the most of the social network, we soon removed the lock. If you need the lock, then keep it. But...

Removing the lock allows contributing to discussions via hashtags, users to follow Tweets without having to join Twitter and for easier communication between users. If an account is sharing no personal information, nothing sensitive and nothing 'you wouldn't want the world to see', then there's no reason for it to be protected. We'd like to think this applied to all school and teacher accounts. It's also worth remembering that a Tweet from a locked account can still be shared by copying the text and any 'trusted' follower of a locked account could, in theory, copy and share photos or other information. Use an unlocked account and don't share anything that you wouldn't want anyone to see or read. If you've got the lock applied, consider breaking free.

4 Pics 1 Word in Your Classroom

On Saturday, I was sat near a child on a train who was playing 4 Pics 1 Word on his father's phone. Then, when I returned home, my other half was requesting help with a puzzle she was stuck on. In the way it often does, my mind struck up and started to ponder how this could be used in a classroom. 

Idea 1: Children create their own puzzles for others to try to solve. Possibly using homophones or where the same word (eg stamp or smoking) can fall into a number of different word types:

Idea 2: During a topic of work (eg in geography or science), use the puzzles to introduce or recap vocabulary: 

#4pics1word Blog post: http://t.co/PkeSVgQEUq Example: pic.twitter.com/m8hdXpylV3
— PrimaryIdeas (@PrimaryIdeas) April 10, 2014

Idea 3: Use it as a method of introducing new vocabulary.

Note: We have not seen this idea anywhere else. Well done if you've come up with similar. As far as we're aware, creating one's own 4 Pics 1 Word is not copyright - please inform us otherwise if it is. Finally, the pictures used in our example all came from a Creative Commons Image Search - you should do the same (or take your own).

We gave it a go with a Year Five class. The class used iPad devices and the app Pic Collage. With very minimal instructions, here's what they came up with. The examples are also available to download from Dropbox.

Image Credits:
www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/2nd-class-mail
openclipart.org
blog.mirage.lincolnapts.com/food/pick-and-stomp-your-own-grapes-at-messina-hof-winery
www.flickr.com/photos/tico24/16673698
pixabay.com/en/river-stone-water-cold-murmur-177304
www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1491537
www.cpsb.pt/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bolo.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faucet_in_a_bathroom_sink.jpg

Use YouTube with More Confidence

Here we go, a follow up to a previous post. Everything in the previous post is still relevant, but since, we've learned more.

We have found more ways of 'de-cluttering' YouTube:

1. QuietTube (via Julian);

2. SafeShare.TV (via Ben).

Also, we've found more ways of downloading from YouTube:

Flash Video Downloader.

Short. To the point. Want to know more? Read the first post.

Crowdsource - Who Else Wants to Share?

In the past, we've contributed to other people's crowdsourcing. We decided to give it a go ourselves. Often, on social media, the term PLN (Personal/Professional Learning Network) is used. What is often not mentioned is that on Twitter, someone had two PLNs: The PLN they follow and get ideas from in their feed and the PLN they are followed by and can therefore ask for help. The two PLNs are very likely to be different!

This crowdsourcing focuses on those a Twitter user can ask for help. Your followers. In my classroom, we were preparing for some project based learning around the topic of Space. I decided the groups in my class would all produce a video, that could then be attached to a photo using Augmented Reality and share it with the world. I had some ideas, but wanted more...

So, I set up this document: 'Video Ideas'

I Tweeted it a couple of times and got responses. All of these responses were valuable and offered to the class as options for their video outcome. That document can now be kept and also shared with others. 

Tweet and Tweet often. Direct it at users you know will have ideas. Ask / hope for ReTweets. Share it on other social media too. Send it to friends, colleagues or someone in a certain sector of work. If people add, that's great. If someone has no ideas or can't contribute, nothing's lost. Of course, this does rely on having numerous followers or others choosing to share it further. Ensure you're direct about what you want to find out. It'll allow more space than a Tweet allows for someone to share an idea. 

