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Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Our Awesome Buildings - a first grade project

We're starting to use Google and introducing our students to gmail and drive. We've also got access to iPads - which the students LOVE!

So, in planning a math unit on place value, persuasive writing, and maps, we began creating our awesome buildings.

Students use base 10 blocks to create a building. They snapped a picture with their iPad, and then took the building apart and totaled the number of blocks they used. They wrote this number in their math journals.

Next, students learned how to upload their building photos onto their drive. They learned to create an album and store the pictures.

I created a presentation (slide show) and shared it with all the students. Then, using e-slates, the students opened the slide show and edited their own slide (which was the same number as their iPad). Four students at one time edited the presentation, adding a title and inserting their picture - they could just select "Your Albums" from the dialogue box and get right to their building photos.

Finally, the plan was for them to use the iPads and type in their persuasive writing about their building. They'd written the words on a page that had a color print of their building pasted on top. They had to tell what the building was and what made it an "awesome" building. They added the "cost" of the building - which was the number of blocks.

We discovered that we could not edit the presentation using the iPads. It is possible to edit documents. So I created a basic template that included some sentence starters, shared each student document with the student, and then they typed in their writing about their building. We could have taken their hand-written work and put it into the slides, but it was interesting to see the student's ability to use auto correction and punctuation when they typed it on their own. The kids were really happy and excited to be doing their own work.

Finally, I copied and pasted the writing into the student's slide. The buildings are becoming part of a community that we are mapping on a grid. They've picked the name of our city - iPad City!

Our Awesome Buildings

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