iBooks and free first in the series books

The iBookstore, available through either the iBooks app or through iTunes, offer paid and free eBooks on a whole host of topics and for a range of readers.  Not only do they have a range of popular books turned into eBooks, there are a range of interactive eBooks to bring stories and learning alive such as  Life on Earth and The Yellow Cab of the Universe.

Currently, the iBookstore has a range of 'first in the series' eBooks available for free.  There are some great titles for children available so take the time to check these out.  You will find them on the iBookstore home page, just scroll down to find the iBooks and First in a Series Free.

Haiku deck

Haiku deck is a free presentation app suitable for crating digital stories as well as presentations. Text and font can be added, and the app searches for Creative Commons images to go with the text. Presentations can be uploaded to facebook or twitter, shared via email or exportedQuick and easy to use. A great way for students to present their ideas.

- Posted by Tara using BlogPress from my iPad

Dinosaurs in NZ Classrooms!

Sharon - our Hamilton Early Years Facilitator under attack in Auckland!

I have had heaps of fun exploring the AR Dinopark App with students at different schools throughout Whangarei.  The excitement and buzz is amazing as the dinosaurs crash on into the classroom.  The strategy of taking photos and then using these photos as creative and imaginative writing prompts has proved very successful.  We have used the Pic Collage App to put our stories together.

Check out some of our posts on the Whangarei Primary School blog.  We would LOVE your comments.

Augmented Reality in Room 9

Michael's Triceratops Attack!

Ocieana and Claire's Dinosaur Story

I have recently visited with @AllanahKing in Nelson and she has also had fun with dinosaurs at Appleby School.

The Amazing Spider-man AR

I have been playing around with augmented reality for a few months.      We are at the beginning of AR possibilities and future developments will be exciting.  As much fun as I have had with it, I have wondered how it could be used in the classroom.

While at the Slide2Learn conference in July, I attended a workshop on AR facilitated by Nathan Jones.  Jones talked about how he uses AR in the classroom with his students.  Using AR to spark ideas for story-writing was one of the ideas he shared.

The Amazing Spider-man AR is a great app for Spiderman lovers.   By downloading the free app from the App store, and printing the series of free markers from the site, users can shoot spiderman's web, swing across buildings, capture baddies and climb brick walls.  Lots of ideas for story starters here.  I can see that reluctant writers could be drawn in to story writing this way.

Te Pataka a Milly me Molly

Te Pataka a Milly me Molly is a collection of the Milly and Molly stories in Te Reo Maori.  Once the app is downloaded, users can select any number of the 30 books to download to their iDevice.  Not only do the books have delightful illustrations and narration in Maori, they can be read in a number of ways.  Options for reading include user reading, touching each word to hear how it sounds or have the book automatically read from beginning to end.  As each word is read, it appears larger on the screen so the child can follow along with the story.  The collection of stories also have the added option of being able to record yourself reading the story - particularly good if you want to practice your reo, or to have a family member read the story to the child (great option for when special family members are not always nearby to read everyday to the child).

I have found it difficult to access the books when not connected online so I would recommend that you be connected online to read each book.




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Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

My Story

My Story is a very reasonably priced ($1.99) app for creating books easily.  Books can be shared via email or saved as an iBook (a free app).  Once saved an an iBook - your story can be read on your iPad anywhere, anytime:-)

I love the fact that you can import your own photos, draw your own pictures, add text and record your voice.  It is very simple to use and has very clear symbols that children can follow with ease.

A great digital storytelling app for all ages:-)

Step 1 - Simply tap 'My Story' to give your story a title

Step 2 - Create your cover page you can tap the paintbrush symbol to open your options for painting or tap the photo symbol to see your options for taking a photo or adding a photo from your collection.  To change colours - simply tap the colour you would like to choose - scroll along to see new colours...

Step 3 - Add text to your cover page by clicking on the bottom right arrow - It will open up this screen, simply tap the 'ABC' to begin typing...  Once you have finished click the arrow again to go back to your cover page.  You can then click 'cover page' in the bottom left hand corner...

 

Step 4 - To add another page simply click the page symbol in the top right hand corner and continue to add pages to your story...

