Technology from SCS Elementary

Online Learning Week 3 (4/6) for K – 5: Virtual Vacation

April 4, 2020 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Hello Everyone! I have missed you and am praying for you every day!

NOTE TO PARENTS: you will need to help your child find an appropriate tool that matches your available technology for the project for this week.

I hope everyone had a good break last week. Since we were not able to go on a trip, this week’s assignment is to create a “Virtual Vacation” to go anywhere in the world! Use an iPad, phone, or computer to draw, type, build, or make a video about an imaginary vacation you wish you could take. Suggested apps, software, or websites are listed below by grade level, but any digital option that you have available is fine!

K – 1st Drawing Apps:

Hello Crayon ( was used with K students)
Draw and Tell( was used with K students)
KidPix5 – (NOTE: this is a paid app. It is the same as the software that we use in technology class. If you have an iPad, it might be worth the cost as a familiar way for students to do technology activities at home.)

K – 2nd Drawing Websites: (NOTE: drawing with a mouse might be tricky for kindergarten students)

Kidmons Paint
Nick Jr. Free Draw
ABCya Color, Draw, and Paint (NOTE: there are ads along the side)

2nd – 5th Drawing Apps:

Sketches School
Drawing Box Free
Drawing Pad (NOTE: this is a paid app that was used in 2nd grade, so students would be familiar with using it.)
KidPix5 – (NOTE: this is a paid app, it is the same as the software that we use in technology class, so would be familiar for students to use.)

3rd – 5th Drawing Websites:

Sketchpad
Sumo Paint – click TRY ONLINE

1ST – 2ND TYPE A STORY (NOTE: 1st grade was just starting to work on keyboarding, so this might be a bit tricky for them.)

My Storybook – create a book online
KidPix5 – (NOTE: this is a paid app, it is the same as the software that we use in technology class, so would be familiar for students to use.)
You could also type a story using any word processing program.

3RD – 5TH TYPE A STORY/BOOK:

Use Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or Google Docs on a computer or iPad (see an adult for help to find these tools to use)
My Storybook – create a book online
Book Creator App – (NOTE: this is a paid app – wonderful options for book building and creativity!)

BUILD: If you use Minecraft or Roblox, build the place you would like to go on vacation!

VIDEO: Work with your parents or brothers and sisters to make a video pretending you are on a vacation. Use a phone or iPad. If you want, use iMovie or a similar app to edit your clips together. Here are a few funny examples that some other people have made about an imaginary trip to Disney World:

When you finish your project, leave a comment telling me what project you did and how you made it.

OPTIONAL: Your parents may email the project or a photo of it to me if they wish! I would love to see what you did! Send your email to kbosch@southfieldchristian.org.

Good luck and have fun! Let me know if you have any questions!

Category: Fifth Grade, First Grade, Fourth Grade, Kindergarten, Online Learning, Second Grade, Third Grade, Uncategorized /

Daily “Stuck at Home” FREE apps for Kids!

March 31, 2020 / Karen Bosch / No comments

I am posting a link to a free iPad app each day which can provide something creative and fun for your child/family to try or explore. The most recent link will be posted at the top.

MSQRD – fun and crazy filters for your face to make photos and videos. No login needed!

Tayasui Blocks is FREE until April 9 – create in 3D using colorful blocks!

Toontastic 3D – animate and narrate your own adventures by simply moving the characters with your fingers. Lots of options, totally free!

AR Dominoes – use augmented reality to create your own domino course and then knock it down! Make simple or creative complex designs. No supplies needed and no mess to pick up!

Hello Crayons – this drawing app is perfect for early elementary students with simple textured drawing tools. Note: a few tools require purchase.

GarageBand – this amazing app is filled with ways to create and record music. I’d suggest starting with the Live Loops feature as an easy way to build professional-sounding tunes with beats!

Texting Story – create video conversations of two people/characters texting back and forth. (Create a conversation between two book characters!) Note: there are a few features that require in-app purchases.

Go Noodle Games – this app has fun games that use the camera to get kids moving. Totally free – no in app purchases.

Pickayou – This app lets you design your own custom avatar/character from head to toe. If you use a white background, characters can be imported into many other apps – we often use it with Puppet Pals.

Mega Photo – This app has dozens of fun and crazy effects that you can add to your selfies in both photo and video format. NOTE: some of the effects are paid, so be sure to point this out to your child before using it! This link goes to the iOS version, but also available in other formats.

Tayasui Sketches School -This app lets students draw on their iPads with digital pencil, ink, crayon, watercolor, paint, airbrush, and more! No need for supplies from the craft store and no mess to clean up!

Plum’s Creaturizer – Kids can design a crazy creature, then the app uses augmented reality and you can “place” the creature in a real location and take a photo of it. A great activity to do while on a walk!

Emoji Me Kids – Students can create their own emoji of their faces (or even of everyone in their family). It can be saved as an image (great for profiles or to be added to other projects). It even makes animated emojis.

