It's official. My student teacher, Mrs. O'Bryan, and I are obsessed with the iPads. We use them almost every day in Daily 5 (Listen to Reading, Word Work, Read to Self), and we are continually trying to find ways to integrate them into math, science, and social studies.
My new favorite App is Sock Puppets.
Make a 30 second sock puppet show about anything! (My students would chime in: "as long as it's appropriate for school.") Yes, I've taught them well. :D
You can choose your own sock characters, choose your background and props, and you can even change the pitch of the characters' voices to higher or lower! The students had a blast, and it's actually a great way to assess a recently taught skill or content.
We recently made sock puppet shows explaining the difference between needs and wants during our big economics unit. Check out a student's example below:
Tips for using the Sock Puppets App:
-Watch the countdown timer at the top to see how much you have left to talk.
-Have students write their "script" first to save time and mistakes.
-Have them sit as far away from one another as possible (as you can hear in the video, it gets very loud if they are all recording at once!) :)
-To make a new character talk, you have to click on it (an arrow will appear above its head).
-You totally do not have to upload them to YouTube! I only did that for blog purposes and to share with parents, but it is by no means a must, of course! (Side note: it was quite easy to upload them if you're into that sort of thing-haha.)