If you want to add your voice to your pages - simply click on the red microphone symbol...

Step 5 - When your story is finished you have the option of reading it or sharing it....

Step 6 - Click on share and choose how you would like to do so - HAVE FUN CREATING!

UPDATE: The publishers are working on a print function and in the meantime have some video instructions of how to print.

Elmo explores ABCs for the iPad

Using Sesame Street's lovable Elmo, this App encourages young children to explore literacy through letters and sounds in the form of  games, videos, songs and more.

The main section of this game is based on levels, so that the letter must be traced with a finger before the next stage appears.   Children trace both the upper case and lower case letter that they have selected, then they can draw their own, hear the sounds of each letter, watch short video clips related to that letter and find hidden objects.  There are also alphabet songs, and letter matching games.

For adults who want the option, there is a tracking section that records how long the game is played, the child's favourite letter and favourite activity.

What I particularly like about this app is that it can be personalised to include words, photos and videos of the important things in children's lives, such as pets, family members, favourite toys, and in this case, even workplace!

There is lots to explore in this app that is filled with colour, sound and clear images.  Give the free lite version a trial today!

Scrabble Anyone?

I love a good board game over summer with the family:-) My children are now teenagers and it is much harder to entice them into playing with me! At the end of last year a friend of mine was playing scrabble, on his iPhone, against his partner who was then living in Australia. This intrigued me, how cool that they could play a game together from different countries! Since then, I have utilised good old google and you tube to find out more! I am yet to get together with my family to give it a try and look forward to a weekend at the beach over Waitangi weekend to entice them. I am also going to introduce this concept to the teachers at Whangarei Primary and suggest children in different classes trial playing games of scrabble together:-) Would love to hear from anyone who has tried scrabble on the iPad/iPod out:-)

Strip Design for Storytelling

I have been using Strip Design with the children at Whangarei Primary both on iPod touches and iPads.  This has proved a very successful tool for sharing digital photos.  The junior children have explored this app by taking their own photos around the school, adding them to strip design and writing small captions with some of the photos.  The senior children are flying as they add frames, text, colour and different effects to personalise their story.  Endless opportunties for creativity in their storytelling.  Here are a few step by step guides to using Strip Design...

Step 1 - Choose your style

Step 2 - Choose your template and number of photos you wish to add

Step 3 - Click on add your photos

Step 4 - Choose photos from photo album, facebook etc or use the camera to take as you go 

Step 5 - Have a play with your photos - add frames etc

An example of adding, changing style and colour of frame

Step 6 - Once you have your frames sorted you are able to choose text etc for title and words

An example of adding title - simply double click on words to change them - easy as:-) 

Step 7 - When done click Share

From here to can email or save to Photo Album

You are also able to open as PDF and if you scroll down... share via facebook/flickr and twitter

My very basic finished product!  Thanks to my Oxfam Adventure Angels team for sharing photos:-)

StoryPatch - create your own stories

Story Patch is an app for story writing,  providing an additional tool for encouraging young children to write.  This app is designed so that it can easily be used by young or older children.  Young children can choose a theme which provides a background of images for the story and the child types in their text.  Older, experienced authors can use the built in clip-art to add images to their words - there are over 800 illustrations available to choose from OR your own photos can be added to provide the background.  Character expressions can be changes to fit in with the story.  Text can be added to each page.   It is easy to add new pages, images and text. Once finished, the book can then be saved and emailed as as a pdf for online reading.

Engaging Writers with Comic Strip

Designed for both iPad/ iPod touch and iPhone, I really like how easy Comic Strip is to use. Very similar to 'Comic Life' but less cluttered. Really easy to create, quickly upload photos from your camera roll OR take photos as you go. Ability to add text bubbles to each photo. Able to save as a JPEG image or share instantly on Facebook or Twitter. I can imagine children creating their stories 'on the go' and being able to save their JPEG image straight to their ePortfolio via iPod touch or iPad.

Simply click on the plus to add a photo or take a photo.

Click on the small arrow to change template and add captions.

Finished product ready to save or share:-)

Click on the small arrow again to save, publish or share.