This morning in the AT&T Classroom the Rootstown second graders started a new writing project using Google Slides, a free Google productivity app for creating digital stories, presentations, reports, note cards, etc. Features within the tool allow for slides to include text, images, hyperlinks and video. The Google Slides application offers a wide variety of themes, templates, backgrounds, and fonts that can be used to create very unique customized projects that are automatically saved to Google Drive and can easily be shared and/or downloaded. The second graders are using Google Slides to develop their own how-to books for non-fiction writing practice. 
The second graders were introduced to two additional tools for use during their Daily 5 rotations.
Sock Puppets is a free iOS app that allows students to explore creative storytelling by creating lip-synced puppet shows that can be shared on the iPad or via Facebook or YouTube. Children are able to select from a variety of hand puppet characters as well as themed backgrounds to create their own unique show. Today during their Daily 5 rotations the second graders used the Sock Puppets app for fluency reading practice.
The second graders were also introduced to Sand Draw Sketch on the Samsung Android tablets. Sand Draw Sketch is a free tablet app that offers a canvas which can be used to create and share sandscapes and sketches. It is a wonderful open-ended tool that offers rich opportunities for building children’s creativity.The second graders are using Sand Draw Sketch during Word Work to practice writing their spelling and vocabulary words.
