PodWise@StCatherine's

Angles in Maths Rotations

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa Sams) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:38:00 +0000

This term in 3 Orange we have been using the I-pods as part of our maths rotations. Each week we have focused on different areas of maths. One area we have focused on, is angles. As part of our angles rotation we have used the I-pods to take pictures of different angles we found around the school. Once we had taken our pictures of angles we used different apps to sort and write or record captions for each picture. Most people used Sonic Pics to do this.

Brooke liked doing this activity because she could explore the different angles we have at school.

Noah really enjoyed being able to take the pictures of the different angles.

Miranda was excited because she found lots of angles in one area.

Blake didn’t like the activity very much because there was not enough variety. Luca and Beau also agree with Blake.

Liam didn’t like the activity because there were to many angles around the school. Ryan also agrees and found it confusing because there were to many angles.

Angles are awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:08:00 +0000

In 3B we have been using the iPods in our Math's rotations to show what we have learnt about angles.

First, we had to find different sized angles in our classroom. We were looking for angles that were smaller than a right angle, the same size as a right angle and ones that were larger than a right angle. To help us to know the size of an angle, we used the right angle tester we made in class.

Then we had to take 6 photos of the different angles we had found in the room. To make sure we got a good photo of the angle, we learnt how to zoom in when we took a photo.

Once we had all of the photos we needed, we added the photos from the photo gallery to Sonic Pics. We then sorted the photos in order from the smallest angle to the largest angle. Some children recorded information about their photos onto Sonic Pics.

We showed our teacher our work and also shared it with the other children in our group.

Some children also used Story Kit and Comic Touch to sort the photos of the angles and to add some text about their photos.

This activity helped us to learn more about angles because it allowed us to share the angles we had found with other people. We had fun using the apps and recording and sharing our ideas. We learnt a lot and we are looking forward to learning more about angles.

Photo Fun

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:23:00 +0000

We went to to Caboolture Historical Village on Thursday 27th October for an excursion. In class we have been learning about the history of the local area near our school. We investigated the difference between life in the early days in Mt Gravatt/Wishart and Mt Gravatt/Wishart today. These photos were taken with an iPod touch and we uploaded them onto the blog for you to have a look at.

First stop for Year 3W was the "Washing" area. They didn't have any electric washing machines like we have today. Lots of washing had to be done by hand using a "blue bag" (soap). They had to use a "wash board" to scrub the clothes clean. After the clothes were washed in the "pummel", the clothes were then put through the "roller" to squeeze all the water from the clothes.

We were lucky enough to enjoy a train ride through the village and got to look at all the places to visit. We went through a tunnel and were allowed to SCREAM as loud as we wanted!

Next stop was the Gem Club to fossick for gems. When we arrived we received a "lucky dip" and a container of "sand". We took turns to pour our container of sand into a big sifter and to our delight we discovered some hidden gems in amongst the sand. We were even allowed to take our gems home.

We enjoyed a visit to the blacksmith next. We learnt that blacksmiths make things out of metal and they put it in the fire and then they use an anvil and a hammer to mould it into the shape they want. The items then had to be left to cool. Ethan was lucky enough to use the "sandstone wheel" which sharpens the tools.

Our last set planned visit was to the "Spinning". Erika showed us a spinning wheel and how you change sheep's wool into yarn. We learnt that we could dye the colour of the wool by using gum leaves and paper tree bark. To use the spinning wheel you used one hand to hold the wool, and a pedal at your foot would help to spin the wheel.

We enjoyed visiting the old school house with very old desks. There was a long list of rules on the wall for female teachers to follow. The "cane" looked a bit scary and we realise how lucky we are that we are not caned at school today.

We visited an old police station which had an old typewriter and an old safe. The jail cells at the back of the police station were pretty scary and we decided we would not like to be locked up with no bathroom and a very uncomfortable bed.

We found we ran out of time to see all the old buildings before we had to leave. However, we did get to have a quick look at the hospital and an old house, the General store, the Chapel, and the Railway shop.

We had a very nice day at the Caboolture Historical Village. Our opinion was divided as to whether we would prefer to live back in the olden days or today!!!

Becoming an app expert

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:10:00 +0000

On Thursday, different groups in 3B got to explore a new app each and to become mini experts on these apps. The apps the class explored were PS Express, Type Drawing, Finger Paint and Doodle buddy. Here are some of our thoughts about these apps.

PS Express - This app is one you would use to customise a photo. This means you can add colours, styles and other features to a photo.

