Pages

Digital Story Telling

Kids love story telling and making up class books.  Our class books are the favorite books in the room.  They read them again and again and AGAIN.  I have now taken that next step in story telling.

We made our own "version" of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff.  Here is what we did...

We read at least 5 different variations for the story line of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff.  My darlings know the story inside and out by the time we are done... So well they can't go across a bridge with out 'trip-trapping' across.

We do the normal teacher stuff like compare and contrast, acting and retelling, making list, learning rare and juice new words, writing story extenders, adding words to the word wall, story props, exploring our voice as a troll and so on...

Usually the next step is a class book.  Well here was the "new" way...

I supported the story line and let them have creative control over the number of goats, what their names were, where they were going, the sound the goats made and what the characters would say.  WOW did they come up with something...

I wrote down all of the facts and typed up the story.  I read it to them to see if we needed any changes and they were like any good publisher, they did.  Once we fixed it up we were ready to record our voices.  They are the Billy Goat Ice Cream Head's and the Troll's voice.  I used my iPhone to capture their voices at school.  Getting little ones to say something at the same time is easy unless you need to record...

Next we worked on the pictures.  We painted, cut, glued and made a mess!  But it was fun!





Then came the hard part...putting it all together.  I used my iPhone, Windows Movie Maker, ScrapBlog.com to make it sooo cute and time...

It took about 3 hours to put it all together and I am hoping next time only 1!  But the look on their faces when it was all done was worth every minute.  We watched it maybe 20 times and we would watch it more if we had time. 

Here it is...enjoy.

The END of Slide Shows!

All teachers love slide shows...but we hate to make them...who has the time?  

Well my new fabulous find is www.animoto.com 

Once you have signed up you just upload the photos, pick the music and then THEY "render" the slide show for you.

Then you have this amazing video, you will be the envy of all!  It looks like it took you hours to make your masterpiece...when it only takes about 30 minutes.

This is great for End of the Year parties, field trips, student art work, parent conferences, any parent meeting during the year, etc...

Here's the link the to sign up for a free educators account. http://animoto.com/education

It takes several days for them to get back to you, but then you can create full length videos for free!

Here is one I did for fun :)


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Wordle.net

Have you made a Word Cloud?

Well give this a try at http://www.wordle.net/

So fun for the classroom!  Great for KWL, Vocabulary, Theme Words, Spelling, etc.


Also read my Clear as Mud Directions on how to save your Wordle.Clear as Mud Wordle

Organized? are you sure?

One thing that will always be a constant with being a teacher is the never ending ebb and flow of classroom organization!  Just when you think you've got it down another new idea rolls along.  I am only referring to the actual materials and such in your room.  As for the cute little kids I have a ton of sites to help manage them too...check back with me :)

http://www.jmeacham.com/

Mrs. Meacham rocks with all of her great ideas!  Here are my 2 favorites to start with...

Check out her Calendar ideas!  The folder is a great tool and the kids love it!
http://www.jmeacham.com/calendar/calendar.htm

And if you thought you were OCD... check out all of the stuff she has been so sweet to share to help you get organized too!
http://www.jmeacham.com/organized.teaching/organized.teaching.htm

technology rocks seriously

This fabulous chick is in my district and so I am going to give her props 1st!

She looks high and low for lessons and ideas to help us out!  Have fun checking in with her!

http://technologyrocksseriously.blogspot.com/

It really does rock!   seriously!

Yippie!

Well, here goes nothing...  I have this crazy idea that I can put all of my favorite sites, lessons, tech ideas and etc. in one place and share with anyone who needs life to be a little easier.  Who knows, I might me the only one who needs this in their life and maybe when I am done it will make mine better too!