First graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about famous Americans including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington Carver, and Benjamin Franklin (SOL1.2). Today students in Ms. Gerrard’s class used ABCYa! Storymaker to draw and write about a famous American of their choice. This easy-to-use webtool is a great way to give your younger students an opportunity to practice drawing and writing with a computer. First we logged into Google classroom where I posted the link. Once students opened the website, they used the paint bucket tool to fill the background with their favorite color. Then we looked at pictures of the famous Americans to be sure we painted them correctly. We used the paint brush tool to draw a circle for the face and filled it in with the paint bucket tool. I showed them how to use the roller brush to paint two white eyes. Then they added pupils, a mouth, and hair with the paint brush tool. We kept the drawings simple so they could start writing their sentences. To type, students click the “Aa” button on the right side. The paper is similar to the lined paper they use in class and the font is developmentally appropriate. I explained how to use shift to make capital letters and wrote a word bank on the board for them to use. The students typed two complete sentences about their famous American, then we clicked the download button. Ms. Gerrard and I helped them upload their files to Google classroom so everyone could see and read them. You can take a look at them here.

First graders at Davis Elementary have been reviewing needs and wants (SOL1.8), so today students in Ms. Gerrard’s class created needs and wants slideshows using a webtool called Qwikslides. Qwikslides has many great features: there’s no login, it’s fairly easy to use, and the finished slideshows work great on the iPads and laptops. First the students deleted the default text and typed their names. Then they went to the next line and typed “Needs.” They opened a new tab and used Google image search to find pictures of needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, etc). The students copied the links to the photos and pasted them into Qwikslides. Next they wrote “Wants,” and repeated the process to add pictures of wants. Finally, they customized the fonts and colors of the slideshow. We posted the links to our slideshows on Google classroom, but you can see them all here.

First graders at Davis Elementary have been studying past and present (SOL1.1), so today students in Ms. Long’s class created past/present comics using StoryboardThat. First we helped them log into Google classroom where I posted the link. Then I showed them how to search for a background from the past and a background from the present. Next we added a person from the past and a person from the present to the correct background. We discussed the differences in clothing, buildings, and technology. I showed the students how they could customize the colors of the characters. Finally we added speech bubbles (called textables) and wrote complete sentences with the characters telling whether they were from the past or the present. I helped them take screenshots of their finished comics, and we posted them to Google classroom. You can take a look at some students samples here.