Emerson thought this app was cool because you can make the picture's rainbow coloured. Finn discovered you can make the photos sparkle, Meg liked how you could change the photo into what looks like a sketch and Joshua found out you could make a photo look like an olden day photo and put it into a frame.

Type Drawing - This app is a word doodling app, where you can make picture patterns with words.

Hannah didn't find this app as much fun as other apps she has used, Jacob found out he could adjust the font and text, Simon found you could change the design that you draw, Tahlia discovered she could c

hange the colours of the font, Jack found out you could change the way the images looks. Lucy

was away and is going to try this app out next week.

Finger Paint - This app is a drawing app.

Luke found out he could change all of the colours, Maia and Noah liked how you could change all of the different effects, for example fur, lines or squares. Daniel liked how he could sketch using the app, Alex found out how to do lots of different things with this app and wrote some great instructions.

Doodle Buddy - This app is for altering an image or photo to

make it look funny and interesting.

Celeste liked how you could put cute stickers onto photos, Pat and Zacharie liked how you could draw an image and then use a sticker to change the image, Axelle enjoyed how she could get an image and smudge it with chalk and stickers, Andrew and Lucinda found out that the stickers could make a noise after you had applied them.

Next week, the children are going to share their expert knowledge about their app with other groups in the

class.

Story Cubes

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa Sams) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:53:00 +0000

This week as part of our literacy rotations we used an app called story cubes. To use the app you need to shake the I-pod. When you shake the I-pod it rolls the dice on the screen. The dice on the screen have different pictures on them. Once we rolled the dice we used the pictures to write a story.

Trista liked the app because she could see the pictures then write about them. Blake agrees with Trista and he liked the app because he could be creative and write a story.

Lauren liked the app because she got to shake the I-pod. Most apps that we use work by touching the screen but story cubes works in a different way.

Beau and Aiden both didn’t like the app because they thought they didn’t get to use the I-pod enough during our literacy rotation time.

This app has helped us with our writing because we have had to think of words to describe the pictures which were on the dice. This allowed us to practice our descriptive writing

History using iPods

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:43:00 +0000

This week using the iPods has been fun as we continued to explore the apps Strip Design and Storykit. We are using these apps to help us to write about the history of our local area.

We had 8 old pictures of Brisbane city from a long time ago to look at. In pairs, we selected two of the pictures and took photos of them with the iPods.

We then selected either Storykit or Strip Design and uploaded our photos from the camera roll on the iPods. Once we had our photos the way we wanted them on the screen, we then typed in our sentence about the photos. These sentences are what we call "because" sentence. They say what has changed from one photo to the other and why we think this change happened.

What we really liked about using these apps is that each of our work looked different, because there are so many choices we can make about things like the background, the font, the size of the photos and how we position our photos and text on the page.

Luke thought storykit was easier to use than strip design because he found it harder to know what to do when he used strip design.

Tahlia and Matina found it great that she could make different backgrounds in storykit. They used the storykit paint program to do a coloured background.

Andrew liked storykit better than strip design because when you logged onto strip design it is a bit confusing to know what to do.

Rory, Patrick and Finn liked strip design because they could add stamps and different stickers to the photos, a bit like making a comic strip.

Axelle liked storykit because the work you do is saved automatically into a section called bookshelf.

Lucy found it easy to delete any mistakes she made when she used storykit.

Hannah liked how in storykit you can create any kind of story you like.

Next week we will be using these apps to record our responses to other photos so our teacher can see how much we have learnt!

Character Descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 10:31:00 +0000

In Week 7, we re-visited 'Puppet Pals". Last time we used Puppet Pals we chose a character to write a limerick about. This time we chose a character so we could write a description of our chosen character. This activity was part of our Literacy Rotations.

First of all we had to choose a character and a backdrop. In our Literacy book we then wrote a description of what we could 'see'. After we completed our description we had to show it to an adult, to check it was okay. We then voice recorded our description and used our classroom speakers to listen to the descriptions we created.

Oscar discovered it was difficult to voice record when there was a lot of background noise.

Rebecca found this app easy to use because her Mum has Puppet Pals on her phone.

Jamee found the choice of characters were quite limited (you have to pay extra for more character choices). However, Jamee had fun writing her descriptions.

We have been trying to upload our video clips to our blog, but haven't had any luck. This is such a shame because we would like you all to listen to our wonderful creations. We are hoping to find out soon what we need to do differently to upload our clips successfully. We will keep you posted!!!

