3rd Grade Explorer Project

As promised, here I am making a quick post as I attempt to pull things together for tomorrow. I know I shouldn't complain since we just had the past week and a half off but let's be serious, why couldn't we just get Thursday and Friday off too?

3rd graders are getting ready to start a huge integrated project on explorers! They will be working in the library, lab and their classroom to conduct research on Christopher Columbus, Jacques Cartier, Juan Ponce De Leon and Christopher Newport. They will be using books in the library as well as this Blendspace (the new name for edcanvas) to gather all of their information.

Once they have completed their research they will be able to choose a project for each explorer. There are six projects to choose from.

I am really looking forward to starting this project and I think the kids will be excited too (despite having to come back to school on a THURSDAY)!

Toontastic

Toontastic is an iPad app that has unlimited possibilites with children of all ages! There is a free version if you want to try it out but I highly recommend the paid version which gives you a lot more scenes and characters as well as the ability to draw your own, import images or even capture images with your camera! The paid version is $12.99 which is a little more on the expensive side for an app but it is totally worth it! The app is easy to use and prompts you of exactly what to do! First graders created a famous American cartoon last week and they had no trouble! One other thing that I love about the app is the easy upload to ToonTube! After you set up an email account and create a password when you finish with your cartoon you simply give it a title, name the director and press "Share on ToonTube." Before you know it you will receive an email to approve the cartoon and then it can be viewed online, shared in a link or embedded into a website! 

After much negotiation my husband agreed to help me create this video to introduce the Toontastic Famous American Project to the first graders! He had to have say in the script and didn't like my "girly" words. He had such a ball doing it that he has asked me on several occasions when we are making another movie which kind of cracks me up!

How cute is this 1st Grade Famous American Toontastic? I love their voices and the erratic movement of their person! They really struggled to read their script and make their person move. Don't you just love those peanut voices?!

Check out more all of our cartoons here!

What do you think of the 100 Follower Giveaway icon?! I am not quite there with digital graphic design LOL! I already have 3 lovely ladies willing to donate and I am getting the rafflecopter ready to go! If you would like to contribute something I would love to link you up :)!