Doodle Buddy fun!

Following my discovery of Mr P's blog (http://mrparkinsonict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/doodle-buddy-maths.html) and his post on Doodle Buddy maths, I had a go using this with my class... 

First of all we played with the drawing tools making lines, shapes and pictures. The children quickly go to grips with the tools and many got very carried away using the stamps!

Following this we learnt how to use the camera within doodle buddy (we have already practised taking photos using the iPad). We took pictures of 2D shapes that we could spot around the classroom. To extend this I asked them to colour half. 

It was super to be able to use Reflector to show this on the Smartboard. I could pass out an iPad and ask the children to draw half in a different way asking for feed back from the rest of the class. 

This week was even more fun! Our topic is Superheros! We took pictures of each other and added superhero logos and costumes. Here's one I made earlier:

The children had far more original ideas!! 

I'm hopeful that we can learn the basics and have fun doodling on each other in F2 so that Year 1 and 2 can start to use this in lots of cross curricular ways. I can forsee year 1 taking a photo of their friend or a plant and adding labels using text. In a similar way they can use Mr P's lovely capacity idea. And I would live for year 2 to try out the data handling ideas!! How well would this work alongside science experiments?!

Other apps that work in a similar way to Doodle buddy worth a mention: Skitch, show me and Educreations (Some of these have record functions too).

QR Code Easter egg hunt

So I'm finally getting round to writing about our exciting QR code Easter egg hunt!! 

I need to thank the wonderful Mrs Edwards for her help and support in making this happen!

Just before the Easter holidays we set up two hunts: one for F2 and one for year 1 and 2 (with 120 children in each year we had a complex timetable!!). 

All the treasure hunts resulted in the Easter Bunny (our head in a onesie!) and her stash of chocolate being found! Yay! 

Each class received a letter from a very worried Easter bunny. She had got into rather a lot of trouble with our site manager for littering her eggs all over the playground! She'd been locked away in a small cupboard somewhere... Could we help?! 

                                     

Year 1&2 had 12 printed and laminated Easter eggs to find on their hunt (beautiful eggs found on twinkl.com). Each egg had a QR code stuck on which when scanned had a clue to read (we wrote our clues into a QR code maker online and then printed them off). The answer to each clue was a letter that spelt out where the bunny was hidden. The most successful classes worked together to find the answer in extra quick time! 

         

In foundation we had a trail of eggs to follow. Egg QR codes gave us a set of instructions to read in order to help the Easter Bunny to complete his jobs. Above we had to help the Little Pigs to build a house of bricks. 

 

         

Here we had to draw a spider to scare Little Miss Muffet. We also had to fetch Jack and Jill a pail of water and help Insy Winsy down the water wall among other things. The children took turns to scan and read the QR codes and raced to complete each job in time.

At the end of the trail two children from each class were sent off to the Head's office (where the clues led) with the iPad recording a video. On the whiteboard we shared the exciting moment that the Easter bunny jumped out at the children and watched feet shuffling as the chocolate was handed over.

All of the children and staff joined in enthusiastically with this hunt and I'm hopeful it will inspire staff to find a way to use them in their classrooms! 

Our year 2 A&T group have already made hunts and quizzes for each other as well as labelling our displays and important places for visitors with bits of information. My personal favourite is when they ask you to check if the Head has turned her light out!

Over a year later... Let's try again

So over a year has passed and I've done so much and written so little on here. 

I moved on with life, got busy both in and out of school and found another person with whom to share my successes and fears. :-) oh and I got bunnies!!

I've decided to have another go at this blogging thing!! I've had some real successes as ICT/computing coordinator and with my lovely lot of foundation 2s and I want to share that. 

Here goes...