This morning in the AT&T Classroom the Cornerstone first graders were introduced to a new apps for creating digital stories.
Book Creator is tablet tool that students can use to create their own interactive ebooks. Students can add text choosing from over 50 fonts within the tool. Students can draw images using the pen tool or photos and images can be added from the tablet’s photo library, from the web or captured and inserted using the tablet’s camera. Books can also include video, music, and recorded narration. Finished books can be shared via email or uploaded for cloud storage via Google Drive, Dropbox or iCloud.
The first graders also enjoyed creating animated stories using Toontastic 3D, a free Google tool for creating digital animated stories. The Toontastic 3D platform offers characters, templates and backgrounds that children can use to draw, create, and animate 3D stories and cartoons. The Toontastic 3D templates guide children through the writing process to create an animated story that includes story elements for character, setting, problem, and solution. Students are also able to add audio to their story by recording their own voices. Using a multimodal tool such as Toontastic 3D provides opportunities for children to further develop all literacy skills for reading, writing, speaking and listening and to also build important skills” for critical thinking, creativity, and communication.
Also this morning the first graders were introduced to the Sushi Monster, a free iOS app available from Scholastic that is designed to practice, reinforce, and extend math fact fluency in a game-like format. Students feed their Sushi Monsters by correctly choosing two numbers that when added or multiplied result in the number that the monster wants to eat. When the monster has been fully fed students move on to feeding a new monster.