Elephant Bubloo - Take 2

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 10:16:00 +0000

Mrs Mead had a special job for us to do. Unfortunately, she doesn't get a chance to read all the wonderful books on the iPod touches. So, to help Mrs Mead become familiar with the story Elephant Bubloo, we completed the following steps.

1. We re-read Elephant Bubloo in groups of 3.

2. Each group chose 3 important parts of the story.

3. We took screen shots of each part of the story we chose.

4. We then used Sonic Pics.

5. We went to the photolibrary to find our saved photos.

6. In Sonic Pics we had to choose a title and a description.

7. We had to make sure the photos were in the correct order.

8. We had to decide who was going to voice record for each of the saved photos.

9. In our groups we each took turns to voice record our recount of the story Elephant Bubloo.

10. We were then able to play back our recordings to see if we had sequenced the story correctly.

Connor thought Sonic Pics was a great app because you can make lots of stories and add your own pictures or photos.

Brendan found it difficult to find the saved pictures at first but once he discovered they were saved in the photolibrary, he completed the activity successfully with his group.

We hope this gives Mrs Mead a bit of a 'blurb' about Elephant Bubloo.

Old School vs New School

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa Sams) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:32:00 +0000

This week in our literacy rotations we did the same activity twice. We did this to find out which way we liked doing the activity. We used books to find and write lists of nous, verbs and adjectives. We did the same activity using the I-pods but we used e-books instead.

Blake liked using the I-pods because the I-pod would read him the story and he could listen and write down his list of nous, verbs and adjectives.

Noah enjoyed the activity on the I-pods better because he had a choice of the I-pod reading the book to him or he could read it himself.

Trista and Laruen both liked when reading a book on the I-pod you wouldn’t miss a page.

Matt thought the activity was better when reading a book. Matt likes being able to turn the page himself and he thinks books are better for his eyes.

Ryan enjoyed using the books more than the I-pod because on the I-pod you have to search for a book and that is a waste of time.

Emma found using the I-pods hard because her i-pod was unreliable and thought it would be easier to use a book.

Discovering new apps

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 02:08:00 +0000

This week in 3B we were asked to explore two new apps - Storykit and Strip Design. Our teacher asked us to find out how to use each app and to think about how we could use them in our History unit.

Here are some things we discovered about Storykit.

- You can go to paint, camera or photo library.

- You can take photo and put them into a story book.

You can also go to the photo library and put them into a story book.

- You can write lots of stories.

- You can make collages out of pictures you have taken.

- You can type in text or you can record your voice.

- You can paint the background and then put typed text over the top

- You

have to make up your own story and you can write on the pictures you have drawn.

- You can change the size of the pictures.

Pat took a story about Alex and put a photo of him on the cover. Axelle liked how you could use any photo and write about that photo. Matina liked how she could take a photo and then draw over it with the paint tools.

Here are some things we discovered about Strip Design.

- You can take pictures and add details to them.

- You can add stickers to photos

- You can pick borders and backgrounds.

- You can select different layouts for your design.

- You can add text and then move it around the screen and make it bigger and smaller.

- When you take a photo you can take it in different modes, like 4 screen or fisheye.

Some of the class found this app to be a little bit hard to work out and had trouble taking pictures to add to the app.

Over the next few weeks, we will be using these apps to tell stories about the history of Mt Gravatt.

Grammar Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:33:00 +0000

This week in 3W we have investigated the app called Grammar Dragon. We had to decide what type of word the highlighted word was. For example "I went to the beach on the weekend." We had to decide what part of speech "beach" is. We would then find 'noun' listed down the side of the screen and drag the word into the fire. If it was correct we would get 10c dropped into a treasure bag. If our answer was wrong the fire would get brighter and everything else on the screen got darker.

Austin thought it was fun because we have been learning about the parts of speech.

Ryan said it got a bit boring after Level 2 even if the game was timed.

Rebecca found it was fun because you could choose your character to 'play', but the characters were limited. You only had a choice of 2 characters.

Lachlan thought it was good that after getting 5 answers correct in a row a gem would be dropped in the treasure bag.

Kayla liked the fact you could choose harder levels to challenge our learning.

How to Make GREAT Comments

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Mead) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:27:00 +0000

Year 3, I notice you've been commenting on our blog posts for a while now. Some of your comments are becoming very interesting. It's great to see you putting more thought into comments. It might be time for some good tips on how to make good comments into GREAT ones.