Category: iPad, Online Learning /

Online Learning Week 2: Stories, Activities, and Magazines

March 22, 2020 / Karen Bosch / 8 comments

Hi Students! Your assignment this week is to use one of these online links to read a story or magazine or do a reading activity. They are grouped by the suggested grade level but you may do any link that as long as you understand what you are doing. If they don’t work, you may use any website or app that lets you do a reading activity.

NOTE: MANY OF THESE LINKS WILL NOT WORK ON AN IPAD OR PHONE, YOU MUST USE A COMPUTER!

PreK – 1st

Unite for Literacy Books
Pinky Dinky Doo Storybox – create your own story
Rivet – books on a variety of levels, click your level at the top corner
Teach Your Monster to Read 1, 2, and 3 (note: parents can create an account to save student progress)
Scholastic Learn at Home – find the activities for your grade level

2nd and 3rd Grades:

DIGGER AND THE GANG – click on An Invitation to start the story
Big Escape Mysteries – can you solve them?
Rivet – books on a variety of levels, click level at the top corner
Scholastic Learn at Home – find the activities for your grade level

4th and 5th Grades:

Scholastic Learn at Home – find the activities for your grade level
Bible Gateway – spend some time reading God’s word
Big Escape Mysteries – can you solve them?
SCIENCE DETECTIVE – TRAINING ROOM ESCAPE
NEW! Total Darkness – another mystery to solve!

SCS Student Created eBooks (from previous years):

Snowmen Having Fun eBook 2019
3D Crazy Characters eBook 2019
Snowmen Having Fun eBook 2018
3D Crazy Characters eBook 2018
Snowmen Having Fun eBook 2017
3D Crazy Characters eBook 2017

LEAVE A COMMENT WHEN DONE: Older students, when you are done, I would love it if you would leave a comment for me. (You might need to ask a parent or grown-up to help you.) Look up in the top right corner by the title of this post and click on the comments button. Use your FIRST NAME only – no last names, email, or website. Tell me what story/activity you read/did or how you are using technology to help you learn (or just say hello)!

Finally, here is a funny video for you! I was trying to make a video for Reading Month where I was a mystery reader behind a “mask.” It didn’t quite work out like I planned! Enjoy!

I miss you all and I am praying for you! Take care! Miss Bosch

Category: Books, Fifth Grade, First Grade, Fourth Grade, Kindergarten, Lessons, Links, Online Learning, PreK, Second Grade, Third Grade /

Online Learning 1: Learning Links

March 15, 2020 / Karen Bosch / One comment

Greetings from Miss Bosch (and her cat)!

**(NOTE: many of these Learning Links will *NOT* work on an iPad or iPhone.)**

Technology Class Activity: Use our Learning Links Page and a computer to do some of our Learning Links on a computer (if you can, they might not work on your iPad or phone). Here are the links to some pages at our Learning Links Page:

Learning Links Main Page

Early Learning Links – good for grades K – 2, note kindergarten has only done Dragging 1 – 6 in class.

Math Links – lots of games to practice math facts and more!

Games for Fun – a good place to take a break after working hard!

Also, here is the iReady link: iReady Student Login

Students, know that I am thinking of you and praying for you every day! Check back here – I will try to post a new video and some new technology activity ideas in a few days!

Category: Fifth Grade, First Grade, Fourth Grade, Kindergarten, Lessons, Online Learning, Second Grade, Third Grade, Videos /

5th Grade Hyperstudio Tutorials

March 1, 2020 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Use these tutorials to help you learn new multimedia skils for your Hyperstudio project.

BONUS: This video will show you how to add borders and animations:

Category: Fifth Grade, Tutorials /

3D Crazy Characters with Apple Pencils and the Morphi app

February 29, 2020 / Karen Bosch / No comments

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Over the past few weeks, our second graders have been working on our “Crazy Characters” project. Students used the Morphi Edu app to draw a crazy character, then simply tapped a button in the app to turn their character into 3D. The completed files were emailed to Miss Bosch to print on our Dremel 3D printers. Above you can see the students working on their designs.

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The characters were printed on our Dremel 3040 and 3D20 printers using white filament.

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The students used Sharpie markers to color in the characters. You can see lots of details and personality in their characters. They gave their characters a name and have written stories about them. During the next few weeks, we will be publishing a Book Creator eBook with all the pictures and stories of the Crazy Characters!

Category: 3D Printing, Apple Pencil, iPad, Second Grade /

Kindergarten Technology Class January 2020

January 25, 2020 / Karen Bosch / No comments

In January, the kindergarten students started coming to the computer lab for Technology class. We are using KidPix software to learn to draw and click using the mouse. Because most younger students have only used tablets, learning to use a mouse is a new challenge that can be surprisingly tricky at first!

We began learning to use a mouse by drawing “spaghetti” lines. Students have used a pencil tool to draw and have learned to change colors and size of lines. They also have drawn with chalk, crayon, and marker tools.

Next, students worked on controlling their mouse by drawing a picture of a cat.

