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December 18, 2013 Featured

This Year, Try Some Virtual Gifts!

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Lori H Rice

Lori Rice is a fourth-grade teacher at West Elementary in Wamego, Kansas, who has taught K-2 reading as well as kindergarten, first grade and fourth grade since 1996. She has a passion for creativity, learning, questioning and the whole child. Her classroom is a place of acceptance and celebrating differences.
  • Bringing Project Based Learning to our Classroom - August 12, 2018
  • Keep the Engagement Alive: Start the Year with Purpose - August 5, 2018
  • It's Our Fault: A Teacher's Confession - March 18, 2018
  • Keeping Your Teaching Real: A Teacher's Role - March 11, 2018
  • Sketch Notes in the Elementary Classroom - February 15, 2017
  • Teach From the Heart - February 9, 2017
  • Who is the Teacher: School or Family? - January 11, 2017
  • Dear President Elect Trump, From Your Teachers - November 17, 2016
  • Let them Be Children - October 21, 2016
  • Print Resources: Great Tools for Kids - October 17, 2016

virtualxmasI love putting up the Christmas tree each year with my family.  We pull out ornaments the kids have created in years past.  Gifts they made in preschool and beyond with fingerprints, handprints, or footprints reflecting a moment in time.  They are a small sample of their physical self; growing each year.

With the age of technology we have the resources to provide samples of students’ creative expression as well.  This year our technology center offered a class for students on virtual gifts.  Students ages K-8th grade worked created posters, collages, comic strips and books for family members.  These items will be emailed and can join the reflection of growth.  You can use these apps with the activities below to create your own special gifts for families.  They are small moments in time for unique and special gifts.

Scribble Press iOS $3.99: Create and illustrate books or use the pre-written templates

–      Write your favorite memory or create a story.

–      Illustrate the memory or story.

–      Complete the title page including yourself as author and illustrator

–      Complete the back cover including a picture and a message to your family from 2013

Friendstrip Kids Pro  iOS Free: edit pre-written comic strip templates and add yourself in the comic

–      Have someone take a picture of you with a solid color background.

–      Edit the text.

–      Read your comic.

–      Include your name and year in the comic if possible

Bubbsie iOS Free: add speech bubbles to photos

–      Take a picture of yourself

–      Add a holiday message

PicCollage iOS and Android app Free: create photo collages

–      Take pictures of yourself, your art work, or bring in photos from home

–      Create a collage

–      Add a holiday message, your name, and date

PBS Kids Photo Factory iOS and Android Free: Photo editing

–      Take a picture of yourself

–      Add your favorite PBS characters in the picture

PicPlayPost iOS 1.99: create photo collages with video clips

PicVidPost Andriod .99: create photo collages with video clips

–      Have someone record you reading a poem or book or saying a  short Holiday Message

–      Add pictures

–      Include a Holiday message, your name and 2013

The end of the semester is a busy time of year and offers challenges for keeping students on task.  Keep them interested in learning by allowing them to create gifts and share what they know.  The apps in this article, along with many others, allow for student self-expression and the activities listed cover ELA standards in fluency, range of writing, and production and distribution of writing.  What have you done this year that your students can turn into a gift?

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Related posts:

Default ThumbnailTake Your Apps Outside Default ThumbnailClassroom Technology: When you Can't Beat Them, Join Them 36 Weeks of Technology: GoNoodle 10 Years Later: 10 Takeaways on the iPhone and Education
« 20 Simple and Free Gifts for Any Teacher
Developing An Appreciation For Differences »

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