The campers started out their morning by exploring some of the additional animation features in KidPix 3D and then explored ABCYa Paint, also on the laptops. ABCYa Paint is online application that children can use to create art work by using the site’s digital tools to paint, color and draw. The application features a wide range of paint colors and stickers that children can use as they create their masterpiece. 
The campers were also introduced to coding this morning by exploring The Foos app. The Foos app uses a game-like format to introduce young children to the basic elements of coding. By progressing through the game levels,the children are able to create code to produce simple animations. Produced by CodeSpark, The Foos curriculum is based on research conducted by MIT and Exploring Computer Science and is designed to facilitate sequential thinking and problem recognition while targeting concepts such as loops, conditionals, commands and parameters. The Foos is multi-platform with free apps available for the Kindle Fire, iOS and Android tablets as well as for desktops.
The campers were also introduced to another app today for creating animated stories. Toontastics is a free app that allows children to draw, animate and share cartoons. The app offers several adventure themes that include backgrounds and characters for children to use to create their animated story.Children are also able to add audio to their story by recording their own voices. The children's stories were amazing and they were so proud as they shared them on the large presentation screen.
Using tools such as Toontastics to create digital stories provides opportunities for children to use higher order thinking skills to organize and design the story elements and the traits of the characters. It also provides an opportunity for students to utilize auditory, verbal, visual, and kinesthetic modalities in combination to create a very personalized and meaningful product that reflects their learning.
