One of the more popular posts on this blog (particularly during the winter months) is, “If I Lived in a Snow Globe, I Would Wear my Bike Helmet to Bed.” This is a follow-up post for anyone who might want more details about the lesson I teach my gifted 1st graders. For this project, it’s helpful to have at least one iPad and a video editing program.
First, I show my first graders the “Bumbleville” video referenced in the Bike Helmet post, and we discuss the perspective questions I listed. We also read Snow Globe Family and compared the book to “Bumbleville.”
Next, the students brainstorm a list of interesting locations. They can range anywhere from the jungle to Mount Rushmore.
I ask the students to choose one location and pretend they are in a snow globe at that location. They write a rough draft of a short story describing what they see outside the snow globe.
As students finish at different times, they take each other’s picture using the iSnowdome app, which is free. The app places you inside a snow globe, and makes a short video with the snow blowing around you. My students sometimes like to ham it up and pose as though they are freezing cold – even though we live in San Antonio and it’s usually about 85 degrees outside.
I also take screen shots in the app of each student so I can print those out and add them to their final drafts. The screen shots can be used for augmented reality purposes, as well.
When the students complete their final drafts, they meet with me separately and we record their stories over the iSnowdome videos in iMovie on the iPads. (Wow, that was a lot of “i”s in one sentence!)
In iMovie the students get to choose which music will accompany their video, and that’s always interesting!
I display the stories with their pictures. At this point, you can either send the videos home, link them on your blog, or do what I did – use Aurasma.
I link each child’s picture to his narrated video. Now, when they take their projects home, all the parents have to do is scan the picture with the free Aurasma app and the video will play.
If you haven’t used Aurasma, here is a link to their tutorial videos. Also, I have a quite a few augmented reality resources gathered on this page.
Want to see an example? Make sure you have Aurasma downloaded on your mobile device. Subscribe to the Hidden Forest Elementary channel. Then scan one of the pictures below to see the videos!
UPDATE 12/6/17: For an incredible STEAM project that you can use with this lesson, check out the immensely creative Tricia Fuglestad’s post here!
