Augmented Reality Basketball App for Math

A few weeks ago, while in Austin, I attended @EdcampATX! The Austin sponsors did a great job of hosting the event.

@CoburnCori (Cori Coburn-Shiflett) facilitated the session on Augmented Reality. We talked Aurasma and ColAR Mix.  Love both of those, but I had never seen . . .
ARBasketball - Augmented Reality Basketball Game by Augmented Pixels Co Ltd

This is the perfect app for your sporty kids!

To start shootin' some augmented hoops you will need to download the image below.

It is the trigger that allows you to virtually shoot hoops! (Click on the image below for the trigger or access the one like this in the link at the end of the post.)

It is best to play the single version. The multiplayer version wants you to connect online. 

There are various game modes. 

Here it is in action! Notice how the basketball hoop appears over the trigger. Use the bar on the right to pull down, release and shoot. Also, notice in the bottom left corner, this allows you to move to different parts of the court by moving the angle of iPad.

The 2 minute game!

The 5 minute game!

So many great ideas for this app!  

I created a few math activities to use with the AR basketball.
Click {here} for a free copy of the activities.

Have a great Saturday!

Five for Friday

It's been some time since I have done a Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Since, my daughter moved from 5th grade to 6th grade, we now have 7 teachers. We must be a bit more creative in our fun little "we appreciate what you do," gift. (We will do a bigger gift at the end of the year.) So, for the holiday . . .

This Thanksgiving we were able to visit my brother, niece, sister-in-law and her family for Thanksgiving in Jacksonville, Texas! My sister-in-law's family has an unbelievable ranch!

I brought my traditional "Cornucopia Mix" for everyone to snack on while we waited for the turkey and trimmings! Plus, pumpkin pie, snicker-doodle cookies, and frosted animal cookies - the daughter request!

 

Tomorrow, we send out the annual Dolat Cookie Bake! These are the best cookies E-V-E-R with the secret ingredient!

 Super fun math basketball coming soon! Posting tomorrow!

 Happy Friday!

Can't Live without it Linky!

I was visiting Suzanne's Krazy Town blog post about Can't Live Without It link up, created by Fun in Room 4B and Beyond . . . and thought what a fun linky!

I can't live without my crockpot . . . especially, my super cute one from Target! (I have 3 crockpots, 2 singles and 1 triple.)
Hubby makes the best queso for the impromptu Friday happy hour! (We always have the ingredients stocked.)
Most often, it is used for Sunday cooking. Fills the house with yummy goodness! And . . . perfect for during the week. Love the fact that by the time I get home, dinner is ready!

Next up . . . I don't know what it is about a good lip gloss, but it just makes me happy. It could be a challenging day and all I have to do is slap on some lip gloss . . . and it makes it all better! My 2 favorites . . . the first and the third one! Snow Pink and Super Natural! Lipgloss makes everything better!

 A bit of Kendra Scott!

For Mother's Day, my daughter created this at the Kendra Scott Color Bar!

And . . . finally, my Vera Bradley house shoes. 

Check out and link up with Fun in Room 4B and Beyond for some other great "must haves" to simplify your life with organizational ideas, home ideas, clothing ideas, and teaching supplies you can't live without!

Stage Pro App Free Right Now!

One of our teachers shared this great app, Stage Pro . . . so I had to share with you all. It is too good to pass up!

Here is what she shared to with our school, "If you know me you know I LOVE a good app!  And boy is this a winner!  Stage Pro: Interactive Whiteboard is free for a limited time.  (There is always a free version, but everything in it is an in app purchase. This version includes everything for free!)  This app lets you draw on, type on, talk over, and record video.  It also includes backgrounds such as graph paper (can you say math lessons?!), world maps (hello geography!), live video, or a photo from your camera roll! It automatically saves to your camera roll.  It's really user friendly!  Give it a try while it's free!  You won't regret it!" ~Rachel 
(Follow her on Twitter . . . @Firstgrade104)

Basically, document camera meets interactive whiteboard!

Here is the snippet from iTunes . . .
Stage is an exciting teaching and demonstration tool that students and educators can use to share ideas and interact with curriculum. Use the iPad camera to display live video of objects, textbooks, student work, and other projects, and sketch, write, label, or laser point in real-time. With options like storing labels, recording, PDF import, and wireless connection to a projector via Airplay, Stage makes lessons fully interactive, collaborative, and engaging.

I'm excited to see how our teachers and students use it in the classroom!

Inspiring Students to Write Using Legos

This week I worked with one of our 4th grade ELA teachers.
Amy had written a grant for Lego StoryStarter kits. I was excited to be part of the planning and "kick-off" of the kits.

Lego StoryStarter kits are a hands-on tool to help inspire students to write. The kits are designed for grades 2nd - 5th.
The set consists of 1,144 carefully selected LEGO^® elements, including assorted characters, animals, accessories, icons, basic bricks, building plates for creating up to five story scenes, and one extra building plate for building the StoryStarter spinner. The set also includes two element trays with separate compartments for sorting the elements into categories. 

With her class, Amy reviewed the importance of the setting while writing a story. 

There are so many parts to each kit, we felt it was important for the students to create norms for working with the kit. Setting the expectations for the kits is so important. Students needed to realize that working with these Legos is different from playing with Legos at home. Allowing the students to create the norms, set the tone for the Legos as a learning tool.

Students started off by putting together the setting spinner. These are used to help generate ideas for students. The various categories are time, category, mood and setting.

Once, their setting and time were established . . . the building began! Talk about engaged students excited to create and write!

Some finished settings!

Students then used this sheet to record the elements as well as start a rough draft of their story.

Follow Amy's class on Twitter to see their fun Lego StoryStarter writing adventure! Amy also hosted the Global Read Aloud slow chat  on Twitter  for the Fourteenth Goldfish! Very cool!

Stay tuned for more updates on using Legos to inspire writers!

GRA - Slow Chat on Twitter

This week, my friend Amy and her class, will host The Fourteen Goldfish Global Read Aloud slow chat on Twitter.

A slow chat means that Amy's class (@teamwonder2014) will ask questions throughout the week and your class can answer them any time.  

The hashtag for the slow chat is #GRAGoldfish5.

The chapters for the week are chapters 21-25.

There is a hashtag for general 14th Goldfish tweets and that is #GRAGoldfish and then there is the #GRA14 for the whole event this year. There are over 300,000 students registered for this year's GRA.

I hope you will join Mrs. Soupiset's class for the slow chat.