Spook-tacular Tech Ideas

Here's a couple Halloween themed iPad lessons I've had the opportunity to help third grade teachers with this month.  These teachers began their 1:1 journey at the beginning of October, so these lessons were the introductory lessons with these apps.

Multiplication arrays in Doodle Buddy

With the free Doodle Buddy app, students made pictorial representations of multiplication problems.

With this activity we did also see some wrong answers.  An extension to this lesson would be to take some of the student made examples, correct and incorrect, to revisit the following day.  Have the students review the multiplication arrays with the equations and explain if they are correct or incorrect and why.  

Spook-tacular Stories with Carve a Pumpkin & ChatterPix Kids App Smash

The students began with the free Carve a Pumpkin app.  With this app, they created their pumpkins and "carved" the faces.  

Then students imported the pumpkins into the free ChatterPix Kids app to record their "spook"-tacular stories!

Readbox Bulletin Board

I love QR codes, especially when they are mixed with great bulletin board displays.  QR codes are a great way to bring student work displays to life.  They can also provide your community an interactive view of student projects.

Ashley Landreth (@mrslandreth3)  a third grade teacher in Greenwood, SC had this awesome bulletin board.  I first saw this idea from her tweet as she was getting ready for open house:

The Third Grade Readbox is ready for Open House! #gwd50mer #learnitall #landrethslearners1516 pic.twitter.com/L4qx3kVoxK

— Ashley Landreth (@mrslandreth3) September 15, 2015

I loved the display so much, I asked her permission to feature it on my blog.  Third grade students at her school created book recommendations using the ChatterPix Kids app.  Now students can scan the QR codes to hear a little book preview before they check out books in the library.

Click the ChatterPix video clips below to see two student samples.

What a great way to get students excited about books!  A book recommendation from a peer can go a long way to encouraging reluctant readers in your class.   I love how this display encourages a community of readers in the school.