Because I work in a school that houses two schools on two different calendars (one on the 9 month calendar and one on a year-round calendar), there are times in the year when I have "extra time" to do integrated arts projects with the kids using both art and technology.
Cue Fall Intersession 2017, and it's time for the Pet Rock project in 2/3rd grade. this is one of their favorite classroom projects (completed with their homeroom teacher, not me as an art teacher) and it is always fun to see what the kids come up with.
This year, with a focus on integrating technology during intersessions, I brought the idea of creating Chatterpix videos to the classroom teachers. Haven't heard of Chatterpix? It is a super fun app that allows you to add a mouth to any picture, and then animate it to say whatever you'd like!
As part of the Pet Rock project, our students are required to write a story from their rock's perspective, talking about everything from where it lives, to what it eats, does for hobbies, and who it hangs out with. The kids have always loved writing these stories and creating little personalities for their rocks, but using Chatterpix to bring them to life made it even better!
There were SO MANY GIGGLES through this process and the kids truly loved making them come to life! Some got so into it that they even changed their voice for their video to speak the way they imagined their rock would speak. They loved watching the final videos all together and Chatterpix has quickly become a favorite iPad activity. The first video here is a Clips video showing their pet rocks, and the second is one students Chatterpix example.
