Last year, I posted my Animal Friendship unit, and it was so successful that I used it again this year with my second graders. For my last lesson in my friendship unit, I decided to integrate technology using our IPads. I am always looking for ways to enhance my lessons with technology because it helps to capture my students’ interest. For this lesson, we reviewed characteristics of a good friend, positive qualities to look for when meeting new friends, and our friendship rules of how to treat each other.
Then, using the “Scribble Press” app on the IPad, each student created and illustrated a friendship book! Scribble Press is an app that contains numerous templates of books covering a variety of topics. To get to the one we used, you simply click on “New Book,” “Family,” and then select the book titled “My Best Friend.” Once you select the book, the app’s pre-scripted text appears with spaces for the student to fill in words to personalize it. They fill in their best friend’s name, why they are best friends, their favorite things to do together, and their favorite memory together. I encouraged my students to take this seriously and think about what good qualities make their best friend a good fit for them.
Once they have filled in the blanks, the app “creates” their book and they are now able to illustrate their entire book with hundreds of different makers, highlighters, text, pictures, stamps, etc. When the student has finished their story, I have them save it within the app, and I am going to let students share their books during my next guidance class using the same IPadthey created it on. So far, this is the quickest way I found for saving. However, I may see if I can email them to myself and print them so they can take their story home. If you have any suggestions for this please comment and let me know!!
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1. It takes the students 2 (30-40 minute) classes to finish their books, and a third to share them. However, I believe the time is worth it, considering they are working hands on and creating the entire time!
2. The books are about a “best friend.” It is every important to reiterate to the students how important it is for everyone to have more than one best friend and they are supposed to just pick one of their friends to write about. I explain to students that the purpose of the activity is to review what we have learned about friendship, and we want to be careful not to hurt anyone’s feelings by leaving others out.
3. Our students don’t have a lot of experience using IPads in second grade. It helped a lot for me to have the app pulled up to the screen they needed, before they came to class.
4. It is important to model to the students how to draw and create the book before they begin because there are many art options to use. Also, review IPad rules before they begin.
5. Our Ipads are numbered, so it was very important for me to write down the number each student was using so I knew which Ipad to give back to them in order to finish their book.
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