Search Results for "storyboardthat"

Aug 15 2017 August 15, 2017 November 1, 2017 NoComment by David

Field Day of the Future

Posted in Staff Development

Today was our annual teacher conference, and this year our theme was “Field Day of the Future.” We trained our teachers to flex their technology muscles in new ways. We even had an inspirational video to get them pumped up at the beginning. My teammate, Alfonso, and I shared various webtools in our session, “Funky Tech Café.” The tools were arranged by TSIP categories: Delightful Research, Scruptious Problem Solving, Savory Creativity, and Palatable Collaboration. For Research, we looked at Kiddle (a kid-friendly search engine) and the new Google Earth online (you might need to open an Incognito window in Chrome to visit the site). For Problem Solving, we shared CoSpaces (a site for creating virtual 3-D worlds with the ability to code different elements) and ABCYa! Animate (a site for making animations). Our Creativity webtools were StoryboardThat (for creating comics) and WeVideo (for making movies). Finally, we shared two websites to help with Collaboration: Padlet (an online bulletin board with many updated features) and TodaysMeet (an easy-to-use private chat room that you can customize). If you’d like to try some of these tools, let me know, and if you missed this year’s conference, be sure to attend next summer!


May 01 2017 May 1, 2017 June 1, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Mali Comics

Posted in 3rd Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

Third graders at Varina Elementary have been learning about the Empire of Mali (SOL3.2), so today students in Ms. Galvin’s class created comics about Mali using StoryboardThat. First we reviewed what they learned, and I wrote a word bank on the board: Africa, empire, Mali, gold, salt, trade, route, pilgrimage, Mansa Musa, Sundiata, Niger River, griot, Timbuktu, Sahara, etc. Next, we went to StoryboardThat, and I showed them how to search in the Scenes for background images that look like Mali. We compared the images from the American southwest desert with the ones of the Sahara Desert so they wouldn’t pick the wrong kind of desert. Next we searched the Characters for people that looked like the people of ancient Mali. I did a Google image search to show them how the people really dressed. I also demonstrated how to customize the characters by changing their skin colors and poses. Finally we added speech bubbles from the Textables, and students wrote complete sentences with facts about Mali. Since our students cannot have accounts (they are under 13), we saved our comics by taking screenshots using the Snipping Tool. Then we uploaded them to a shared Google folder so we could read each others’ comics. You can take a look at all of them here.


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Mar 30 2017 March 30, 2017 May 11, 2017 NoComment by David

5th Grade Midwest Region Comics

Posted in 5th Grade, Language Arts, Social Studies

Fifth graders at Trevvett Elementary have been learning about the regions of the United States this year, and they are currently focusing on the Midwest Region. Today students in Ms. Adamonis’ class created comics about the Midwest using StoryboardThat. First, we spent a few minutes researching the Midwest (SOL5.9). I encouraged them to look for interesting facts that their classmates may not already know. Some key words to use in search engines are: midwest + interesting facts, fun facts, interesting places, landmarks, trivia, etc. We also discussed how to double check their facts and evaluate the reliability of websites, since we found some “facts” that weren’t true (like roller skates weren’t actually invented in the midwest as this site claimed). Next, the students chose three of the most interesting facts to illustrate in their comic. We went to StoryboardThat and created a new comic with three panels (one for each fact). I explained that they should create their comic like a storyboard for a tv show or a documentary. The students chose different backgrounds and characters and customized them using the blue “Edit” button. Then they added speech bubbles (textables) and typed the facts they discovered in their research. Finally, we took screenshots of our comics and uploaded them to CoMemories. We have been using Schoology albums to share our work, but we found that comics do not display large enough in this format, so that’s why we chose CoMemories instead. You can see all their midwest comics here.


