Mr P's ICT blog - Tech to raise standards!

There have been plenty of occasions when my classroom has resembled a zoo! But today, through Augmented Reality, we actually turned our EYFS classroom into a real zoo! I've blogged about different ways you can use Augmented Reality (you can read them here) and it never ceases to amaze pupils and bring that moment of awe and wonder that technology can provide. The app we used today was LEO AR camera . Using Apple's ARkit, the app allows you to scan the ground and place 3D animated objects into the real world.  There are a range of different objects you can add including different animals and dinosaurs. There is a horror option which may not be appropriate for your pupils . Today, we just used this app on my teacher device.   There is a record option which allows you to video the animated object within the scene alongside your pupils. This is a little buggy at the minute so today we just used the screen record option of the iPad to captur...

Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of working in Year 1. Their topic for this half term has been mini beasts and so I wanted to share with you some of the work we have been doing through technology. First, you may have seen the Hungry Caterpillar video we made, you can read about how we created this here . The children have also been learning about different mini beasts, researching facts and information and then creating these videos using the app - Shadow Puppets Edu: Last week, students were writing their own mini beast poems, focusing on the use of alliteration. To add an element of performance, the pupils recorded themselves sharing their writing using the app ChatterPix Kids. Here are some of their examples: These are just a couple of example of how I try to promote the use of technology in the primary classroom. It is about children creating content through these creative apps. Each of these ideas can easily be adapted to any topic ...

Who doesn't love this book? An absolute classic!  With Year 1 doing their Minibeast topic, I had to make a link and explore the book. We had read it through and used some of the brilliant Talk4Writing techniques to help us retell the story. To engage the children further, we decided to create our own version of the story starring Year 1. To do this we used the masking tool with the brilliant Doink Greenscreen app. This short video demonstrates the process: Once all the children had created their video on Doink Greenscreen. We put it all together in Apple Clips where pupils could also add emojis for all the food. This was their finished video: I can't wait to use this idea with other areas of the curriculum!

One of the best ways in which I use iPad in the classroom is to encourage and improve student's speaking and listening. In a culture of teaching, where we are so accountable to prove what we have done in books, I fear we do not develop young children's oral speaking skills. In my opinion, if a child cannot talk you through a story, I don't believe they can effectively write one. So over the past few weeks, I have been using one of my favourite apps - Puppetpals HD Directors Pass , to improve and develop children oral storytelling. The app, which I have enjoyed using for a number of years, allows pupils to add pictures of characters alongside background and record their own cartoon. It lends itself brilliantly to so many different areas of the curriculum. Working with Reception over the past few weeks, we have focused on using it to allow pupils retell stories they have been reading in class. Here are a couple of recent projects the students have created: The Tiger Who...

This weekend, Lily was ecstatic to have Barnaby come and stay! I have previously blogged about how we used technology to help Harry recount his weekend . I also did the same when Charlie brought him home.  So it would only be fair to let Lily use technology to retell her adventures in a way she can't yet do on paper. Lily used the app Adobe Voice to create a lovely digital story to recount the weekend. It is one of my favourite apps as it is very easy and straightforward to use and you finish with a professional and engaging video. This was her effort - These were the ways in which we used technology to help Harry and Charlie recount their adventures with Barnaby -

Year 1's topic this half term has been Fruitastic! I have previously blogged some ideas linked to the science aspect of this topic, which you can read here.  I loved the interactive fruit bowl image they made using funny movie maker and Thinglink - As with most of our topics, we try to find as many links to stories and books that we then explore in English! The book linked with Fruitastic is Handa's Surprise. Over the past few weeks, I have been exploring how technology can help enrich the children's learning and deepen their understanding of the story. The first task after reading the story was to create a movie of the book. So in groups of 8-10 the children were taken to our media suite and had to plan and perform the story. It was a great way to see what they could remember of the story but also how well they could work together to record a film. As the teacher, I became an observer and let the children discuss how, who and what will happen. I was amazed at ...

I know plenty of EYFS and KS1 classrooms have a Barnaby Bear . A teddy bear that spends every weekend with a child from the class. Usually, a book goes with the bear and parents are encouraged to document what happens over the weekend and this is then shared back in class. Last weekend, my son Harry came home with his class teddy! We had a great weekend which we documented in the book by printing some photos, but as you would probably guess I couldn't just leave it at text and images. I wanted to use technology to enhance what can be done with the book. Firstly, I wanted to document Harry's recount of the weekend. As he isn't able to write yet, I used the app Audioboom to record some audio of him talking through his weekend. This was uploaded online and turned into a QR code which was printed and stuck in the book. For me, this is a simple but effective way in which younger children can contribute more to the book. It has so many other uses in the classroom. On t...

Today with Year 1 and 2, we created our own digital Advent Calendars! After discussing the idea behind Advent, I explained to the children that we would be making a digital Advent Calendar and one that everyone can use and enjoy. We started by discussing what could be behind each door on our calendar. As a class, we decided to share some facts we knew about Christmas. Children were given time to come up with as many facts about everything to do with Christmas. We then listed these on the board. Using Pic Collage , the children then created a picture with all the numbers needed for the countdown to Christmas. Once they had created their picture, they saved this to the camera roll. The children then opened the app, ThingLink, which is a free app and web tool that makes your images interactive. There is so much potential to this app in many areas of the curriculum, and I have used this previously here and here . From the iPad app, children can add text or videos on top of t...