Fourth graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about Jamestown (VS.3) and many of them have been on field trips there, so today students in Ms. Rivara’s class created Jamestown videos. They used WeVideo to create their movies. Since this was the second time they’ve used it (their first time is here), their skills improved. We worked with partners again, since WeVideo works better when less computers are online. First we clicked the red record button and filmed our intro. Then the students searched for photos of Jamestown to use in their movie. They uploaded the photos and arranged them in order on the timeline. Next, they pressed the microphone button and recorded a voiceover explaining the photos. Finally the students selected a theme with music. We had to turn down the volume of the music on the timeline and turn up the volume of the voiceover in order to hear it. The students published their videos and posted the links to Google classroom. You can watch some of their videos here.

Fourth graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about the Virginia Indians (VS.2d), so today I showed students in Ms. Tonello’s class how to make videos about a Virginia Indian group using WeVideo. First they picked a partner to work with because WeVideo puts a bit of strain on the wireless bandwidth. Next, we logged in with our Google accounts and switched to Storyboard mode (since it is easier for beginners). Each pair chose a Virginia Indian group (Powhatan, Monacan, Cherokee) and typed the name of their group on the title clip. Then they clicked the red record button and recorded their introduction video. I showed them how to drag their video down from the media frame into the storyboard frame. Next, we opened a new tab and searched for a map of Virginia to include in our video (most used this one since it was part of the Wikimedia commons). They used the Snipping Tool to take a screenshot of the map, and they used the pen tool to circle where their Indian group lived. Then students uploaded the map to their video project and recorded a quick voiceover using the microphone button. We switched to Timeline mode in order to drag the voiceover to match up with the map. Finally we clicked the Themes button and chose a theme with music. We discovered that we needed to turn down the volume of the music track or we couldn’t hear our voices. That’s all we had time for today, so we posted our links to Google classroom with the hopes of finishing them later. Check out a few student examples here.

Fourth graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about the regions of Virginia and their products (VS.10b) in Social Studies. Since Ms. Rivara let me know that she wants to do more video projects with her class this year, I taught them how to use WeVideo to create short movies about the regions of Virginia. First we got in self-selected groups, and each group discussed the region they wanted to do. One student from each group signed into WeVideo with their Google account. We switched from Timeline mode to Storyboard mode (using the 3 lines in the top left corner) to use a simpler layout at the beginning. We clicked on the Title slide and added the name of our region. Next I showed them how to use the red record button to record their introduction using the webcam. We added that to our video storyboard by clicking and dragging it. Then we searched online for pictures of our region and added those our video storyboard as well. I explained how to use the microphone button to record a voiceover, and we switched over to Timeline mode (using the 3 lines) so that we could adjust the duration of the photos to match our voiceover. Finally we clicked the Themes button and chose a theme with the effects and music we liked. When the students finished editing their videos, we clicked the Finish button, chose the 480 size to load it faster, and published it. Now we could copy our links and paste them to Google classroom so we could watch each other’s videos. You can see them all here. UPDATE 10/13/2016 Ms. Adamonis’ 4th graders at Trevvett did a similar project which you can see here.