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Mar 22 2017 March 22, 2017 April 16, 2017 NoComment by David

2nd Grade Matter Comics

Posted in 2nd Grade, Science

Second graders at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about the states of matter (SOL2.3), so today students in Ms. MacKenzie’s class created states of matter comics using StoryboardThat. First we reviewed different types of solids, liquids, and gases so everyone wasn’t doing the same ones. I’ve found that students are very creative when it comes to solids, but they need a little help thinking of different liquids and gases. I pointed out that anything that flows is a liquid: lava, honey, ketchup, even applesauce. For gases, we talked about the sun and the gas giants, as well as helium, oxygen, hydrogen, and more. Then we used the three-panel comic on StoryboardThat to illustrate the three types of matter. We clicked and dragged background scenes to each panel, then we added characters. I showed them how to use the “Edit Pose” button to change their poses and facial expressions. Finally we added the speech bubbles (textables) and typed a sentence in each one describing the state of matter shown. We used the snipping tool to take a screenshot of our finished comics and posted them on Google classroom. You can see them all here.


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Jan 24 2017 January 24, 2017 April 4, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Character Feelings

Posted in 1st Grade, Language Arts

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning how to identify characters’ feelings in stories they read, using the illustrations and context clues (SOL1.9). Today students in Ms. Sokolowski’s and Ms. Shelly’s classes drew illustrations of characters showing feelings and wrote sentences about them. Ms. Shelly’s class used ABCYa! Storymaker for this project. First they painted a character’s face showing happiness, sadness, fear, anger, or some other emotion. Then they typed a complete sentence about the character. We saved the images as PDF files and uploaded them to a Padlet, that you can see here. Ms. Sokolowski’s class used StoryboardThat for their project. StoryboardThat is a website for creating comics. The students made a 3-panel comic with three characters showing different emotions. I showed them how to use the “Edit Pose” button on each character to change their facial expressions and poses. Then we added speech bubbles, or “Textables,” and typed sentences about their emotions. We took a screenshot of the comics to save them and uploaded them to a Padlet as well. You can see their projects here (some of the situations they illustrated are quite humorous!


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Jan 23 2017 January 23, 2017 April 3, 2017 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Elapsed Time Comics

Posted in 3rd Grade, Math

Third graders at Varina Elementary have been learning about elapsed time in one-hour increments (SOL3.11b). Today, students in Ms. Long’s class created comics to show their own elapsed time math problems. First we discussed different situations that take several hours, like a sports game, a special event, or traveling. Each student thought of an idea, then we opened a 3-panel comic in StoryboardThat. I showed them how to add a background scene to each frame and how to use the “Edit Scene” button to change things in the background. Next we added characters, customized their hair and skin colors, and changed their poses and facial expressions with the “Edit Pose” button. Finally we added speech bubbles to each frame: the first one told the starting time, the second one told either the ending time or the duration (like 2 hours), and the last one asked a question about the elapsed time. We took a screenshot of our comics and posted them to Google classroom. Students answered each others’ questions in the comments. You can see all their comics here.


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Jan 18 2017 January 18, 2017 March 29, 2017 NoComment by David

2nd Grade Habitats & American Indians Comics

Posted in 2nd Grade, Science, Social Studies

Second graders at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about animal habitats in Science (SOL2.5b) and American Indian tribes in Social Studies (SOL2.2). Today they could chose an animal or one of the three tribes (Powhatan, Lakota, and Pueblo) and create a comic with three facts. We used StoryboardThat to create the comic. First we added the background scenes. There were pictures of almost every kind of habitat for the animals, as well as pictures that look like the Eastern Woodlands, Great Plains, and southwestern desert for the tribes. I showed how they could click “Edit Scene” to change the weather in the picture. Next we clicked the “Characters” tab at the top and clicked “1600s to 1800s” for pictures of the American Indians or the “Animals” tab to find pictures of the animals they needed. The characters also have an “Edit Pose” button that allows the students to customize their poses and expressions. Finally we clicked the “Textables” tab at the top and added speech bubbles. In each speech bubble the students wrote a complete sentence with one fact (such as the animal’s habitat or the Indian’s home). We posted them to Google classroom, but you can see them all here.


