App Smashing and Rhyming Words

It's an easy app smash that you can do with your students to reinforce those rhyming words.  This whole app smash came about after a conversation with one of my awesome colleagues, Mrs. Hansen.  She had been having her students use the iPads in her classroom to scan a QR code that would display a word.  Her students would then think of and recite a word or two that rhymed with the scanned word.

We did a little talking and planning, and before you knew it, we had created a little app smash to reinforce this simple lesson.   Here is the app smash recipe:

Here is how you can use this app smash in your classroom with your students:

1.  Create a whole bunch of QR Codes that link back to rhyming words (can, car, bat, etc.). Laminate them or store in a 3-ring binder in protective covers.   I like to use QRExplore.com when needing to create a bunch of QR Codes at one time. It's an awesome tool for this. 

2.  Have students scan the QR Code.  Let's say that the word that it's linked to is "bat."  Now have your students open the Pic Collage app.

3.  Let students customize their background as they really like doing this.  Have your students add the word "bat" to their Pic Collage.  Have them make this word fairly large by two finger pulling.  

4.  Now have the students add three words to their Pic Collage that rhyme with their original word.  For example, I would add "cat," "hat," and "brat" to mine.  Have students two finger pinch to make these words smaller and drag them to where they want them in their collage.

5.  Now, let's have the students add an image from within the Pic Collage app.  Have students add an image of their original word by tapping on "web images" in Pic Collage. Drag and place the photo that they choose. 

6.  Five finger pinch to close Pic Collage. (It's a simple move I teach all our students.  If you have multitasking gestures enabled, simply take your hand with all five fingers spread apart and pinch them together quickly. This will close the current app, allowing you to work in another).

7.  We are almost done.  Why not let them create a drawing of one of the the words that is on their collage?  Have them illustrate one of the words using the Doodlebuddy app.  When they are done with their drawing have them save it to their photo album.

8.  Double tap your home button to reveal apps that are open.  Choose the Pic Collage that we have been working in.  Tap to make it full screen.  Add your Doodlebuddy illustration by tapping on "photos" and adding it to your Pic Collage. 

9.  Have students add their names.  Now, you could save this artifact to your library so that we could embed it into a future blog post using KidBlog or you could simply have your students email it to you so that you could do whatever you like with it!  

Happy Smashing! 

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Who's Telling Your Story?

Ask your child what they did in school today.  What's the typical response?  "I don't know" or  "Nothin', really."  As a teacher, I beg to differ!

What's going on in your classroom this week? Who knows about it?  A majority of teachers that I ask that question answer with the following:

"My administrator, students and some of my parents."

Really?  That's it?  Shouldn't the whole world know what's taking place in your awesome learning environment?  Now, some might say that "nobody really cares" or "who would want to know anyway?"

I truly think that YOU need to be sharing the awesome events that are happening each and everyday in your classroom.  An activity or project that you might think is meaningless, could be magnificent in the eyes of another educator!

I was one of those teachers that didn't share much during my first eight years of teaching.

I went about my business. I did my thing.

Then one day, I joined Twitter.  To be honest with you, I was a little hesitant when I first joined.    I didn't see the value of me sharing and telling the story that was playing out each day in my classroom.  I lurked on Twitter.  Eventually, I started seeing what other social studies teachers were doing in their classrooms.  I started lurking and learning.  I started taking their ideas and modifying them to use with my students. My classroom was no longer a static learning space.  It felt like it was constantly evolving.  I was learning and it felt great!

Eventually I started to realize that by tuning in to other educators I was become a more well rounded educator.  

Eventually I started joining in conversations on Twitter.  I no longer lurked.  I started conversing.  I shared and produced.  I collaborated with other teachers from all over the world.

I quit being an Idea Hoarder.

How can you start telling your story?

One of the easiest ways is to start using Twitter as your broadcasting platform.  Creating a hashtag for your classroom is an easy start.  We have several teachers in my school district that are utilizing hashtags in their classrooms to tell their stories.   Check out #auroraspanish #ahsbio #hudsonkinders or #ahs109 to see how these teachers are harnessing the power of the hashtag.

Using a hashtag for your classroom creates a digital window so that others can tune in to see all of the great activities/events/learning that is taking place.

So, who's telling your story?

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