Technology Tuesday: Google Maps

Last week, Lisa Johnson (@TechChef4U) presented to our librarians at a district inservice.  She talked about Augmented Reality and gave some great ideas.  One being using the Flyover in Apple Map Tours to give students a virtual look at different cities.

While I was exploring that I had the idea for 2nd graders to appsmash the maps with Doodle Buddy while they are learning about map keys this week.  

In the map app, we typed in the address of our school.  We looked at the satellite view so that we could see different things like trees, the track, the playground, houses and cars. Students took a screen shot of the map and then opened it in Doodle Buddy and used the brush and text feature to create a key for their map.  

Poetry Stations

I just love it when I offer a lesson in the library and when it's over, the teachers ask, "You'll have this for us again next year, right?"  This happened multiple times last week after 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers brought their students in for some poetry centers that my colleague, Natalie Watts  and I created.

Both of us are hosting Poetry Alive and we wanted to promote some of the poems they would be performing.  Instead of just reading them to the kids, we came up with about 10 centers that would introduce the poems to the students and require them to complete various activities as they rotated around.  

Here are a few examples of our centers...  After reading "Ode to Family Photographs" by Gary Soto, students looked at some pictures that I had saved of families together.  The directions were to find a picture that reminds them of a time with their family and write a poem about it.  The students came up with some very clever poems.

At another center, students read the poem, "Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face" by Jack Prelutsky.  After reading the poem, they had to illustrate in DoodleBuddy on the iPad either a place described in the poem or a place on their body where they would not want their nose.  

Not all stations were technology based.  At one stations, students read the poem, "The Pig" by Roald Dahl.  Then they used highlighters to find text evidence answering certain questions.  For example, highlight with green the line in the poem that tells how the pig solved the problem.  Adding the highlighter made this an engaging activity for the students.

Yesterday, we had our Poetry Alive performance and it was great to see the recognition in the students' faces when one of the poems from our stations was performed.

Poetry Month

April is poetry month and for the first time in a long time I've got stuff planned all month!  I've been sharing some poems from some of my favorite poetry books.

I love the poems in  "Good Dog" becuase they are told from the point of view of different breeds... The Chihuahua poem shows hyper, yet tough personality.  The Maltese is a beautiful bride with a vow poem from her owner to love and cherish her. And my favorite is the Pomeranian who has just gone to the groomer and is admonishing his owner for embarrasing him by making him look like a "powder puff". 

Alan Katz visited my school 3 years ago and is just as funny in person as his Silly Dilly songs.  My favorite in this book is "Stinky, Stinky Diaper Change" sung to the toon of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". 

School Fever has great poems about the librarian who conquers a mouse in the library by reading to him, the cafeteria food, and my favorite from this one is a boy who professes his love for his teacher and since he can't tell her he loves her, drives her crazy instead.

And Judy Sierra take Mother Goose favorites and turns them into monster rhymes in this hilarious book.

We are also having Poetry Alive on May 4th and to get ready for their visit, another librarian and I created some centers based on the poems they might perform. My first class of 2nd graders visted today and had a great time writing a list poem, drawing the characters from "Don't Let Your Cat Wear an Apron" with DoodleBuddy on the iPad and using highlihters to find words that describe senses in "The Cat on My Lap". 

I have different centers for 3rd-5th grade that will start next week.

At the end of the month we are going to be connecting with other classes via skype to share poetry.  If you are interested in participating in that here is the link to the google doc.  We are also celebrating "Poem in My Pocket" Day on April 30. 

What are you doing to celebrate poetry month? 

Technology Tuesday: Doodle Buddy App

Our teachers received 3 iPads for classroom use this year and since some teachers are still unsure about how to use them instructionally, I  like to try to model different apps with the 20 that I have in the library when classes come in for a lesson.  I have author, Aaron Reynolds, visiting in January so I decided to introduce my 2nd graders to some of his books and the Doodle Buddy app at the same time.

I started by reading two of his books, Creepy Carrots and Carnivores to the class. Then I told them to think about the characters, problem/solution and setting of one of the books.  I sent them to the tables and with very minimal directions - basically just how to start a text box and the drawing tools - I told them they had to write a sentence about one of the books and then illustrate.  It always amazes me what they can discover on their own just by using the app.  Here are a few of the pictures the 2nd graders made.  

I love that without me telling them, they figured out how to use the glitter paint, the speech bubbles and the google-eyes.  I want the teachers to see that it is OK if they are not 100% sure what an app does, the kids will figure out way cooler things that we ever could.  

After the students finished their Aaron Reynolds picture, I let them have a few minutes to explore and draw whatever they wanted.  During this time, one of the students had figured out how to add backgrounds and found a "snow globe" background.  The teacher happened to see this and said, "Oh wow! We could use the snow globe for a writing prompt when we come back from winter break at stations!"  -  Now that's what I am talking about!  It never would have occurred to this particular teacher to use Doodle Buddy at a station during their language arts time if I hadn't introduced her students to the app in the library and if they hadn't had time to be creative on their own and find the snow globe background.  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

How have you used Doodle Buddy in the library?  Have you had successes making your teachers comfortable with a new piece of technology so they will use it in the classroom?