Tag: garageband

Oct 09 2013 October 9, 2013 December 7, 2013 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Rounding Raps

Posted in 3rd Grade, Math

roundingrapThird graders in Ms. Collins’ class at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about rounding, and today she wanted me to teach them how to use Garage Band to create rounding rap videos. Even though Garage Band doesn’t have video producing functions, it gives students a way to create music quickly. So we used Garage Band to make the beats and then used Photo Booth to make the video. First the students divided themselves up into groups. I showed them how to open the loops browser in Garage Band and find a good beat that matched the rhythm of their raps. Then they practiced rapping to the beat, and some of the groups even choreographed some dance moves. Next we opened up Photo Booth, they selected a visual effect they liked, and they recorded their music videos. I posted a couple of them to Vimeo, take a look: Girls’ Rounding Rap, Boys’ Rounding Rap.


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Oct 31 2012 October 31, 2012 January 9, 2013 NoComment by David

2nd Grade Erosion Plans

Posted in 2nd Grade, Science

Picture 4Second graders at Laburnum Elementary have been studying weathering and erosion (SOL2.7). They have also been learning about ways to prevent erosion (SOL2.8). So today I showed them a real life example of where erosion is causing serious problems right here in Virginia. We opened Google Earth and I guided them to find Tangier Island. We zoomed in and I told them to look for evidences of erosion. They were able to spot them quickly. I had traveled with the Virginia Trekkers to Tangier Island and met with the mayor there, so I was able to share with the students some of the concerns he has about controlling the erosion. I asked them to come up with a plan to prevent erosion on Tangier Island based on what they had learned. They were going to present their plan using Garage Band. First we took a screenshot of the erosion on Tangier Island from Google Earth. I showed them how to drag the picture into Garage Band. Next the students recorded their voices explaining their plan. Finally we added some music and sound effects (such as waves and other water sounds). We exported their podcasts as QuickTime videos. You can see two student examples here and here.


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Oct 03 2012 October 3, 2012 November 13, 2012 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Biomes Podcasts

Posted in 3rd Grade, Science

Third grade students at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about different biomes, and their teacher, Ms. Emanuelson, wanted to learn about Garage Band. So today they used Garage Band to make biome podcasts. Each program on the Macs has its specialty: for Pixie its drawing, for Keynote its animation, and for Garage Band its sound effects. So even though students wanted to include pictures of their biomes and record voiceovers, which are possible in both Pixie and Keynote, they wanted the additional ability to add a musical soundtrack and ambience noises from their habitat (like waterfall-, monkey-, and bird-sounds for the rainforest). Garage Band makes it easy to do this. First the students recorded their voiceover. Next, I showed them how to search the Internet for pictures, drag them into the Garage Band podcast, and make them sync with the voiceover. Finally we added a soundtrack from Garage Band’s music library and selected sound effects. The final projects turned out great. You can see two student samples here: The Rainforest by Daliah and The Desert by Jose.


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Feb 09 2012 February 9, 2012 September 5, 2012 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Famous African Americans

Posted in 4th Grade, Social Studies

Third graders at Chamberlayne Elementary have been researching famous African Americans for African American History Month. Today I helped them create movies (podcasts) about their people in Garage Band. The students were able to choose the famous person they wanted to research and they worked with a partner to plan a script. I gave them a folder of images that you can download by clicking here. Students also had the option of finding pictures online. Our first step was to drag the pictures into the Garage Band project. Next, the students recorded their voiceovers and adjusted the length of their pictures to match the audio narration. Our last step was to add some background music. I exported them as QuickTime videos so that they could be posted to a blog or website. Take a look at some student samples: Muhammad Ali and Michelle Obama.


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Dec 13 2011 December 13, 2011 September 4, 2012 NoComment by David

5th Grade Regions Raps

Posted in 5th Grade, Social Studies

Today fifth graders at Chamberlayne Elementary created “Region Raps” to share information about the regions of the United States in a creative way. First the students researched their region using books and websites. They were instructed to find certain specific facts as well as anything interesting that they could include in their rap. The students worked in groups to develop lyrics keeping in mind our discussion of the importance of rhythm and rhyme in raps. Next, I showed them how to find a beat and make it loop in Garage Band. The students recorded their raps and were given the opportunity to add special vocal effects if they wanted. Finally, the completed raps were posted onto the classroom blog. This project was also submitted to our county’s blog of shared resources called “Henrico 21.” If you’d like to listen to a student sample about the southeast region, click here.


