Pixing it up @EPS

Yahoo KidPix3 has arrived at Eltham! It's great to have access to lots of cool apples but it's also great to have some software to work with (as well as iPhoto iMovies etc )Had some fun with a handful of 5 year olds - the trick is i guess small steps. I thought we would illustrate their writing but in effect you have to have playtime first to explore all the neat things you can do!! I focussed that in with an expectation that they would print something that had a background, their name on it & something they had made using the paint or draw tools. A big part of the learning curve for them was just to learn to control the touch pad and the clicker button. So lots of play time @ Eltham, get those Apple Pods out into the junior classrooms (already the senior kids think they need a pod just for them) and give them time to play and explore - when you think they have a handle on that, then introduce them to some structured activities. Teachers take your Apples home to play so you don't miss out on all the fun :-) If you want ideas for using this cool tool for learning search TKI Learning Experiences and look at the Snapshot of Learning @ TKI Software for Learning.
Spent some time with Jacqui exploring a range of teaching resources online and a range of learning resources online in particular WickEd (it really lives up to its name!)
More play time together with KidPix - Jacqui is going to structure a learning activity based around their Dinosaur topic - "What if Dinosaurs came to school?" Take lots of photos around the school, import them into KidPix from i-Photo and getting drawing and adding pictures. This is based on idea of Megan's from a wonderful book full of pictures of Dinosaurs in everyday present day life... Look forward to coming back in a couple of weeks and helping out in the classroom, maybe move onto putting their pictures into a slideshow, a soundtrack or narrated story to go with it, export it as a movie, put it on the website, show it at assembly....