Monday, October 3, 2011

BP3_Storybird

My daughter and I have been playing around with Storybird - which is described like this - "Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read, and print. Read them like books, play them like games, and send them like greeting cards. They're curiously fun."  - on their web site. This is a great tool for anyone because it allows you to be creative with your words and not worry about your drawing abilities. This is especially important for me because I don't have any drawing abilities!

The first step is to sign up for an account which is free and easy.

Signing up

The next steps are as follows: Start a storybird, choose an artist by look or theme, then begin creating your story.

  




It is simple. Just drag and drop the picture you want to use, position it on the canvas, and enter your text.


Continue until you have written your whole story. It's that simple. Then you save it, publish it, and/or send it to a friend.
 
                                                    

This is a great Web 2.0 tool for any age group, adults included. Not only does it allow you to create your own story complete with great artwork, but it is also a collaborative storytelling tool. Your students can create stories together! Oh, and did I mention that it was a lot of fun! My daughter and I had a great time learning to use this tool together. See the explanation below. Here is the URL for her poem: http://storybird.com/books/my-fatal-death/. Please go and read her 3 page Nature Poem she wrote last year in the 6th grade. (She had this poem published in the book A Celebration of Poets,  a Creative Communication publishing company for student writers: www.POETICPOWER.COM)

It was brought to my attention that the link to my daughter's storybird didn't work properly. So, I investigated. Below is the reason the link did not work:

MY DAUGHTER HAS BEEN CENSORED AT AGE 12! She thought this was very funny!! I'll remove the link.


Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. Cynthia MadanskiOctober 3, 2011 at 1:14 PM

    Jena,

    I have never heard of Storybird before, but now I am intrigued. Your daughter's poem "My Fatal Death" is outstanding; this is a great tool for integrating Science and Language Arts through poetry. I plan to try it out with my own children at home tonight.

    I am interested to see how students can collaborate and create stories together. I can see how this tool would work with young children and even middle school age children. I will look into this some more, particularly how students can collaborate as a group to create one Storybird as a team. Thanks so much for sharing!

    PS... I think the title "Are There Cows in France" would make a GREAT theme for a story!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jena WaytOctober 3, 2011 at 1:27 PM

    Thanks, Cyndee. I have never used Storybird before, but knew about it. There are several steps to creating a "class." Storybird uses a "class graph" to enable students to see each other's work. Once the students are connected, they can begin to collaborate. They can choose or you can assign. It is a little more involved than Google docs, but not that bad. I'm not sure if the teachers account costs or not. I know there is an option to upgrade, but I haven't checked that out.
    As far as the title of my blog, that is a good idea. I will definitely be thinking about it. My son also says random things during conversations. Maybe I will make it about him instead of a student. Hmmmm....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cynthia MadanskiOctober 4, 2011 at 6:47 PM

    My 5 year old just tried it out. Not quite as poetic as your daughter's story, but he had fun!

    http://storybird.com/books/a-monster-day-by-elijah-madanski-age-5/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joe MarquezOctober 7, 2011 at 8:24 PM

    This is a great site. It opens up such a huge area for students to stretch out their writing skills and imagination. I wonder if this would be an neat way to have my students create the story of how the different parts of the atom were discovered.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jena WaytOctober 8, 2011 at 5:47 PM

    Yes, but they would have to use the pictures already on the site. I have another story creature you can check out. It is: http://www.tikatok.com/
    I think Rena mentioned it in one of our wimba sessions. This tool allows you to upload self-drawn pictures or images. I think this might be a better choice for your science class and atoms. I love the story idea! You should do it. Your kids will love it too!!!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)