Paper + coloured pencils + a child = 2 activities

I love simple activities!

A very creative colleague of mine, Luiza Helena, shared two activities she has tried with her junior students recently.

Luiza explains:

"Well, here is a photo of a very simple activity. The students were organized in a circle. The teacher gives a piece of paper and they have to start drawing a monster. When the teacher makes a sound students change papers and continue the previous monster and go on. The teacher continues making sounds so students change the position of the monsters until get their own. The fun is that students don't make only one monster but it is a collaborative work. At the end, students laugh a lot and say: This is not  mine. What have you done with mine?... They create a name and then others vote for the best one."

Then, Luiza shares a second one:

"Today I did an activity and I also took a picture of it. It is a sleep diary. You give each student a sheet of paper (A4). They fold and cut it and then staple it in a format of a diary. Inside they write one information in each side, for example: I go to bed at...; I wake up at...so on... Students can tell if they dream or not, how many hours do they sleep ... etc. The diaries are so simple but cute. They made cute drawings inside.

Thanks for your interest in these simple ideas."

Educreations: IPAD app

I had already used EDUCREATIONS on my laptop during an EVO Session but had kind of forgotten it.

Today, while searching for something else I stumbled into it again, but this time I decided to try its IPAD app which is totally free.

 This is what you can do with it:
- You can draw using your finger and record your voice at the same time.
- You can take a photo and record yourself talking about it.
- You can use a picture from your photo gallery or from dropbox, draw and record your voice. After recording and saving it, you can share it via twitter, facebook or even grab the embed code for publishing online.

MY FIRST TRIAL: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/my-living-room/844046/?ref=app

 


 How can wwe use it with students? 
- you can ask students to research about famous people in history, ask them to upload a picture and record themselves talking about that personality.
- you can record screencasts drawing and writing explanations.
- you can ask students to share a picture of something special to them and talk about it.
- you can ask students to upload a picture of a place they would really like to visit someday and talk about it.
- students can draw and tell a story.

Practise SPEAKING with Sketchcast

I had alredy seen this tool via Russell Stannard @russell1955 but had never given it a go.

It's incredibly simple, you register freely, and click to create your recording. Choose the option of the audio, give it a title and start recording. You can listen to a preview before publishing. As soon as it's published you're offered an embed code for publishing. During the sketcast you can record yourself while you draw and type.

My trial was something simple to talk about my nuclear family



HOW CAN WE USE THIS SITE WITH STUDENTS?

• have students record sketchcasts and describe their families, their bedroom, their house, a town scene, their city.
• students can also talk about any given topic you propose while they scribble.
• for groups, you can create a channel where all students can add their sketches.

To learn more about SKETCAST, watch Russell Stannard's TUTORIAL

Going Crazy with flash-gear.com

Funny, every time I go crazy about a site I have to post about it straight-away. I just cant't help it but share. While going through the fantastic WHITEBOARD BLOG I came accross FLASH-GEAR.COM and there are so many things you can do with it. Let's explore!

You can

• make a chat room for your blog.
• make a counter.
• add moving eyes to your picture.
• add an acid effect to a picture.
• turn your picture into an embeddable widget.
• draw online with your friends and embed the drawing board.

I had embedded all my trials, but as they're animations, the page become too heavy so my suggestion is try everything out. It's so COOL!!!