Earth Day Unit-{Day #4: A Public Service Announcement}

Although Earth Day has gone and passed, we have continued on with our learning on taking care of our planet. We began by reviewing what we have learned about taking care of the earth with this wonderful freebie from Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade.

We then put our pencils away and went digital. Yesterday my class blew my mind with their abilities to create Earth Day books using the Book Creator app on our iPads. Today they made me even prouder when we created public service announcement videos using iMovie on our iPads. 

When deciding this was a small project I wanted us to complete this week, I worried about how I was going to pull it off because we hadn't ever worked in taking videos or on iMovie. I also worried about how I was going to be able to help every single one of my students with their video; I mean, after all, I am only one person. When I went to bed last night, while trying to fall asleep, I came up with a plan on how we would be able to do these videos without any tears...from me. Here is how I decided to do it. 

I began by splitting my fifteen students into four groups. These groups had two tasks to complete in their first five minutes of meeting: decide on a group name and designate someone as the director of the movie and the rest would be actors. Now let me tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed (and still am!) the group names they came up with. Can you guess which one was is my favorite from our list below? Yep, The Combustible Lemons! I asked one of the group members in that group if she knew what combustible meant, and she did! #unexpectedproudmoment 

{Knee to knee collaboration at it's finest!}

After this short grouping process, I had students grab their iPads and head to a table with their group. While I went around working with each group, my students were able to get on their favorite iPad app, Toca Builders.

I first met with The Rockstars this afternoon, but I also had time to meet with The Super Sanders. The process for making their videos went very similarly. We began by writing a "script" for their movie of what they wanted to make sure they included about taking care of the Earth. They had seven items on their script and it went like this (both groups had different items they wanted to include):

*intro

*turn off lights

*recycle glass

*plant flowers

*pick up trash

*walk or ride a bike

*end

Each item on the list needed an individual video taken of it. The group's director decided on who was going to be in each video, and they recorded it. After each video was taken, they returned to their script and figured out what video they needed to do next and who would be the actor for it. I gave them all creative rights in decided how and where they wanted to do their video. I was there to just provide support when needed. This was the best part for me. Not because I didn't have to do anything, because that was definitely the farthest thing from the truth possible, but because I was able to see raw collaboration of my sweet Kinders. It made my heart so happy, but also a little sad to think about how far they all have come this year and how they are preparing to move on to first grade and leave my class. I'm not ready to let them go!!!! Okay, sorry for that slight tangent... back to business...

After the group had all of the videos they needed for their movie, we went to our iMovie app and created our first project. They decided on a theme for their movie and added their video clips to their movie feed in the order they wanted them. We then went back and added titles, or captions, to each video. 

I'll be honest, it seems like it is a lot of work, but broken down into smaller parts, it is and was completely feasible. One group specifically was able to finish their entire movie on their own after me just showing them one time how to add a video clip to their feed and a title/caption. That made it SUPER easy. I was just there to help with finding letters on the keyboard, if needed. Seriously, if my Kinders can do this now, can you imagine what they will be able to do when they are in fifth, eighth, or twelfth grades?! So. Exciting!

Okay, so now that you know what our process was for creating our movies, here are the two that were created today.

I'm so pleased with these movies, and even prouder of the sweet kiddos who created them. I'm thoroughly looking forward to the movies that will be created by our other two groups tomorrow.