Character Descriptions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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.