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Oct 19 2011 October 19, 2011 April 18, 2012 NoComment by David

5th Grade Layers of the Earth Rap

Posted in 5th Grade, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies

Today 5th grade students in Ms. Allison’s music class at Laburnum Elementary created raps about different topics they have been studying. They could work alone or with a group, and they could choose the topic they wanted to rap about. Some students make social studies raps, others made math raps, and here’s a sample science rap: The Layers of the Earth. Making raps is a fun, easy way to motivate your students to review. It also provides an opportunity for writing since students must write out their lyrics ahead of time (and try to make them rhyme like a poem). Students created their raps by using a simple beat in Garage Band and recording their voices with the beat. If you want to learn more about making raps with your students check out my tutorial page.


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Mar 02 2011 March 2, 2011 April 14, 2011 NoComment by David

Dr. Seuss Day & Running Records

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts

Wouldn’t it be great if your students could take their own running records? You can teach your students how to record themselves, listen for their mistakes, self-correct, and re-read for better fluency… all with GarageBand! Since today was Dr. Seuss Day, this first grade class recorded themselves reading excerpts from his books. To make it a bit more entertaining, they added a funny photo of themselves taken with the Photo Booth special effects (we did have to flip the pictures so the covers weren’t backwards, you do that by clicking Edit > Autoflip New Photos). Finally they added some music of their choice. Once they get good at this, it’s a great way for them to improve their fluency in a self-directed way. Think of how that will help your ESL students especially! Here are two examples from ESL students: Chahd and Jose.


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Mar 01 2011 March 1, 2011 April 14, 2011 NoComment by David

Famous Americans & Student Choices

Posted in 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, Social Studies

An important 21st century skill to include in your lessons is making choices. The famous Americans unit is a great opportunity to provide choices for your students. Not only could you let them choose which person they want to research, but they they could also choose how they want to present the information. As long as you’ve introduced the programs, let your students select the one they want to use… or they could even choose to use multiple programs. Students could do a Comic Life, a Garage Band podcast, a Keynote slideshow, or use some of the online web tools for their projects. Just to give you a couple of examples from recent lessons: in first grade, this student did a Keynote and video about Benjamin Franklin, and this student did an animated timeline about George Washington (you can download the template by clicking here); in second grade, this student made a podcast with music about Jackie Robinson, and this student should really just have his own talk show. Most of the pictures of the famous Americans can be downloaded on this post. Go ahead, give your students choices! What could be more American?


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Feb 01 2011 February 1, 2011 March 29, 2011 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Mali Song

Posted in 3rd Grade, Social Studies

Mali (SOL 3.2) is one of the third grade units that does not have as many resources as other units (although I do have some resources listed here), so it’s a great opportunity to plan some project-based learning lessons! I’ve already described one idea for making a Google slideshow, but here’s another one: make a song about Mali using GarageBand. The griots of Mali were famous for sharing their history through singing and oral storytelling, so why not have your students do the same thing? Your students can research a topic using the resources listed above, then they can write a song to convey the information. They can then record the song in GarageBand and add music to it. If you want, you can even add a video with a real or virtual singer. Your students could film themselves singing in PhotoBooth or create a virtual singer using Voiki or SitePal. They could use a screen capturing tool like ScreenToaster or Screencast-O-Matic to record their virtual singer. You can see a sample “Mali Song” with a virtual singer here and you can download a folder of pictures to use for your project here.


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Sep 15 2010 September 15, 2010 September 16, 2010 NoComment by David

1st Grade Citizenship Podcasts

Posted in 1st Grade, Social Studies

First graders are learning about good citizenship here at the start of the school year (SOL 1.10) One class created citizenship podcasts to tell what it means to be a good citizen. First we took their patriotic picture using FunFaceCam, but I limited their choices to just a few that I posted on a special site. Next they opened up a Garage Band template that you can download by clicking here. They recorded their voice describing what it means to be a good citizen. Then they were supposed to choose one of four patriotic songs to go along with their podcast. Finally we added their picture to it. You can see a few examples here: Gustavo, Thomas, Natalia, and Brandon. An alternative, if GarageBand isn’t working (it gave us a few problems to be honest), is to use an online voice recorder like Vocaroo.


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