Hands-On Creativity

I had such a great experience creating an Animoto this week, and I am excited for my students to try it out! I have been thinking about the different types of projects and subjects that Animotos could be created for, and the list seems endless. While reading Anne's blog, I learned about a great tool for students! Anne described Xtra Normal, a site that is easy to use to create videos. On her blog, she demonstrated what a video could look like. Check it out at Anne's Blog: Xtra Normal! I think my students would enjoy working with Animoto and Xtra Normal for different purposes. It's amazing how many useful tools are at my fingertips that I didn't know existed!

New York City Animoto

Wow! Animoto is really fun and easy to use, and I think my students will be intrigued by it. My fourth graders will be beginning a math unit learning about money and elapsed time. To meet our objectives, students will be planning an imaginary trip to New York City. They will be taking the train from Connecticut to New York for the day, and they will have a budget of $150 for their excursions. I created this animoto to give my students ideas of places they might like to visit while they are in New York. I plan to use it as an introduction for the unit to help them as they begin to plan their itineraries for their trips. I hope they like it!

Animoto

I have been checking out some sample Animoto's to get ideas for my project. I really liked the Frog and Toad sample and think this would be a great way to introduce new vocabulary to students. I haven't tried to create my own Animoto yet, but I have a feeling I will love it when I try it! I think my students will also love it, and it will bring something new and exciting into my classroom. I like how it can be fast or slow paced and put together with music. It seems like PowerPoint but better!