What Do I Do With Just ONE iPad in My Classroom?

Hi everyone! It's  Lisa from over at Second Grade Stories. Do you have access to iPads in your classroom?  Are you a 1:1 school? I would really LOVE to have a class set of iPads - even just to borrow once a week.   I originally wrote this post on my own blog when I only had ONE ipad.  I was determined to find more uses for it that just as a center during Daily 5 or math time.  I am a big believer in using technology as much as possible in the classroom, so if I only had one iPad, then that one was going to be used ALL. THE. TIME. Right now, I have 3 iPads in my room.  There are also a few others that other teachers in my building have that I can borrow... but for the most part, we just use those three. 

 

I have found MANY ways to use iPads in the classroom - even if you just have one... or two...Here's a little peek at how you can integrate a small number (even just one!) of tablets into your daily classroom adventures - and make it meaningful.

Morning Mission

Each day I have a new "helper of the day."  I stopped using a job chart long ago and now just rotate through my class list to have each student be my helper each day.  One of the perks of being the helper is being able to do a "mission" on the ipad before we start morning meeting.  I make these missions quick and easy, and they're usually (but not always!) related to something we're doing in class.  I have a small whiteboard I use to write down the task and I make sure the app or website needed is easily accessible.  When my "helper" comes into the room and finishes getting things ready for the day, she or he checks the "Morning Mission" card to see what to do. 

 

At one point, we had been focusing on nonfiction texts during our reading time. Insects were a big hit with my kiddos, so I asked the helper to choose a partner and listen to/read this National Geographic issue about bugs and be ready to share one interesting fact with the class during morning meeting.  National Geographic Young Explorer has a TON of great issues online.  Be sure to check them out.  I kept this same "Mission" for a week so quite a few students had a chance to read the informational piece. If you have more than one tablet, you can set up these missions to take the place of morning work.  Students can join a group as they are ready and write their own fact (or question!)

It is also the helper's job to to find the temperature using The Weather Channel website.  We record this each day as part of our morning meeting time.  The helper also gives the forecast and the expected high for the day.  It's a little thing, but it gives students another piece of ownership in the classroom.

Reading and Math Centers

This is the time most people use their tablets during the day. There are a TON of great websites and apps available for online books, spelling and math.   I have a centers rotation during my reading block, so the first half hour is a whole group time, and the next hour is small groups.  When students are not working in a small group, they are doing one of the rotations.  The ipad can be part of listening to reading, read to self, words or writing. Here are a few reading sites and apps we like: 

I like to use the Tumblebooks website, which has a great selection of books perfectly formatted for the ipad.  Tumblebooks is actually a paid site, but many public libraries have the link on their webpages for free.  If you google "tumblebooks and library" you can find the links.  The Tumblebooks library is filled with popular children's books, as well as some less familiar stories.  Books can be read on an "automatic" setting, where the pages turn on their own, or on a "manual" setting so students can read and enjoy at their own pace.

 

Here are few other online story sites that we use:

          

http://www.storylineonline.net/                         http://www.wegivebooks.org/

 

Storybook Maker is a paid app, but I found it to be well worth the price. My kids love using it to create their own stories - and recently we've had "continuous" stories happening. One group of two or three starts a story one day, then other groups add to it throughout the week.  They love reading the completed story!

                                                                 

Rocket Speller is a fun way to practice spelling.  You can choose from a variety of levels and spelling skills.  Students are given a picture and must use the letters to spell the word.  There are helpful hints and as the levels increase, the words get harder and have less help.

ABC Magnetic Alphabet Lite is a simple way for students to practice spelling words.  It's just like those fun magnetic letters for the fridge, only there's nothing to clean up when you're done!  I have students work in pairs with a variety of spelling lists (on index cards), depending on student needs.  One student takes a card and reads it to the other to spell with the letters on the ipad.  The other student checks the word and they switch roles.  Easy peasy - but they love it!

Math: Ok, moving on to math.... I run my math block very much like my reading block - half hour of whole class, then an hour of groups, with students working on "Math Daily 5" rotations if they are not in a group.  One rotation is Math Technology, which is using the Smartboard or the ipad.    At the beginning of the year, we work hard on applying our addition strategies, so these apps help students practice their addition facts. I have another post {HERE} about other great math apps - some that are dual and multi-player.