1. "Opening Statement"

Your comment should refer to the post. Pick one thing to make a sentence about. Maybe something you agree or disagree with, something you like, or something you don't like.

2. "Explanation"

Explain why you said this. Give a reason. Say what makes this something you like or dislike. Explain why do you agree or disagree with this.

3. "Concluding Statement"

Ask a question or make a suggestion. Say, "I wonder...".

Try to make your comments positive. Even when you disagree with something you can do it in a positive way. Give some encouragement whenever you can.

Here's an example:
I really liked hearing about the new app you are using this week.
Reading a story on the iPods sounds like fun. It would be helpful to hear the story read aloud to you as you follow the words. A picture book can't do that but I still love picture books best I think.

I wonder if the pictures moved when you touched them. Maybe you could make a list of the stories that you like to read on the iPods.

Could you pick the three different parts?

I can't wait to see some longer comments soon - with three parts - in which you do three things:

1. Open

2. Explain

3. Conclude

Once you can write GREAT comments like this, you are already on the way to being great "essay" writers!

We Made a Martian Again

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa Sams) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:44:00 +0000

Last week in our literacy rotations 3S/Orange used the Make A Martian app in a different way. We worked in pairs and we had to listen to our partner who gave us instructions about how to make a martian. Some people found it easy and some people found it hard.

Alicia found it hard because it was tricky to understand the instructions her partner was giving her. Brooke agrees with Alicia and found it very tricky to follow her partner’s instructions.

Luca found it hard because it was noisy in the classroom and he couldn’t hear the instructions.

Lauren thought it was easy because her partner gave her great instructions to follow. Liam agrees with Lauren and found it easy because his partner’s instructions were very clear.

Matt enjoyed using Make A Martian this way because he could boss people around.

Elephant Bubloo (3W)

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:24:00 +0000

This week we had to read the story "Elephant Bubloo" which is in Books 2 on our ipods.

First of all we had to read the story. The parent helpers assisted us if we didn't know a word or the meaning of a word. The story included pictures and text and we turned the page by swiping our finger across the screen right to left.

After we finished reading the story we had to complete the worksheet seen here. We had to find as many adjectives, nouns and verbs in the text and complete the worksheet.

Kayla found it took a long time to find all the adjectives, nouns and verbs.

Austin thought it was fun because it helped him learn more about adjectives, nouns and verbs.

Oscar thought it was helpful because it will help him with his writing and he enjoyed reading the book.

Brendan discovered that on some pages of the story all the text didn't fit so he had to scroll up to read the rest of the text.

Jamee thought it was fun to find all the adjectives, because there were not many of them - she thought it was a bit of a challenge.

We discovered that reading some of the 'books' on the iPod touches could be lots of fun as well as learning more about the structure of a good text.

3F Reflections

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:21:00 +0000

Last term 3F worked on creating their own math's video ( you can see these in our previous post).

This week we have been reflecting on these videos and thinking about what we would do the same and what we would change.

Things we would keep the same.

Pat's group would use the camera app again.

Joshua's group would have the same people doing the same parts to help prepare the video.

Axelle's group would keep the same topic.

Rory thought that his group would still use Sonic pics.

Jack felt that his group would keep the same topic.

Things that we would change

Hannah thought that in her group, they would put more expression into their voices because they thought the voices sounded a bit boring. Axelle's group and Patrick's group feel the same about the voices in their videos.

Maia feels that her group would speak in lower voices because they didn't like how high their voice sounded.

Jacob's group and Joshua's group would take better pictures so that things they didn't need were not in the picture, such as feet and other objects. Jacob's group also discovered that it was better to take picture from the top looking down, than from the side.

Celeste's group would like to not be laughing so much when the voices are being recorded and to have better concentration.

Rory's group and Andrew's group would change the volume of their voices.

Zacharie would keep the images on the screen for longer while the group spoke about them.

Jack's group feel that they would hold the iPod closer to their mouths so that the sound was clearer.

We learnt that it is important to work together with our group members and that we have to co-operate to get the project done.

3F have learnt a lot about making videos using the iPod Touches and they are going to use what they have learnt to create Old Testament Bible stories this term.

Fun with Adjectives and Nouns

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:12:00 +0000

Glow Paint and Glow Free were two apps we used this week in 3W. We used these apps to learn more about adjectives. Mrs Walker gave us some nouns (names of people, places, animals and things) and we had to think of interesting adjectives to describe the nouns. Here are some examples of what we came up with.

Jamee liked "Glow Free" because after she started writing her word, it started to light up.