Having a go? Let us know, we'll respond and, you never know, we may even help to spread the word...

Create Your Own Interactive Resources

So, the curriculum's changing. Lots has been said, lots has been discussed. Some like; others don't like. Maybe you're a teacher very able when it comes to computational thinking, however you may be less au fait with this aspect of primary education.

We've both got an interest in computing. In recent years, we've run a Code Club and also ensured the coverage of computing in our junior school. 

Our latest development is to begin creating our own games and activities in Scratch to use in our classrooms and others across the school. Creating the resources yourself means they can the tailored to your own needs. Also, if you've got to teach and support children in computational thinking, it's a good idea to develop your own skills. Whilst developing those skills, create something that's useful to you!

Image credit: scratch.mit.edu

We're using Scratch because it's a reasonably easy place to start, projects and easily shared online and others can 'remix' the project to adapt it for their needs or wants. Other languages can of course be used too.

We began by creating this project to support this blog post. This uses Alan Peat resources and if you're using them too, why not remix the project to show the sentences you're wokring on?

Next, we created this project to accompany this blog post.

We're sure they'll be more to come from us. Our Scratch projects can all be found here: http://scratch.mit.edu/users/primaryideas.

Two Sentence Stories

We saw a Tweet from @Bennett31:

@alanpeat @redgierob @InspiredMind5 @ICT_MrP horror stories in two sentences! I like this idea http://t.co/b0XuEDvgqP
— MrB (@Bennett31) February 28, 2014

We thought it was an excellent idea! So, we gave it a go...

Stasy: Silently, I crept down the stairs- bare feet freezing cold on the hard, stony floor... My heavy breathing totally drowned out every other sound,except the strange, banging thump from above, I was petrified...

Owen: When I turned the light on, I still couldn't see anything.

See the rest here: http://padlet.com/wall/2SentHorr

Next, we plan to have a go at Two Sentence Romance, Sci-Fi, Crime, Action... 

Things We Wouldn't Know Without Twitter*

*or at least as easily as we have.

This post is probably a follow up to A Year on Twitter. It is certainly something for anyone hoping to Bring a Teacher to Twitter to share. Below are things we've discovered on Twitter over the past three years and now use in our Key Stage Two classrooms: 

Apps, apps and more apps - (@AppyMail, @ebd35, @TheiMums, #appFriday) 
There are many users sharing app ideas, particularly highlighting price drops (some of them even use Android). Most of the apps we use have come from Twitter suggestions. #ThanksAll 

Geography & History Encyclopedia - (@simonhaughton) 
An easy to use, straight forward, online encyclopedia for children to use. #ThanksSimon

Google Forms for Home Learning - (@raff31) 
Take a look at Peter's example or one we used for inspiration and explanation. Children complete online. Offers an assessment opportunity. Download responses as spreadsheet file. #ThanksPeter

Padlet - (@SwayGrantham) 
Using Padlet within a lesson to record childrens' work and thinking. #ThanksSway

Paint Chart Vocabulary - (@shornymorgan) 
Using paint charts to aid children's vocabulary development. #ThanksShorny 

Potatoes (for free) - (@potatoes4school)  
Get free potatoes to grow with your class! #ThanksGYOP

QR Codes in Reading Journals - (@tombrush1982) 
We don't have positive postcards - so we adapted a little. When children's work is published online, a QR Code and accompanying TinyURL is stuck into their reading journal for parents to see. #ThanksTom

QR Codes Embedded in Pictures - (@ICTEvangelist) 
Combine a picture and a QR Code. Here's our example. #ThanksMark

QuietTube - (@Ideas_Factory) 

Show YouTube videos without all the video recommendations and comments. http://tinyurl.com/p8ndabz #ThanksJulian

VGA switch - (@JoeDale) 
In assembly we often have two or more laptops on the go. The swapping was, well, less than seamless. Now it's smooth, crisp and highly professional. We got one for about a fiver online. #ThanksJoe

3x3 Home Learning Grid - (@tomhenzley) 
Look at the blog post. We've enjoyed using them, so have the children and it's something a bit different. #ThanksTim

7puzzleblog - (@7Puzzle) 
Daily maths puzzle to get your children thinking (and more). #ThanksPaul

So, there you go. Have a look at those. Did you already know about them? There's more too. This is just what came to mind. As a disclaimer: We're not saying the above were the originators of each idea or claim to have invented them - that's who we saw Tweet it first (they informed us about it).

