Creating our own Planets in KS1 and KS2

This week I have been working with a Year 3 class and a Year 1 class. Luckily, both classes are covering a similar theme. This meant we could use the iPads to enhance the topic in different creative ways.

Year 3 are using the story 'Man on the Moon,' by Simon Bartrum. Year 1 are looking 'Beegu' by Alexis Deacon.

Both stories have a similar theme of space and so both Year 3 and Year 1 used the iPads in different ways to create their own planets and Solar Systems.



Firstly, Year 3 used the brilliant Interstellar app to create their Solar System. The app based on the blockbuster film was first shown to me a while ago by @MrBeeICT on twitter. The app is completely free and allows children to design their own solar system, adding planets, moons, comets and asteroids! They can design the colour, texture and material of each planet and then explore the solar system on a spaceship.


The children were hooked with this app: they loved being able to create their own solar system. After they had designed it, we looked at writing some facts about their creations. Following the 5 W's children wrote sentences answering the following questions - What is it? Where is it? What is it made from? When was it made? and Why is it important?




Once the children had finished their writing, they used the app Shadow Puppets Edu to record their facts over pictures of their Solar System. Here are some of their examples -


In Year 1, the children have been looking at the story Beegu and so we thought about what his home would look like. Using the app Quiver, children designed the planet using the Dot Day trigger image -



Using the Quiver app we scanned our designs to bring them to life using Augmented Reality! The children were blown away when they saw their planets spinning, bouncing and shaking! We snapped a picture of the children with their planets -


The class then had to create a short recording as Beegu talking about their home. To do this, they used the brilliant app - ChatterKid. We then put the children's recordings over their pictures to create the following video -




Next week, Year 3 will be using another app based on a blockbuster film to create a tense and suspenseful piece of writing! The app - Gravity - Don't Let Go, is a free app that allows children to replicate some of the action from the film through playing a game. After playing for a short period, they will then have to write a recount trying to recreate the tension and suspense experienced in the app. 




Comments

  1. Unknown26 September 2016 at 13:22

    Hi there,

    Love the sound of the Insterstellar App, does anyone know if it is still available as I cannot find it on the apple app store?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous21 November 2017 at 17:30

    How do you do the mouth moving and voice over bit... which app does that?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous21 November 2017 at 17:31

    How do you create the mouth moving voiceover effect, which app does it?

    ReplyDelete

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