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Jan 02 2017 January 2, 2017 February 9, 2017 NoComment by David

5th Grade Animal Habitat Comics

Posted in 5th Grade, Language Arts, Science

Fifth graders at Varina Elementary have been reviewing animal habitats and ecosystems (SOL4.5), so today students in Ms. Rumans’ class created animal habitat comics. We used StoryboardThat to create the comics. First students selected a wild animal of their choice. I told them to pick an animal they were interested in and curious about. To broaden their horizons a bit, we discussed a variety of wild animals so they all didn’t pick cheetahs (which are insanely popular with elementary students for some reason). Once they picked their animals, they had to research their animals’ habitats and food webs. I showed them some quick guidelines for getting the information they needed by typing “name of animal” + “habitat” or “predators” or “prey” into a Google search. We used the basic layout on StoryboardThat with three panels, and each panel had to explain one of these facts. First we used the Scenes tab to get images of the animals’ habitats. Most of the habitats are included in the clip art. However, when it came to adding the animals, the clip art is somewhat limited. So students had to be creative and use animals that looked similar. I think the best example of creative problem-solving was using the hedgehog image for a beaver! I also showed them how to use the search box to look for additional items they needed, like nuts for a squirrel. They quickly found the blood splatter clip art which truly enhanced their predator/prey images. Finally we added the speech bubbles, and students wrote their facts in complete sentences. Some of them got creative with that too, writing it like it was a television documentary. I think you’ll enjoy looking at their final projects here.


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Dec 09 2016 December 9, 2016 February 8, 2017 NoComment by David

1st Grade Past, Present, & Future Comics

Posted in 1st Grade, Social Studies

First graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning to distinguish among past, present, and future (SOL1.1). Today students in Ms. Valvoda’s class used StoryboardThat to create imaginary scenes from the past, present, and future. We started with the present, since that is the time we are most familiar with. I showed them how to find modern backgrounds using the Scenes tab. Next we clicked on the Characters tab and chose a person that was dressed in clothes from the present. I demonstrated how to change the color of the person’s hair, skin, and eyes using the pop-up menu items. Then we went to the U.S. History Scenes tab at the top and chose a background to represent the past. We discussed ways that the past scenes were different from today (they used fire for lighting and cooking, buildings were made of wood and stone, animals were used for transportation and work). For our Characters, we clicked on the 1600s-1800s tab and chose a person from the past. We noticed that the fashion styles for men and women were very different. Finally, the students had to be creative to think what life might be like in the future. They could pick any background scene and any character they wanted, as long as they could explain how it showed the future. Some of their visions of the future were very interesting–from military dystopias to underwater cities! You can see them all here.


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Dec 08 2016 December 8, 2016 February 6, 2017 NoComment by David

Social Studies Digital Resources

Posted in Staff Development

One of the great things about attending conferences is getting the opportunity to come back and share what we learned with other teachers. Today I was asked to present at the Social Studies contact meeting, and I shared many of the things I learned at VSTE. First, I created my presentation using the new Google sites, so they could be inspired by the new layout, like I was. I showed them the cool, creative ways to use Google maps in their Social Studies lessons, which I learned from one of the VSTE presenters. Carol Simopoulos, the director of Elementary Social Studies, also asked me to share some of the resources available through the Library of Congress (LOC). If you haven’t been there in a while, you may want to check it out. It has an incredible collection of primary resources that are clearly organized and easily searchable. You can find historical maps, early children’s books, vintage news broadcasts, and more. Finally, I shared a few links to webtools that students enjoy using for Social Studies projects. StoryboardThat is great for creating comics about people and events in history. Padlet provides an online “bulletin board” for quickly sharing projects. Kahoot is a fun way to assess student understanding, and WeVideo is an easy-to-use movie editing resource. Let me know if you’d like some help using some of these ideas in your classroom!


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