Using Storybird to Write Stories

Do your students love to write stories, but hate to draw?  Do you teach little ones who can dictate a story to you, but have a hard time "writing" a story?  Are you a "non-artist?"  Then Storybird is for you!

This wonderful site can be used by all grade & age levels to write stories using beautiful illustrations.   

Early Childhood:  The class can choose an illustrator that appeals to them and use the pictures to dictate a story to an adult.

Elementary and higher:  At this age level, the individual students could choose their illustrations and write their own stories.  The program also has a feature where you can use your own illustrations.

 

The site is extremely user friendly.  The user can just drag and click the illustrations of their choice.  They can then type their words into the text boxes.  


Teachers:  This can be used to add your students' names to a class and the teacher can then add assignments that follow a theme that the students will create stories for.  There is even a fundraising component where the students' stories could be used to raise money for the school.


If you're anything like me, then you aren't the best artist.  Storybird is the site for budding writers without artistic abilities.

Have you ever tried Storybird?  How would you use it in your classroom or your home?


Alexis

Websites We Love

My sons LOVE working on the computer!  I think they want to be more like us.

Here are some websites that they love lately:

1)  Starfall

This site is a free public service to teach children to read with phonics. The site uses a systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice.  It is geared toward preschool, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, special education, homeschool, and English language development (ELD, ELL, ESL).

"The Nag" likes to click on the letter and listen to the short rhymes that go with the sounds.

 2)  Kerpoof

This site is owned by the Walt Disney Company.  It is a way for children to create drawings, storyboards, comic strip type pictures, tell stories, make animated videos, and more.  This site can be used in the classroom by having the students make comic type pictures while telling facts from their learning using the speech bubbles for the characters.

"Little Ricky" currently enjoys making spooky Halloween pictures.  He made a Native American picture with facts in Social Studies at school.


3)   Brainpop

This site can be utilized at both school and at home.  There is a nominal fee for use, but your school and/or district may already have a subscription.  It features short videos on various topics from grammar to science to current events.  Following the videos are learning games and quizzes.  BrainPop can be used for all age levels, and BrainPop Jr. is geared toward Kindergarten to 3rd graders.  The students in my classroom get so excited when I introduce or review a concept using BrainPop.



Using the internet with kids is a valuable resource, especially when they think they are playing when really they are learning.

Alexis