CCE 4th graders have been learning about Texas explorers in social studies. To show what they learned, we created a menu of activities for them to choose from. Here are some of the choices students had: 

• Trading Card- Use the Trading Cards app to create a trading card of one explorer. Use the “Real Person” card. Save the finished product to your camera roll. 

• Diary Entry- In Pages, write a diary entry from the point of view of one of the explorers.   Be sure to save your work in Pages. You will copy the text and paste it into Weebly to create your blog post. 

• Comic- Use the Strip Designer app to create a comic that explains one explorer’s accomplishments. Save it to your camera roll.

• Puppet Show- Use the Puppet Pals app to create a scene with one explorer. Save it to your camera roll.

• Become an Explorer- Use the Mad Lips app to become one of the explorers and speak about your experience. Save it to your camera roll.

• Popplet- Create a web organizer using the Popplet app. Put one explorer’s name in the middle and add popples (bubbles) to include at least four details. At least two popples must be text. The others can be pictures or drawings. Save it to your camera roll.

• Explain an Explorer- Use the Explain Everything app to create a slideshow with at least 3 slides. Include a picture or text on each slide and narrate it. You can narrate it from your point of view as a student giving information about the explorer or as one of the explorer. Save it to your camera roll. 

• Book Design- You’ve been asked to design a textbook page with information on one explorer. Use the Pic Collage app to show how you would design the page. Include pictures, text, titles, maps, and other nonfiction text features. Save it to your camera roll. 

• Free Choice- Use an app of your choice, draw, build, or otherwise create something (does not have to be on the iPad) about one explorer. Make sure that it answers the three essential questions.

Once students had completed one activity for each of the five explorers they learned about, they put their work on their Weebly blogs. If asked for a password, it is cce2cce2. 

Then, students created Thinglinks. They used a map of Texas as the background image, and put spots on the map to show where different explorers went. The spots link to the activity the student completed on that particular explorer. Here is an example of a Thinglink a student created: 

Cedar Creek now has its own Aurasma channel! Aurasma is an augmented reality app that allows you to scan a picture or object, which triggers another image or a video. Fourth graders in Mrs. Raygor's social studies classes made videos of themselves giving information about a Native American tribe that lived in Texas on their iPads. After creating their video, students chose a trigger image that was posted in the commons. Trigger images were tagged with the Aurasma logo so visitors would know where to scan. Students presented their projects to a live audience as well. 

Here's a quick demonstration of Aurasma: 

This video will show you how to follow an Aurasma channel; just search for Cedar Creek Elementary to find us. Come to the Cedar Creek commons to see the students' projects! 

Mr. Stoops' 7th grade Texas History classes came over from Hill Country Middle School to share the books they created on Texas missions. Students chose to make print or digital books that contained a poem or song and were told from the perspective of someone living at the mission. Texas history is also part of the 4th grade social studies curriculum, and CCE 4th graders learned a ton from their HCMS teachers!