Second graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about place value for numbers up to 999 (SOL2.1). Ms. Barnes had sent me a message saying she wanted to review using Pixie with them, so we created collaborative place value movies. First we opened a blank Pixie document and I showed them how to add a text box and change the font, size, and color. I told them to type any 3-digit number they wanted up to 999. Then we searched the stickers for a picture of something they found interesting (since Christmas is coming, many of them chose Christmas stickers). Next I showed them how to take their photo and record their voice saying their number in a sentence like, “I’m Brian, and I have 129 Christmas trees!” To make things a little more interesting, I instructed them to switch seats with a partner. Their partner would type the word form of the number, take their picture, and record their voice saying the number again. Then I told them to switch again, and this time they would write the expanded form of the number, but we didn’t have time to record our voices this last time. You can see some of their videos by clicking here.

Technology lessons don’t have to be long and complicated. There is definitely an appropriate place for multi-day projects, but you can also do quick lessons in as little as 30 minutes. Today’s lesson is an example. Ms. Salvo’s class at Davis Elementary has been learning about symmetry (SOL2.15), and Pixie has an excellent tool for making symmetrical drawings. If you click the paint brush tool and then click the Mirror box, it mirrors what you draw. So the students drew a couple of symmetrical drawings and then they added a picture of themselves (because people are kind of symmetrical). You can use the Line tool to identify the line(s) of symmetry. That’s all we had time for since this was a quick lesson, but you could extend the activity by adding some stickers of insects, fruits, or other symmetrical objects and drawing the line of symmetry for those (you’d have to glue the sticker down first though). There are also a couple of cool sites for exploring symmetry. On MathIsFun you can experiment drawing with different lines of symmetry and on PicHack you can see if your face is symmetrical.