As Andy Williams’ carol says ‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’. The final few weeks of the year are incredibly special for Primary School teaches. Reports are finished, much of the curriculum content is covered and you have a week or to to really enjoy the relationships that have been developed with your students. During this time I would like to challenge you to put aside colouring in Christmas Cards and instead be innovative in the way your students reflect on their year of learning. Below are eight iPad ideas to be creative with your class in the final week of this wonderful time of year.
Reflecting Learning
- Digital Books: Publish digital books that reflect student learning. This can be done using BookPress (free), Scrappy (paid) or Book Creator (paid). If you use BookPress create a shared account for your class. You can then create template that students can download from the BCloud to complete. Each page can include reflection questions to answer. When finished, digital books can be uploaded to the class BCloud. Students can then read one another’s work.
- Animation: Create animations using iMotion HD (free) and iMovie (free). Animations can communicate messages about key skills or life lessons learnt during the year. There is a myriad of tools you can animate including lego people, clay, figurines, toys and cars. Click on my Animations page for ideas.
- Puppet Animations: Scripted animations can be effectively created using Puppet Pals (free with upgrades) or Talking Tom and Ben (free). Students should script the animation before recording. You might like to provide questions that scaffold the dialogue such as ‘What have you learnt this year?’ ‘What is one skill you’ve developed?’ ‘What is a challenge you have overcome?’ These animations can be saved to the camera roll and combined in iMovie.
- Collaborative Cork Board: Lino (free) and Corkulous (free) are a wonderful way to share ideas in a collaborative manner. Create a shared class account in Lino and create class cork boards. Students can add text, drawings, images and video to reflect on their learning throughout the year.
- Quizzes: Kahoot quizzes are fantastic for topic revision. Students and teachers can create the quizzes to be played with the class. Each question has an allocated time limit and can include picture or video. Students log on using a pin code generated when the game is launched. My Year 6 Maths students have loved Kahoot and it has been a fun way to revise content taught this year.
Creation Tools
- Game Creation: Use Pixel Press Floors (free) or Sketch Nation Create (free) to create video games. In Floors students can design multi level games drawn on paper that are scanned into the app using the camera. Alternatively, the levels can be drawn into app using blueprint style planning. In Sketch Nation Create students can draw and animate the game characters. The ability to create and import a myriad of backgrounds provides opportunity for students to tell a story through their game.
- Group Videos: Create shared class videos that encourage team work and creativity. Music videos using clever pop art can be created using Vid Rhythm (paid). Green screen techniques can be enhanced using Action Movie FX (free) or Do Ink (paid).
- 3D Mazes: Create complex 3D mazes that are published and played by the class. The maze can extend up to 15 by 15 squares. The walls, graphics, location and audio can also be personalised. Walls can also be invisible to create further complexity. The maze is then created in 3D.
Question for you: What innovative projects and activities have you done at the end of your school year?
