Using Book Creator in the Elementary Classroom

Contents

Introduction

Book Creator in a Literacy Classroom

1. We are all authors!
2. Let's become poets
3. Inspired by others
4. Say no to “SAID”
5. How is your reading and writing improving?

Book Creator in a Numeracy Classroom

6. Let's get counting
7. Positional language
8. Interactive math books
9. Math riddles
10. Bringing hands on math to life

Book Creator in a Science or Socials Studies Classroom

11. Capturing inquiry learning
12. The scientific process
13. Research reports
14. All about me and my identity
15. Digital citizenship 101

Book Creator in an alternative environment (Gym, Music, Art, Field trips)

16. Teach me a sport
17. Everyone is an artist
18. Let's share music
19. Capture that field trip

A special thank you
About the author

Prefer to read offline?

Introduction

Do you teach in the K-5 environment? If so join me as we explore a variety of open ended ways to use Book Creator in YOUR learning environment.

This book is filled with many open-ended easily differentiated lessons utilizing Book Creator. While you will find a variety of lessons from various content areas these lessons are less about the “content” (since we all have different “content”) and more about ways you can use Book Creator to enhance your teaching and your students' learning.

In the first section we will explore ways to use Book Creator in your literacy classroom.

In the second section we will explore ways to use Book Creator in your numeracy classroom.

In the third section we will explore ways to use Book Creator in your Science or Socials Studies classes.

And finally we will explore ways to use Book Creator in P.E., Music, and Art class. We will even explore using it for field trips!

With read today, use tomorrow lessons, I hope all K-5 educators will find this book useful to them.

1. We are all authors!

Created by

There are so many different styles of writing available to our students, why not give them a digital way to explore them all?

Mya

(age 7)

Far too often our students are made to write with a pen or pencil on a piece of paper. In today’s world while there is a place for pen and paper, our students can and should harness the power of technology to share their writing with the world.

No matter what your students are learning about using digital tools to support written work is a helpful idea. At the most basic level Book Creator allows your students to be creative with their writing by being able to change fonts, text, and colours.

They can add interactive links, images, videos, and even their recorded voice. If the act of writing words is a struggle for your students they can use the voice to text feature.

When their writing is complete they can even have the book read back to them. But the best yet is that they can easily share this writing online with anyone from their classmates to the WORLD!

Max

Created by

(age 8)

Jaya

Created by

(age 7)

So where do you begin? First off decide on the type of writing you want from your students, or better yet let them decide! Let your students explore the features of Book Creator so that they too can become digital authors. Isn’t it about time?

Here are a few different genres of writing to explore:

Expository

Persuasive

Narrative

Descriptive

Instructional Manuals

Complaint books

Novels

Research Books

Advertisements

Diaries

Travel guides

Poetry

Speeches

Scripts

Recipe Books

Newspapers

Editorial reviews

Storytelling

Biographies

Songs lyrics

Once you have the type of writing you are looking for, invite your students to do their writing with Book Creator. You'll be surprised by what they can create.

2. Let's become poets!

Poetry is one of those rare writing units that most students can easily connect with.

Where else can punctuation and capitalization be less of a concern? Book Creator is the perfect place to capture this artistic expression of writing.

When writers are given the opportunity to explore poetry it seems many writing fears disappear.

The best way to begin is by introducing poems that feature key poetic elements such as simile, metaphor, alliteration, or personification. With some examples floating around, encourage your students to write their own poems.

Cat Cuts Cake

Created by Ameera (age 7)

Author Tip

Sajjad's alliteration example

With some text down, it's time to explore fonts and colours, import images, and find ways to be creative! It's always fun to add voice to poems too as it brings them to life.

If you are limited by the time you have access to your technology, consider creating a shared book where each student adds their own page or pages to the same book, thus creating a class book that can be shared with friends and families online.

Useful: How to publish and share your book online

Laurence

Created by

Jacob

Created by

(age 8)

(age 7)

Jaya

(age 7)

3. Inspired by others

Have you ever read one of those great picture books that you know your students could be inspired by? Book Creator is the perfect tool to capture that inspiration.

There are so many great picture books that can inspire all types of learners. Books like This Plus That by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, The Peace Book by Todd Parr, or an old classic The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.

The best place to start is with a book with a repeating frame. Share the book with your students, and then let them recreate their own versions.

Inspired by Todd Parr's Peace book

A photo of Todd Parr's book The Peace Book.

Take a look at Ryan's example page

Created by Rian (age 8)

For younger students it might be best to create a template that they can follow, but for older students they will enjoy having the freedom to create their own version of the book.

With any age students can also contribute a page or two to a class book. By adapting a popular author's story frame even the most reluctant writers will want to join in too.

Useful: How to create a template book

Read the multi-student combined book example

4. Say no to "SAID"!

Do you ever get tired of reading the same words over and over again in your students writing?

Why not help them spice up their writing by getting them to create books with alternatives to those overly common words like 'said', 'nice', 'good', or 'bad'.

Invite your students to collect alternative ways to write common words but instead of creating a text-only document, use the comic book features of Book Creator to enhance their products.

Useful: How to create comic books

Author Tip

This lesson can work for both individual students creating their own language-rich resource, but also for an entire class by creating a collaborative book that each student can access and use with their own writing. Imagine how powerful your students' writing could be with a student created resource like this at their fingertips?

To create this word resource have your students search and collect different ways to say or write common words. Once they have gathered a decent list invite them to use the comic panels to display their various word options.

Useful: How to make a collaborative book

Words that work well for this lesson include:

Say

Slow

Good

Happy

Bad

Sad

Walk

Look

Fast

Move

Interesting

Scared

5. How is your reading and

writing improving

Throughout a school term and year a lot of learning takes place.

For many of us we don’t notice the day to day changes because they are happening so slowly and we are in the middle of them. Book Creator is the perfect tool to capture that hard-to-see growth over time.

To make this work either create a template that can be shared with each student, or have each student create their own “reading” or “writing” book. If you’re more comfortable creating a template consider adding pages that identify the time of year that the reading or writing sample is taking place, perhaps another page with student reflection prompts, and a third page for teacher reflection prompts. Have a few of these page combinations so that your students are all set up to add their reading or writing sample.

Encourage your students to regularly (at least twice a term) upload an image of their reading and writing. Use the voice record feature to have them record themselves reading their text sample or their writing sample. Have them re-listen to what they have recorded and self reflect.

Kindergarten child independently self reflecting.