This is a paid app now.... I think I got it for half price a while ago, but it is worth it.  In Top It, students deal cards and add them together to find the sum - the one with highest sum wins the round.  The app gives you clear directions for the first few rounds, then students play on their own.  I believe there is also a Top It for subtraction.  This is part of the Everyday Mathematics series by McGraw Hill, so if you're familiar with that you'll know more of the games from this publisher.

Math BINGO is also a paid app (.99, I think)... this is my students favorite math app right now.  There are different levels of addition and subtraction, multiplication and division.  Students are given an equation to solve and when they find the answer, they click on the correct number on the BINGO board.  Little bugs come up and when they get BINGO they win.  Fun!

End of the Day

Whew!  That one ipad gets A LOT of use... and it's not quite done yet!  I also have students working on the ipad at then end of the day when they are waiting for buses to be called.  This time the apps are more "fun" - logic games, strategy games, visual motor... etc.  Right now we're using "Pick Up Sticks" as a great way to improve eye-hand coordination.  This fun little app allows you to choose what the sticks look like - the vegetables and the Christmas decorations are the first choices for us!

Small Group Projects

Many projects and activities originally geared for 1:1 classrooms can ften be easily adapted to wor with small groups.  Instead of each student having a finished project,, each group has a completed artifact to share. In addition, make those small groups work for you! We were practicing when and when not to use apostrophes (possessives vs plurals). I had all my kiddos rotate through a center where their job was to take a picture of either another person in their group pointing to something they owned (glasses, smile, pencil, etc.) or a group of items (crayons, markers, backpacks, etc.)  After everyone had taken one picture, I showed some of the photos to the whole class - their job was to write a sentence, using either the plural or possessive (and the apostrophe, if needed!). We did about 6 or 7 together, then I left the ipad as an early finisher and reading center activity for my kiddos to do on their own.  They loved it and they really loved using their own photo to show me what they knew!

Take advantage of the enthusiasm our students will have for creating videos! You can use one of those more in-depth apps, or just rely on the camera from the tablet.  My students had a great time showing off their completed biography projects (complete with wax museum!) by making videos of themselves.  Students worked in groups and created a video of each person dressed as their famous person giving a short 2 minute speech.  We then worked as a class to create a Powerpoint slideshow timeline - fully interactive so you could click on the names of each person and the video would come up. We've also done videos explaining how to solve a math problem or sharing what we've learned about a topic.

My kiddos created a set of guidelines to help them take a good video.  We posted them in the room near where we do our "video creating."  They came out of trial and error - I had students create a first video by interviewing each other. Then we looked at the videos and noted positives and negatives about each one.  We used that information to create our guidelines.  You can download them by clicking on the image if you want them for your room.

As you can see, even if you only have one or a limited number of iPads or tablets available to you, there are still many ways to integrate that technology into the classroom. I have taken projects and activities meant as 1:1 and done them in small groups, where everyone rotated through the activity throughout the week.  I have also modified projects so that students worked as a team or small group, rather than individually.  The important thing is to make use of the technology you have - whatever it is!

I'd love to hear about other ways to use iPads/tablets in small groups or whole class.  How do you make it work in your room?

Five Star Favorite Math Apps

 Hello again! It's Lisa from Second Grade Stories.  My students LOVE anything that has to do with technology, and ipads are their number one favorite.  We've moved from a one ipad classroom (you can read about that HERE) to having three ipads in our room, along with being able to borrow 3 more when needed.  This has really opened up what we can do with technology, but my students' favorite parts of the day is still "Tech Time" during our math centers. 

 

When I look for a math app to use during centers, I look at a few different things:

(1) Is it easy for students to use independently?  I try out each app myself before using it in the classroom, and often I'll ask a few students to "test" an app during indoor recess.  Some aps make the cut, and others get deleted soon after.

 

(2) Does it fit the needs of my class in general, or the needs of a group of students?  Sometimes you don't know what you get until you download and test out the app.  Apps that claim to practice basic facts may also have a problem solving component, involve strategy or engage students in other kinds of higher level thinking.  The opposite can also be true - some apps that I think are going to be great turn out to be nothing more than rote practice.