Windows for Displays - #TMHerts #TMUK

On Thursday 6th February, we presented at the Herts TeachMeet as part of the National TeachMeet Day:

We saw a Tweet where someone had put a QR Code (linking to online work) on children's positive post cards that had been sent home. We decided, as a result, to put QR Code in our children's reading journals when their work was published online. One day there was a spare code. We stuck this to the window. That then developed...

Presentation here

Apps for Your Primary Classroom Mark 7

Our 7th post about apps we've made use of in our primary classroom. Again, links are to the iTunes store as we have iPod and iPad devices at our disposal. Many or similar also available on the Google Play Store.

Image credit: www.apple.com

GENERAL

iStop Motion for iPad

HISTORY
Diomedia Calendar

LITERACY 

Odd Ones Out Pack 1

Shakespeare Pro

MATHS 

Fraction Calculator Plus Free 

Math Duel

OoO Calc: Order of Operations Calculator 

Thinking Blocks

MUSIC

TuneTrace

SCIENCE

Build A Bird  

3D Frog Skeleton

We'd welcome your additions. Add them as comments below and to our previous posts about apps.

Making the Writing Process Explicit

We've recently written about caring explicitly. Now it's the turn of making the children's writing process more obvious to both child and teacher (oh, and anyone who might visit your classroom and want to see books).

In our school, children write in black ink and adults mark in blue ink. Both different colours and obvious to see who's written what. The children do any editing / tweaking in green ink. Our most recent addition is responding to feedback in red pen. 

The reason for using red for responding was initially as a result of being told children weren't responding to feedback in books. The children were responding. It just wasn't easy to find.

Image credit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_Cristal

So now we have this: Children write in black ink. They edit using green ink. Next, an adult will mark in blue and the child will complete the process by responding to / acting upon the feedback in red ink.

Although this was originally put in place to meet the needs of someone else looking at the books, it has proven very useful. The children can see from piece of work to piece of work what they're adding to their writing at different stages and the progress (hopefully) that they are making.

Augmented Reality with Aurasma Part One

We are always looking at making use of different technologies to improve the experiences of our children and the online presence of the school.

A friend of ours, who works in private industry, recommended Aurasma some time ago after using it when setting up exhibitions. After registering with the company, the account lay dormant for some time, in part because we were intimidated by our expectations of how complicated it would be to create what is known as an aura.

Aurasma, through their apps (which are available on both iOS and Android devices), allows users to add a layer of a photo or video over an image. Then, when the image is scanned, the app superimposes the video or photo over it allowing you to insert information into the original image. As part of registering as a developer, you are provided with access to their online studio with all the tools necessary for developing your own augmented reality including a detailed, but simple tutorial.

It was with a high-level of sheepishness that our first aura was completed. The tutorial is excellent and quickly and simply takes you through all the steps needed to create an aura. By following these instructions we were able to make our first aura in a matter of minutes.

The first aura we created linked a trailer for a Shakespeare film we made with the children to an image that went on the back of the DVD covers that the children made. Now, when you scan the image with the app, the trailer for the film appears. Subsequent auras include linking photos of the school to the school logo and an image linking some class artwork to a welcome sign.

It is remarkably easy to create the auras. They can be made public or private depending on need and allows the school to provide more information to Aurasma users about the school. 

Download the app, follow this link http://auras.ma/s/NIgAd and scan the image below in order to see a simple example of what it can do.

The next step is to use Aurasma to provide a more information rich environment for children especially during project-based learning. We have used an image of a Henry VIII to link to a film about him and an image on a display to link to a film on how to do an addition calculation.