We also used straight lines to draw a house!

Kindergarteners will continue to learn about using different KidPix tools including stamps, paint bucket fill, textured lines, and text boxes as they grow their technology skills.

Category: KidPix, Kindergarten /

3D Snowflakes using Apple Pencil and the Morphi Edu App

January 25, 2020 / Karen Bosch / No comments

The third graders recently worked on a 3D design project. They used 6 point symmetry in the Morphi app to create these gorgeous 3D snowflakes. Our Apple Pencils from our MACUL grant made it easy for students to complete these complex designs.

Students began in the Morphi app by creating a small loop using the “doughnut” shape. Next, they opened the 2D to 3D tool. They turned on the “guides” tool under Symmetry and then used the + sign to add 6 lines of symmetry.

Then they started to draw. There were many oohs and ahs as their designs began to appear. Each one was as beautiful and unique as real snowflakes are! When finished, they tapped the 3D button and *BOOM* the design turned into 3D. A final step was to connect the loop and the snowflake together.

We printed out our snowflakes on our Dremel 3D printers. They look amazing!

A few hints if you try this project:

Make sure your lines are not too thin – thin lines may easily break when printed.
Be sure all lines connect on your snowflake or pieces will fall off the printed snowflake.
Designs that are very complex sometimes will not print successfully.
If your design gets too large, parts will be chopped off and your snowflake will not be round.
The Morphi app comes in a free and paid EDU version. You will need the paid version to use the drawing tool. The drawing tool is amazing and allows you to create custom 3D designs.
Students emailed their completed designs to the teacher for processing and printing.

I did make the designs larger using the Print Studio software that comes with the Dremel Printers while I was preparing the files for printing. You could also adjust the size in Morphi, but doing this step later simplified the project for the students.

Category: 3D Printing, Apple Pencil, Third Grade /

Bethlehem Eyewitness Drawings and Animations 2019

January 2, 2020 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Our second graders recently completed this inspiring Christmas project in technology class. They began by using the Drawing Pad app to draw a portrait of one of the people who were present at Christmas: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, or the angels.

Students used the Drawing Pad app to create their portraits. They used our new Apple Pencils to draw! They enjoyed being able to draw easily with detail – much better than using a finger or a stylus!

Next, they wrote a short story that told the first-person account of what that person saw and heard on Christmas day. Finally, they used the ChatterPix Kids app to record the story and make their drawing talk!!!

The videos of their talking Christmas characters are uploaded into this gallery in Vimeo linked below. There are 44 videos so you will need to click the arrows at the bottom to go through the pages of the collection if you are looking for a specific video.

Bethlehem Eyewitness Video Gallery

We hope these videos help remind you of the special message of the Christmas season that Jesus is born.

Teacher note: Drawing Pad is one of the best drawing apps for kids, currently $5.99 on the US iTunes store. ChatterPix Kids is a FREE app that lets you record 30 seconds of audio to animate a picture.

Category: Apple Pencil, iPad, Second Grade /

Three Elementary Learning Strategies using Keynote

December 28, 2019 / Karen Bosch / No comments

I am looking forward to presenting with Mrs. Nesbitt in March at the MACUL conference about “Eight Great Elementary Learning Strategies using Keynote.” The goal of this session will be to share ways that Keynote can be used for learning that go beyond simply making a presentation. Here are a few simple examples of ways that our students have been using some of these Keynote strategies in our technology classes.

NARRATION

The ability to easily record audio is a valuable Keynote feature for the elementary classroom. It allows students to record themselves reading text or explaining ideas and solutions. Before Thanksgiving, I created a simple template where our second graders could share some things that they were thankful for. Students learned to use the iPad keyboard to type their ideas and then recorded themselves reading their stories. If time, some students used the Keynote shapes to illustrate their stories. Here are a few examples of this project.

ILLUSTRATION

We were blessed to receive a grant from MACUL to purchase Apple Pencils for our students to use with our iPads. Before Christmas, our third graders used them to draw an illustration of “My Best Gift.” It was interesting to view the different ways that students interpreted this idea prompt. We saved their drawings into the camera roll, then loaded them into iMovie and stretched the image out to play for 30 seconds. Then students inserted a green screen video clip of a package being unwrapped that I had created. The students thought it was pretty cool to see their picture being “unwrapped!” One class had time to add some music to the background of their movie. If we had had more time, I would have had students record audio explaining why this was their best gift. (If you didn’t want to use the green screen in iMovie, the recording could have easily be done right in Keynote.) Here are a few examples of their recordings.

ANNOTATION

Keynote is a perfect app to use when you want students to annotate text. Our fourth graders used a simple Keynote template that I made to create a “Book Snap” where they annotated a text from a story. They used a series of video tutorials that I created so they could independently guide themselves through the project. Students were asked to use different colors to show an important idea, a vocabulary word, and something they had a question about or were curious about. Then they used the Keynote shapes and emojis to help visualize the text. Here are a few examples of their Book Snaps.