Trying Out Some New Apps

It is always fun to introduce a new App to my students. My students are not afraid to make mistakes and try something new. We recently learned how to use the Apps ChatterPix and Toontastic. Here's what we did...

ChatterPix is extremely easy for my 2nd graders to use. They became pros in just a few tries. ChatterPix lets kids make anything talk. We made stuffed animals, cars, books and balls talk for practice. Students load a picture, draw a line for a mouth, then record their voice and add sticker decorations. You can then save the 30 second video to the camera roll of an iPad. It's just that easy.

We then used ChatterPix for a project in Social Studies. My students were learning about different landforms on Earth. They used a drawing App on their iPad and drew each landform. Then, they used the pictures in ChatterPix. They made each landform talk. They had to explain and describe each landform. The last step was to add each landform ChatterPix video into iMovie. Students were then able to share all their Landform iMovie with parents at conferences. The parents loved hearing their child and seeing the creativity used for the project. Some students even used funny voices for each of their landforms making their work even more interesting and funny!

Here are a few examples of student work.

Jordan M.'s Landform Video

Darin C.'s Landform Video

Annah B.'s Landform Video

Toontastic has proven to be a little more difficult for my students to use. They love the all animation choices, backgrounds and the characters. The part that is hard for them is to record and animate at the same time. I have found that it easier to pair students up and one person will speak while the other does the animation and moving of characters. They take turns helping each other, which helps the finished project be better quality. 

After teaching the basics of Toontastic, I let students practice. The first project my students did in Toontastic was to define and use their reading vocabulary words in a sentence. This helped my students learn their words and have a funny way to practice each word.  

I plan to have my students work with Toontastic again soon. I would like to see them write and animate their own creative story. I'll post examples after they have completed their project.