 

(3) Is it cheap - or at least worth the money?  I admit, I always look for the free apps first.  Many times these apps hold my students' attention just long enough for some practice and then they get bored.  That's fine.  Delete and move on.  Other free apps have stayed as part of our rotation since the beginning of the year.  That being said, there are often times it's worth buying the full version of an app.  It's funny, I sometimes find myself hesitating to purchase a $2.99 app, but think nothing of what I spend on Teacher Pay Teachers, at Staples or at the teacher supply store!  Apps never go bad (although they might need to be updated!) so I have apps from a couple years ago that I have purchased that we still use.

 

I thought I would share with you a few math apps I've found that my students really like.  I made a list for morning sign-in this week of 15 math apps that we really like and asked students to choose their favorites.  We voted during class and shared why each one was a favorite.  These apps were chosen for ease of use, skill content and most of all - fun!  Kid-tested and approved, I present to you our "Five Favorite Apps - Math Style!"

 

(clipart Krista Wallden  Fonts Kimberly Geswein Fonts)

 

1.

This game is great for place value review up to 1,000.  Up to four players can join at a time.  In the middle, there are numbers represented in various ways - expanded notation, base 10 blocks, bills and coins... Each player has a set of answers at the bottom of their screen.  The object is to be the first one to slide the correct answer to the middle.  There are 10 levels that get more difficult as you go on. 

 

My kiddos really love this game!  The fact that more than one person can play at a time is fun, although they also like playing by themselves and seeing who can get the best time.  The free version allows you to play levels 1 and 10 unlimited, and each of the other levels can be played two times.  The school edition (paid version) is $2.99 and has 20 games.  There is also a Math Slide Addition and Subtraction.

 

 

2.

Lumio's Electric Sums is another great app that focuses on place value - but uses those place value skills to work on addition and subtraction up to 1,000.  Players advance through a story as they "fix" math problems and earn rewards as they level up.

 

 A couple of my kiddos are so excited about this one they play every indoor recess!  The free version gives you an idea of how the game works and the kinds of problems students will see.  The full version for $2.99 keeps kids busy for a while!

 

 

3.

 

Sushi Monster is a free app great for practicing addition and multiplications facts.  This app is a little more challenging than just your basic "memorizing facts" idea.  Players have to use what they know about a certain number to find combinations that equal that sum or product.  This is a fun one to use once kids have a basic understanding of their facts.

 

 

 

4.

Math Fight is another 2 person game, making this great for math centers.  It's free - and a fun way to practice math facts.  Guessing won't help in this game - you lose a point for every wrong answer.  Students can practice addition, subtraction multiplication and division all on different levels.

This is another favorite indoor recess game - probably because more than one person can play at a time. 

 

5.

And speaking of multi-player apps - this next one gets 5 stars from my students:

This game ($2.99) allows up to four players at a time and involves beating the mission clock - a huge motivator for some of my kiddos!  Again, this one is great for practicing all four operations and you can choose the operation and skill level.

 

The fun part of this app is that the players work together to beat the game, rather than against each other.  That cooperative aspect allows students who don't know the answers as quickly still be able to contribute to the mission.

 

There you have it!  Our top five picks for math apps in our classroom right now.  Do you use any of these in your classroom already?  Are there any others you really like?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

Expert Writing

Hello! It's Allison from Stuckey in Second! I'm excited to share our most recent writing project with you today.



We have been working on informational/expert writing this month. The kids are loving it. My basis for this writing is that the students write about something they already know a lot about (hence expert writing). The students aren't necessarily researching the topics they choose, they are just practicing informational writing about something they already know about. That way, they are focusing more on actually how to write information at this point and not necessarily worrying on researching. I did have a few kids that wanted to look up more about their topic and of course, I did not deny them that opportunity, but it wasn't. required. I told them they could read more to become an expert on their topic.

We started by creating a shared anchor chart with a list of possible topics that we are experts on. Then, each student created their own personal lists in their writing journals. After narrowing down a topic to start with, students started writing everything they knew about that topic. They saved the lists because the goal of this writing unit is to write multiple expert books.

We are lucky enough to have iPads in our classroom. We have one iPad per two students. I decided to publish the students' pieces by using Keynote on the iPads. This app is very easy for my students and is basically the same as PowerPoint. So, if you don't have iPads, but do have access to PowerPoint, that would be fun for the kids too! They love it!!

