This afternoon in the AT&T Classroom the Wait Primary first graders continued work on their animal habitat “App Smash” project. “App Smash” is a term used to describe the process of using several apps in combination to complete a task or create a project. The process of App Smashing encourages students creativity and problem solving skills as they work among multiple tools to develop content and share their learning. This past week the first graders have been “App Smashing” the Google Image Search Tool, Doodle Buddy iOS, Pic Collage for Kids, and ChatterPix Kids to synthesize and share what they have learned about animal habitats. Yesterday in the AT&T Classroom the students conducted a Google Image Search to locate a photo of the animal that would be the focus of their project. The students then used the Doodle Buddy iOS app to design their digital habitat scene. The students saved their finished scenes to their iPad camera roll for next steps. During the next phase of the project, the students were introduced to Pic Collage for Kids (also known as PicKids), a free app for creating scenes and collages with photos taken with an iOS device. PicKids was designed specifically for students of elementary and middle school ages as an alternative to the original Pic Collage app. Both apps offer access to a tremendous gallery of backgrounds, stickers and customizable fonts for creating photo projects. With Pic Kids, students are able to conduct safe-filter Internet image searches and social media sharing features are removed. The first graders pulled up the habitat scene they had previously created in Doodle Buddy iOS, from their iPad camera roll and inserted it into the PicKids app where they were able to add text and stickers to share facts about their animal and habitat. 
As a final step today, the first graders used ChatterPix Kids to animate their animal so that it could talk. ChatterPix Kids is a free iOS app that can be used to animate an object within a photo so that it can “talk”. Students are able to draw a mouth on an object in a photo and then record themselves talking. The object’s mouth animates and moves with the voice recording. This afternoon the first graders assumed the role of their animal and used ChatterPix Kids to record themselves sharing facts about their habitat including food sources, water sources, and other unique features related to their shelter.