Tried and tested activities direct from the classroom. These ideas can be shared across your whole school, for further examples and to view ‘ how to guides’ check out my blog.
- Book Blogging – using the camera in video mode with Apple apps Clips, Pages to personalise a recommendation for a read.
Using Pages to write the book review, selecting text and tapping … , choose ‘presentation mode’ this instantly turns the written review into a script on a scrolling teleprompter for seamless delivery. Here’s an example – “Arrowhead”
The great thing about this is that it’s applicable to any age range, genre or school library. By adding the QR code (generated by Seesaw or by the individual at www.goqr.me) the piece to camera can be accessed. Active book recommendations!
2. Create a How to Guide – Step by step instructional texts ... like recipes, building a DT model or solving a maths problem! Make a ePub.
Available now as a template in Pages and also as part of the excellent Book Creator app capturing the process of learning has never been so much fun or easy to do! Simply set up a template ePub page, I recommend using panels in Book Creator, to capture and caption each stage of the making process. Add voice overs for additional depth or clarity. Here’s how to make ‘fairy cakes’
3. Student authored textbooks – increase the sticking power for revision.
By simply choosing an ePub textbook template in Pages, here I have used an example of The Planets. As it is exported from Keynote as a movie file and saved into Photos it can be directly added as an image to any Pages template but most especially an ePub textbook.
Students will recall the animation process but more importantly the infographics associated with it.. genius!
4. Making a gif. Why? It’s an incredible way to hook learners and for them to be creative in their explanations …remember the old adage “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin – a quick, easy and fun way to show understanding…imagine the possibilities!
5. Digital art – whether as a stand alone creative piece which has equal benefits to traditional art media or as a smaller part of an ongoing project. I would recommend using Procreate if you have access to an iPad Pro with pencil, or Sketches school if your looking for a quick flexible yet powerful workflow. Here’s some examples of the quality of the work produced by the students I’ve worked with recently … ranging from reception to Year 10 art scholars. All the images have been created on iPad, using layers and then taken further in Keynote either with animation (gif) or arranged as a tile. The possibilities are endless.
6. Everyone Can Create! Every child enjoys the freedom of creation but in my experience this needs to be taught so the foundation skills of taking photos or drawing, making videos or working with music are seen as important as a foundation to build exciting and inspirational projects. Teachers should check out the set of free resources by Apple in Books, just search Everyone Can Create!