To get students ready for creating their Keynotes, I created slides on paper that they could fill in as their rough draft. Students picked which slides would go well in their projects, wrote their information, and created a small book. I didn't require them to write about an animal, but I noticed that a lot were, so I made many of the slides with titles to go along with their popular topics of animals.

Good news, here are the templates I used for them. FREE in my store!

After I conferenced with them to proofread and edit, they were able to start their Keynote. In the end, I was able to print their keynote as a PDF and make into little booklets.

My students love, love, love this and I definitely plan to do this unit every year now!

Here are some pictures to show you the steps we took and our finished, published projects on display! 

Multiply Yourself! {An App Idea}

Hello everyone! I'm Christy from Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road, a second year teacher from the great state of Kansas. I teach in a 1:1 iPad school, so I am constinently trying to figure out ways to implement this wonderful technology. I am so excited to be a part of this blogging group. I hope you are enjoying all of the ideas each day; I know that I am! 

Do you ever have days where you wish there were more copies of yourself?

{Ha, we're teachers... I'm sure we've all wished for an extra set of hands at some point!}

I'm here to help you out a bit.

Enter... Educreations.

With this app, as the teacher, I can create a presentation, but not just any ordinary presentation. The app takes not only a video of what is done on the screen, but also records my voice. (The only bummer being that there isn't an undo button. I've learned to hit the pause button between thoughts, so that I make fewer mistakes in my recordings).

Students create accounts with either a username or email address; I love that student's don't have to have an email address, and that I can hand out the usernames I'd like my students to have. The first time students login to Educreations, there is a one-time password to join my class. {The password is given to you, the teacher, when you set up your videos to share with students.} From there, students can view any videos I've shared with them! It truly is an easy process; hopefully through my description I haven't discouraged you to play around!

Now to the fun part... seeing this app in action!

Super easy interface. Love it.

With this app, as a teacher, I can create a presentation. The app takes not only a video of what is done on the screen, but also records my voice. (Only bummer is there isn't an undo with voice recording...I've learned to hit pause between thoughts, so that I make fewer mistakes.) Students create accounts with username or email address as an elementary school teacher, I love that the student's don't have to have an email. Once they login to www.educreations.com from Safari, they can watch any video that I assign to their class. (They have to have a one-time password to join a class.) Really, this is simpler than I'm making it sound, I just want to make sure, that if you want to try this out you can! From there, students can view mini-lessons or full lessons that are created by me. 

Here are examples of how I have used this application:

Last year I was a special education teacher and I covered 2 schools.  I created one lessons to touch on points and concepts even when I couldn't physically be there. Even though this school does not have iPads, the videos can still be accessed by logging in online. My para created an account and viewed anything I posted to share with the students. 

{Please be kind... I'm not the biggest fan of hearing myself recorded!}

  

In  math, on our maiden voyage with the application we were able to differentiate a lesson for the various needs of all of my students.  I put my students into two different groups. One group watched the same touch point money lesson that I created for the other school. The second group watched a video on decimals. Both videos had places where the students were to hit pause and work out examples on their whiteboards. I thought this made the process more interactive, and I or the paras in the room could see if the student's were starting to "get it", attempting... rather than just watching a video and zoning out. Once they hit play, the answer was given on the video and they continued until the end of the video. After the groups were done, we did hands on activities to apply what they learned about.

I've put other little videos with multiplication songs and tips/tricks as a reference for students to utilize throughout the day or at home to help them refresh on concepts.  

Students have also used Educreations to share with me. The most recent project using this app, had students creating a timeline based off of an information book that we had read. Students used the app to add pictures, text, and voice overs to explain what happened during each historical period. They've turned out great!

I love this application. I think that it has the potential to be used with a wide age range; both teacher and student led. With the Common Core State Standard initative, I know that students will need to explain more. Giving student's a problem and having them create a video to explain how to solve it to show their understanding could be another way to utilize this app. Explaining how to do a center and leaving an iPad or laptop for students to listen to as a reminder. Differentiating lessons. The possibilities are endless.  Currently, student's can't upload to a class on Educreations, but our tech gurus found a way to do this through My Big Campus (I think Edmodo would work as well, if you wanted students to upload their creations to you).

So what do you think? How can this app be used in your classroom?  How might you multiply yourself in your classroom?