Kindergarten students in Ms. Dunkum’s class at Davis Elementary have been learning how to measure and compare objects using nonstandard units (K.10) so today we practiced those skills using digital tools. I tried this lesson with another class previously where they found a picture of an object online and measured it using shapes in Keynote, however, it took too long to get the picture, and we didn’t have time to write the unit of measurement. So many students ended up saying “inches” or “feet” even though we weren’t using those units. You can see a couple of those student examples here: Belladona and JR. Since I wanted them to have time to include the correct unit of measurement in their presentation, I decided to give the students a quicker way to make a variable picture. I gave them some shapes and told them to build a snowman out of them. You can download the template by clicking here. Next the students selected a shape from the Shapes tool and measured their snowmen with the shapes. Last, they added a text box with the nonstandard unit of measurement such as “5 stars” or “4 triangles.” I showed them how to add animated builds to the shapes and text box, and then they recorded a voiceover narration. Here are some student examples: Mackenzie, Ryan, and Wyatt.

Kindergarten students at Holladay Elementary created their own Keynote animations today to showcase how they have learned to count up to 10. They started with a blank Keynote (so there’s no template to download) which means they made these animations from scratch–a pretty remarkable feat for kindergarteners! First they typed the word “Thanksgiving” for the title, then they added their names. They also chose a theme for their Keynote by clicking the Themes button. I showed them how to do a Google Image search for a “pilgrim.” They clicked on the pilgrim picture they liked and dragged it onto their Keynote (the teacher and I had to help a lot with this part, but a few students were able to do it on their own). Then I showed them how to click the Shapes tool, choose a circle, and change the color to orange so it looked like a pumpkin. They typed the number 1 in the pumpkin. I told them they could choose how many pumpkins they wanted to make, from 1-10. They created the rest of their pumpkins and typed in the numbers. Next we opened the Inspector and added animations to each pumpkin using the Build-In tool. We also added an ending using the Transitions tool. Finally I taught them how to record their voices, and I pointed out that they needed to sound like they were on a TV show, talking about counting. Take a look at a couple of student examples: Harvey and Muhaimen.