Oscar enjoyed using the "Glow Paint" and "Glow Free' because you could draw whatever you wanted. Also, you had the choice of lots of colours to make the words and pictures more interesting.

Andre particularly liked "Glow Free" because you had the choice of different modes of presentation. For example, he could mirror a word or drawing, and use different icons to add to drawings or words.

Kayla didn't like the fact you had to write your words very small and sometimes they didn't fit on the screen.

Connor found "Glow Free" frustrating because it was difficult to change between the different modes.

Austin found it a little difficult to take a screen shot because the top button was quite hard to push down.

Thank-you to 3S for letting us know about "Grammar Jammer" and "Grammar Dragon. We're hoping to use them next week.

Making A Martian

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa Sams) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:43:00 +0000

This week we used an app called Make a Martian. In this app we made our martian’s by clicking the touch screen buttons and changing the body parts of the martian.

Emma used small tiny legs on her Martian. Miggy chose to use spider legs for his Martian and Liam used chicken legs. Lauren had a crazy martian with only one eye ball. Nina added purple butterfly wings to her martian. Bri used bat wings rather than butterfly wings.

Most of 3S agree that Make a Martian is a great app because it is fun to play. However Blake thought the app was too easy and Luca didn’t like how you couldn’t change the background. Miggy and Nina both agree that using this app can help you be creative.

One important thing which some of us learnt was how to take a screen shot using the I-pod touches. Lots of people thought it was easy to take a screen shot. Some people found working the two buttons at the same time tricky.

I-pods this week

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa Sams) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:40:00 +0000

This week on the I-pods 3S had to find a game to help them learn about nouns, adjectives and verbs. We found two games to help us learn about grammar. The apps we found are Grammar Dragon and Grammar Jammers.

Grammar Dragon
In Grammar Dragon there is a sentence with a highlighted word in it. The player has to pick what type of word the highlighted word is.
•Josh and Trista both said it helped them learn the difference between nouns, adjectives and verbs.
•Peta liked the game because it told her what a noun, adjective and verb is.
•Luca didn’t like the game because he thought some of the sentences were to hard.
•Matt didn’t like how the game only gave him limited chances to get the word right.

Grammar Jammer
When you open up Grammar Jammer you can pick which type of word you want to learn about. If you pick noun it plays a funky song telling you what nouns are. After the song there are question to practice. In these questions you have to pick the word, which is the noun.
• Brooke enjoyed playing Grammar Jammer because it explains the different types of words and she liked the songs.
• Bri’s favourite part was the song because she liked listening to the music about the different types of words.
• Miranda and Liam both thought the game was to easy and that there should be easy and hard levels for people to play.

3F's Math's videos

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 00:04:00 +0000

This term, 3F have been working on creating video demonstrations using the iPod Touches. The aim of the videos was to help children to better understand an aspect of Maths. The children were encouraged to be creative and to keep their videos interesting. Next term we will revisit these videos to reflect on what the children like and what they might change next time they use the iPod Touches to create a video.

Here are our videos. ( also see our other video in the 3F video post below). We hope you enjoy them and appreciate the hard work the children have put into this project.

Months of the Year by year 3F

noreply@blogger.com (Maria Mead) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:57:00 +0000

Creative Use of Apps in 3W

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:24:00 +0000

Wow!!! We have had an amazing time using some creative apps in our Literacy groups.

We began with Make a Martian and Comic Touch. All of us were surprised by how many different martians we could choose to create. This encouraged our creativity and allowed us to make some fun choices. We enjoyed the fact that our martian didn't have to look like anything that really exists. After we finished creating our martians we then used the Comic Touch app to add speech to our martian. The results were very funny. We all enjoyed using both these apps in our literacy rotations.

We were lucky enough to begin a unit on Poetry this term. We looked at Acrostic Poems, Limericks, Shape Poems, Cinquains and we have just started learning about Diamantes. We're now ready to take on the challenge of the Poetry Festival in Term 3.

We used two different apps to create poetry. First of all we used Puppet Pals to create a funny limerick. The fun part of using this app is that we were able to voice record our limerick onto the app and play it back. This was great because we could use the expression in our voice to enhance the limerick. We found we had to speak quite loudly into the iPod touch to make a clear recording. We are lucky enough to have discovered that we can hook our iPod touch to our speakers, so everyone can listen to our wonderful limericks.

