Literacy Project

I teach first grade at Asian Studies Academy in Hartford, CT.  My students created animoto videos about East Asian countries.  They worked so hard researching, writing, choosing pictures, and creating their videos.  They were so excited to see their finished product!  We plan on showing the whole school by prodcasting it on the T.V. in front of the main office.


We will definitely create more videos!  It was a great experience!

Chinese New Year

I created an Animoto video for the Chinese New Year.

Animoto

I created an Animoto video with my students.  We created a video about shapes.  We were learning about shapes and reading some great shape books.  My students created signs and pictures and used their bodies to create the shapes.  This was a great project for my students.  They were able to chose aspects of the video process they were most comfortable with.  Some students were camera shy and chose to write the names of a shape and draw the shape.  While other students enjoyed working together to create shapes.  We will use this video to review shapes and will share with our first grade peers.  This video would be great to introduce shapes and have students participate and make shapes with their bodies.  I think it would be a great assessment piece:  students can match the names and shapes and create them with their bodies.




Here are some of the books I used to teach my lessons about shapes:

Kidblog

I did it!  I started a Kidblog!  Now don't get too excited!  Baby steps…  I created the blog and added my students and wrote an introductory post.  Now the fun begins!  I can't wait to work with my students with creating their blogs!  They were so excited about our Animoto video I know they will be excited to share their learning with their families and other students.  If you have any ideas on what I can do with my class and their Kidblog, please leave a comment!



I am reposting this helpful YouTube video about how to use Kidblog in your classroom.  It explains how easy it is to start Kidblog.

Jack

I did it!  It's my first attempt at making a video!  I was so scared!  But it was so easy!  Please let me know what you think…
Jack

P.S.  I could only link it and embed it!  (It said I'm not a "Pro!":  don't they know it was my first video!  Just joking!)

Inspiration

I found an animoto from the referred animoto list.  This video is inspiring me to use animoto in my classroom to present new vocabulary words.  Meghan, a second grade teacher from Waterbury, created an animoto video about plants for her science unit.  She used real pictures with plant vocabulary.  Her background matched the content of her video.  It was beautifully done.  Please take a look if you have a chance!




Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Animoto

Animoto is so cool!  It is the video version of Power Point!  I am so excited to use this in my class.  It will be a great resource to create for my lessons!  My first grade team will be so excited!  We can create and share animoto videos for our lessons.

Animoto will great for every aspect of the classroom.  However, I think it will be an excellent way to make my classroom even richer in vocabulary!