Tag: BumbleVille

Apps, Creative Thinking, Education, K-5, Student Products, Teaching Tools, Videos, Writing

Outside My Snow Globe…

Terri Eichholz

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!

Photo Jan 05, 1 57 35 PM

Photo Jan 05, 1 58 06 PM

 

Apps, Art, Augmented Reality, Books, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Depth and Complexity, Education, K-5, Language Arts, Student Products, Teaching Tools, Videos

If I Lived in a Snow Globe, I Would Wear my Bike Helmet to Bed

Terri Eichholz
Screen shot from BumbleVille
Screen shot from BumbleVille

UPDATE 1/18/15 – I just added a post that gives more details about using augmented reality with this lesson.  Go to “Outside My Snow Globe” to learn more!

Earlier this year, I posted about a short video called, “BumbleVille.”  This cute animation would be fun to show your students at this time of year.  You might want to show them part of the film, then stop and ask them what they think is going on.  Chances are they will respond like mine did: “earthquake”, “aliens”, “volcanic eruption”.  You will enjoy their reactions when they find out the true cause – that the characters are inhabitants of a snow globe which just got shaken.

In my first BumbleVille post, I gave some suggestions for incorporating Kaplan’s “Multiple Perspectives” into a lesson using the film.  Since then, I’ve also thought that it might be interesting to think about the “Rules” that might be important for living in such an unpredictable environment:

  • What special rules would they have for buildings in this community?
  • What do they tell the students to do at school when such an event occurs (similar to earthquake or tornado preparedness)?
  • Are there certain objects that should not be allowed in this community?
  • Are there certain actions that should be against the law?

When I first posted BumbleVille, I happened to be reading Not Just Child’s Play, and came across a recommendation in the comments to read The Snow Globe Family, by Jane O’Connor.  This book ties in very well with the BumbleVille video – giving perspectives from both inside and out of the snow globe.  I found this free Snow Globe Family packet on Teachers Pay Teachers by Anita Bremer that asks the students to make a text-to-self connection, which is great.

There are tons of “Snow Globe” resources on the internet – including Pinterest ideas – for crafting your own.  You can create real ones or facsimiles.

If you are interested in a digital version of a snow globe, there is a free app, called “iSnowdome” (available on iTunes only) that allows you to place a photo of your own inside a snow globe, then e-mail the video of it.  (From what I can tell, this is the only app that will e-mail a video instead of just a screen shot.) This could be a cute combo writing/augmented reality project – have students write about what it is like to live in a snow globe, use iSnowdome* to make videos of themselves in the snow globe, and upload the videos to Aurasma Studio with the screen shots as trigger images.  Voila – an interactive, winter-themed bulletin board for your classroom!

*(The iSnowdome video includes an instrumental of a Christmas song in the audio, which some families may not prefer.  You could easily mute that in a video editing program, though.)

Creative Thinking, Depth and Complexity, Education, K-12, Philosophy, Teaching Tools, Videos

BumbleVille

Terri Eichholz

Welcome back, everyone!  In my first post for 2013, I present to you a short animation that has a surprising ending.  This would be a great video to present to your students when talking about Multiple Perspectives, one of Sandra Kaplan’s areas of Depth and Complexity.  It could also be a fun story starter or creative writing exercise.  You might ask the students to think about some of these questions:

What if our world is a BumbleVille?  How would we know if it is or isn’t?

Would you want to live in BumbleVille?

How is BumbleVille different than your own community?

How would someone go about leaving BumbleVille?

What would you do if you discovered a BumbleVille?

If you are unable to view the embedded video below, you can find “BumbleVille”, produced by The STUDIO, at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCFJGp7OQjM

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!  Also, here is a writing/augmented reality lesson that we did after watching the video.

BumbleVille from The STUDIO on Vimeo.