TypeDrawing was the most recent app we have used. This was a perfect choice for the creation of our shape poems. In class, we created a variety of different shape poems, so we were pretty confident putting one together using TypeDrawing. First of all we had to decide on a topic for our shape poem. Once we had perfected it we were ready to use TypeDrawing. This app was really popular with all of us. We could type in the text, using a font of our choice and a font colour of our choice. Magically, our finger did the rest! All we had to do is draw the shape of what we had chosen as our topic and it magically appeared on the iPod screen in front of us. The words we had typed in for our poem created the outline of our drawing. This was lots of fun!!!

Amazing Work

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:34:00 +0000

This week year 3F have been busy making Math's videos to teach the other grades about different Math's concepts. Some of topics we are making our videos about are mapping, shapes, counting, groups of, months, adding and takeaway and times tables.

We have learnt that to make the videos exciting you have to make it look good and put some funny or interesting things in the videos. To make a good video you have to persuade the person watching it to keep watching it. It is also important to make sure our message is clear and easy to understand, otherwise we will just confuse people.

We discovered that sometimes we had to make more than one video to get it to look right. We have learnt that it is often a good idea to take photos from a bird's eye view, which means taking the photo when you are looking down on what you are taking the photo of. To make a video, we have learnt that it is important to make sure the image is in focus and clear, and to try not to move the iPod too much otherwise the video looks all shaky. You have to also make sure you are using the ipod at the right angle to take photos or video.

One of the reasons we are making our own math's videos is to give the children in other classes a way to learn about Maths other than just looking at the apps.

We have used a number of different creative apps to make our videos, including glow draw lite, sonic pics, camera, video and comic touch.

When we are finished, we will share our work with the other classes.

Moving into Literacy and Creating

noreply@blogger.com (cawalker) — Fri, 20 May 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Year 3W are looking forward to using the Literacy and Creating apps this term. We've had fun investigating what exciting apps we can use this term. We are looking forward to 'creating a martian'. We are looking forward to creating texts using StoryKit and Comic Touch. We've also discovered Puppet Pals, I Can Animate and Cut the Rope. We think Chicktionary looks like lots of fun and we can learn lots of words at the same time. 'Blanks looks as though it would be rather challenging.

We look forward to sharing our creations with you and improving our literacy skills at the same time. We will keep you posted!!!

Using Ipods in Literacy Rotations

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa Sams) — Fri, 20 May 2011 01:27:00 +0000

This term 3S is going to be using the Ipods differently to last term. We will be using the Ipods in our literacy rotations rather than in science, religion and history.

This week in our literacy rotations we worked in groups of 6 and explored some of the different literacy apps on the Ipods. Here is what we think about some of the apps we explored:

Shapes
Shapes is an app where you have to guess the shape of an animal and put it together like a puzzle.
• Bri said that it was fun putting the puzzle together
• Miggy like the app because he could learn about the shape of animals
• Ryan didn’t like this app because he thought it was to easy and it was not challenging
Members of 3S thinks this app can help them learn new shapes and sizes of shapes.

Chicktionary
Chicktionary is an app where you are given letters and you have to make as many words with the letters as you can in the time limit.
• Peta said it was a fun app because you can spell out the words
• Sean liked the noises which the app made
• Bri thought that some of the words were to easy in the app
• Ryan on the other hand thought that some of the words were tricky
Chicktionary can help us to learn by showing the user different words and how to spell them.

Magnificent Maths

noreply@blogger.com (Michelle Ferguson) — Fri, 20 May 2011 00:54:00 +0000

This term, 3F will be looking at different apps related to Mathematics. As well as playing some of the wonderful math’s apps that are on the iPod Touch, we will be making our own presentations to help other children in years 1, 2, 3 and maybe Prep, to learn about Maths.

To start this project, we wrote ideas for what math’s concepts we might like to use for our presentation. We will be working in small groups and we will need to work out what we want to teach and what apps we might use to make our presentation.

This week we looked at some of the Math’s apps and here are some that we liked.

Pat and lots of other year 3s liked Pop Maths because it helped him with their math’s skills and it was fun popping the balloons.

Maia, Rory and Jacob enjoyed Cut the Rope because you really have to think about what you do before you do it. It is good for problem solving.

Hannah, Meg, Emerson, Daniel and others really liked Dot to Dot because she had to use her counting skills to discover what the picture was going to be.

Kid’s Maths was an app that Celeste enjoyed because she thinks it will help her to learn her time tables and her math’s facts.

Alex explored the app StoryKit, which is a storytelling app that he might use for his presentation.