Steph Westwood
mum, wife, early years school teacher with a SMARTBOARD , blogger,
author
Posts
This is my new favourite obsession. It is a way of bookmarking your sites in a visual way.
At the moment I have 5 topics that I am curating.
First of all you need to think of a topic for what you are going to create. To do this you need to go to http://www.scoop.it/theme/create and follow the instructions.
Scoop it recommends that you :
- Start with a topic you know well.
- Be precise: the more specific, the better.
- Scoop.it will ask you to give relevant keywords that will define your topic so that they can search the web and suggest content to your topic based on these keywords.
Don’t be worried if you use Chrome that your bookmarklet does not say ‘Scoop It’ as mine just looks like this . But it still works! You just have to remember what it is. Then all you have to do is have fun!
I have found that the websites that are recommended to me are not what I want. That’s OK as there is an ‘empty the page’ option for the recommends.
You also have the option of sharing . This is a terrific option that you can use either when using the bookmarklet or the website.
Another terrific addition is the fact that y0u can add widgets to your blog or the topics that you have created. At the bottom of the website are clickable links and one of them says Goodies. That is where you can access the widgets.
You can also explore topics that other people have curated and then you can choose to follow them. When you do this when you click on explore it shows you the updates of those topics.
If you need help there is a section that you access from the bottom of the website called FAQ and it answers questions that you might have.
This site is by invitation only at the moment and you need to request an invite. It does not take long. The great thing about it as well is that today I was able to give out 10 invites to friends!
I love making avatars. Here is a new site posted by @kb…konnected. It is besmurfed.com. You can create your own smurf character, add voice and embed. LOVE it.
The next site is Toy Story 3 Creator. Again another great find by @kb..konnected. The best part about this one is that you can download your image.
Then there is Tinkatolli. This is a cute one for the kids and the big kids at heart.
While looking for resources for my Farm Unit for next term I looked at one of my favourite sites Teaching Ideas and found this.
Lots of terrific ideas all in the one place.
There are also some terrific photo packs from twinkl as well.
This site also has some terrific free resources as well. You need to register but all activities and downloads are free.
Teacher’s Pet has 2 websites. This one you do not need to register for. Click on the picture and it will take you to the farm resources on the site.
A wealth of terrific ideas at Communication4all.
Bev also has the Life Cycle of a Chicken, self registration for farm animals, and also photo display packs
There are a wealth of different activities at Sandy’s abcteach as well.
I love widgets and I am in the process of finding some farm animal related ones for the class blog as we are going to be learning all about farms with a culminating visit to Oakvale Farm near the end of the term. Here are some that I have found.
Horses
More prank widgets at Widgia.com
Cats
More animal widgets at Widgia.com
More pet widgets at Widgia.com
Farm
Sheep
Duck
I love reading to the kids in my class. They enjoy the rich world of the imagination of so many writers. During crunch and sip time I sometimes read to them or I go online and find online stories. Thanks to my wonderful friend @KBKonnected there is another site that I will be visiting next term. It is by Barnes and Noble publishers and what a gem!
At the moment there are 13 online stories that are read to you.
As Karen has said a new book is added each month.
Another great feature is that you can embed them!
More Cool Scrap – Forward this Graphic
Useful Things
http://animoto.com/
http://photopeach.com/home
http://www.kizoa.com/
http://livebinders.com/
http://www.voki.com/
http://www.smilebox.com/
http://vimeo.com/
Inspiring Blogs
http://simonhaughton.typepad.com/
http://bevevans22.posterous.com/
http://technostories.wordpress.com/
http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/
http://treasuresreadingteachers.us/
http://karenogen.blogspot.com/
http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/
http://digitaltoolsforteachers.blogspot.com/
More Cool Scrap – Forward this Graphic
These are a few of my favourtie things.
And these are other sites that I use regularly.
MATHS
LITERACY
Writing
Grammar
WOW a new site. Engage Current Affairs for Students
Engage is a current affairs website dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for children by providing current, relevant and age-appropriate reading material.There is both current affairs and science activities on it that are highly engaging. As it states on its website :
Every article featured on Engage comes with comprehensive resources for teachers.
Our worksheets are perfect for in class reading groups, or topical and relevent homework tasks.
We are also building lesson plans and online activities to help teachers engage students in their learning. (Teacher Resource )
At the moment there are reading activities for:
Current Affairs
- Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan
- The Royal Wedding
- ANZAC Day
- Nintendo 3DS Review
- NSW Election
- Harmony Day
- Earthquake Hits Japan
- Food Spoilage
Science
- Human Body – The Respiratory System
- Human Body – The Circulatory System
- Human Body – Introduction
- Food Spoilage
Posts
Today the students created an Australian mural which showcased an Australian animal that lived on land, in the sea and the air. They made their image in Art Rage on the computer. When it was time, the image was transferred to the iPad using the Simple Transfer app.
Then the students used the App Path On to create text on their image.
The image was then put into the Word Foto app where they used words to describe their image.
Some students were even able to use the Type Drawing App. With this app you type in your words and then draw on the ipad. You can import your picture. Once saved the image can be played and it plays back in the order that you made the app.
Today in the library we researched Australian Animals. We filled out a research sheet and then some of the students were ready to make their Haiku’s on the ipad. The students used Haiku Deck.
In Haiku Deck you choose from a range of themes. add your words andselect the perfect backdrop for your words from high-quality Creative Commons licensed photos.The students could choose where they wanted the writing to appear on the slide. Here are some of the completed ones.
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
To make it easy to find the sites we will be using this week just click on the symbaloo to take you there.
While most of Year 3 where at sport Year 2 had lots of fun finding an image of their favourite Australian animal and then seeing how they could change that image using different apps.
They looked through a vast array of Information books to locate their image.They then took a photo of it, cropped the image if need be and inserted into the WordFoto app. Students then chose 10 relevant words from the text of their book to add to their photo. Once complete they could choose a preset style or make their own style.
The same photo was then used in different apps:- Befunky, Kyoobik and Percoloator.
Today we worked on showcasing our knowledge about Koalas. Mrs Westwood showed us how to use the ExplainEverythingApp.
First we needed to make sure that we had taken a photo of our Koala craft. Next there needed to be a tellagami or our Koala knowledge. Once we had both of these things we were ready to explore the Explain Everything App.
When first opening the app there is a template that you can choose for colour. Most of us chose the green template. Then we imported ourphotoand tellagami. We added a title and decorated our page. We finally worked out that we needed to press the record button and then the telegami app so that the app recorded our tellagami.
Lastlywe exported it to the camera roll.
