Archives: English
Tinkerplay

I’ve been playing around with the app, Tinkerplay. I started with my MakerMonday group of students and successfully printed one to the delight of the child who made it!
Then students in our FACES Special Education class designed characters during their Makerspace time.
Finally, I brought in a class of 22 third graders who are reading The Indian and Cupboard. They designed action figures to place in the cupboard.
From those three trials, here’s what I’ve learned.
- The smaller the scale, the easier it is for the action figures to break. I found 75% was perfect.
- Students can easily be given parameters to keep their figures from getting out of hand. In the beginning, I had one action figure with 75 pieces! I limited students on the amount of filament (grams) and the estimated print time. They had no problem with this.
- Saving is a bit complicated. I attached Tinkerplay to our school dropbox account and saved to there. I found that it automatically named the file with a number based on the time of day it was saved. That meant, theoretically, if I didn’t clear out the folder before a group began saving the next day, things could get messy. I also found that it was important to stagger saving so that people didn’t save on top of each other. One save per minute. I showed the students how to find the file name after it had saved so they could write it down. It made it much easier to know whose was whose later.
- Taking a picture of the finished creation helped students put them together when printing was finished.
Conversations with Characters

Mrs. Barger’s class has been reading Howliday Inn and Blood on the Water. They designed a 3D model of a character from one of the books, then used the app Chatterpix to animate their characters. Take a listen below!
Chester from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Harold from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Harold from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Harrison from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Readbox by Mrs. Myer’s Class

Mrs. Myer’s reading class created a “Readbox.” If you scan the QR code on the books they posted, you’ll see a student created video trailer. To create these videos, students first made characters and settings out of craft and art supplies. Then these used these with the iMovie app on the iPads to create their trailers.
Check out their videos below or in the hall outside their classroom!
More Real Student iBook Authors!

More books by Fourth Graders have been published in the iBooks store! These were written by Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Downey’s classes. Check them out!
Buttercup Goes to School by IceLordvader 693
The Turtle’s Ice Cream by Katelyn
Panda Playing Softball by Faith
Fluffy the Fearless Dog by Watermelon
The Coolest Friend Ever by Aaron
Authors at Oak Grove
Over the past few weeks, students in 4th grade have been writing iBooks using the app Book Creator. This app has so many features, including the ability to open finished books in the iBooks app. However, this time we took it one step farther. Students (with parent permission, of course) had the option to try and publish their finished creations to the actual iBook store. The story, Wolves Win the Game, was the first to be accepted. Check it out! Wolves Win the Game
Lego iMovie Trailers

Students in Mrs. Sharp’s and Mrs. Downey’s Math and Writing classes used Legos to practice skills! First, they created lego houses based on a STEM activity created by Mrs. Downey. They found the area and perimeter of each of the rooms in their houses, and made sure to include at least one simple machine and working light.
Lego Houses:
Then, in writing class, they created Lego video trailers using the iMovie app. I created templates for them to use here:
But there are many iMovie Trailer templates out there! Here’s a few more I’m considering using next time:
iMovie for iPad – Storyboard Help Sheets
iMovie for iPad Printable Storyboard Templates
Here’s what the students created. They only had one class period to write and film their trailers!
Lego Trailers:
The Journey from elemitrt on Vimeo.
The Cabin from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Super Family from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Summer’s Here from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Creepy Connie from elemitrt on Vimeo.
Famous American Glogs

Mrs. Bralley’s Third Grade Reading Classes have been learning about Famous People. They’ve read stories, explored interactive iPad apps, researched, made story cubes, and even created their own Glogs on Glogster EDU.
They are very proud of their work. Check out a few of Glogster posters below or check them all out in the class Glog Book.
Bringing Abe and George to Life with ChatterPix
Mrs. Parks’ Class animated their pictures of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington using the app ChatterPix Kids. Check it out!