Third graders at Highland Springs Elementary have been learning about Ancient Rome. Yesterday we did a mini iPad project that touched upon (or at least we tried to!) the major pieces of information: located in Italy, on the continent of Europe, near the Mediterranean Sea which was used for trading, architecture consisted of arches (the Colosseum), had a representative democracy, were ship and road builders.
We kicked off the lesson by have students pick their partner. In groups of two, students navigated to the Google Earth app and had to take a screenshot of at least two pictures (we recommended the shape of Italy..a boot!..and the Colosseum). If they had enough time they were able to take a screenshot of more places in Rome such as the government building, buildings with arches, roads, etc.
Next, we went to the app, Toontastic (which is now FREE!) and imported our Google Earth screenshots. Students took turns in their group to narrate one of the pictures. The app allows you to draw on your pictures. You can also choose your own character and add a little music!
Check it out:
Next time I would have the kids write their speaking part before recording. Many had a hard time spitting out the information (especially the CORRECT information…all of this snow has put many of us a little behind…hahaha) as soon as they pressed the record button. However, this was a great learning opportunity and they did a fabulous job with their creations in the 60 minutes we had!
