Fun with the FREE ChatterPix Kids App

Oh what a wonderful FREE app! I just wanted to share ChatterPix Kids by Duck Duck Moose in case you haven't seen or used it with your class.  Deedee Wills (Mrs. Wills Kindergarten) share a sweet sample on her Facebook page on Friday, and I went right to the app store to try it out. Thank you, Deedee! I just love this.

It is super easy to use!

 A child draws a picture, and takes a picture of the picture on the iPad in the app.  (You can also use pictures from the camera roll.)  Then, he use his finger to draw a line where he wants the mouth to be.

Next, ChatterPix Kids gives a little 3 second countdown before the child begins recording.  The child has 30 seconds to record.

After that, the child can add stickers, decorations, frames, or text.  Then,there is an option to save it or not. That's it!  You can save it to your camera roll if you want to use it for something later or share it with the class- or the children can just have fun with it and not save it.

There are SO MANY ways you could use this.  First of all, it's just a fun app for the kids on the iPad. Today, I let the kids just play with it. They had a ball!  I asked my kids not to save what they made, because I was afraid I would have no storage space at all on the iPad. So, they recorded, played it back for their friends at the table, laughed, and made more. It was great for them to play with it and practice.

I just started thinking of so many ways I could use this with the kids! Here are a few quick ones-

- For math, the numbers could help review math facts.  I made a quick one using a number 5 picture I found on Google Images...  It's not fancy, but you'll get the idea! (Insert cute, adorable child's voice instead of mine...)

-When you study shapes, children could draw a shape, give it some eyes, draw on a mouth, and then tell all about the shape with this app.  OR they could find a shape with a face like this one- are you ready ... 

                                       
OK- so now you have an idea of how it goes... here are some other ideas you could use.

- Have children draw a favorite character from a book and record a quick book commercial about why other children would like that book. The character will say the book commercial.

-Have different children draw different punctuation marks with eyes, then draw the mouth, so the mouth teaches what the punctuation mark does.  "I am a period.  I tell the reader to STOP at the end of a sentence. "

-When you are learning letters, have each child draw and color a letter, or find a letter with a face.  They can have that letter introduce itself and say, "My name is M.  I say mmmmm. You can find me at the beginning of words like mouse, mitten, and music."

I am going to do this next year, and then put all of the little videos into an Alphabet Prezi for the children to use to review letters.

- Have a child research and draw a picture of an animal, maybe as part of a non-fiction or science unit.  Then, record three facts about the animal that the animal can say right out if its "mouth."

- Have the children take pictures of themselves.  They can practice introducing themselves, saying their first and last name, spelling their name, saying their address, sharing their favorite things...

-OR you could have each child share a tip on how to be a kind friend, stay safe, be healthy...

- Have children write poems and draw a picture to go with the poem.  They can record themselves reciting the poem, and the illustration will say it. Deedee's example was a little bee illustration, and the child recorded a little poem that went with it, so the bee was saying it.  So precious!

- Have children make a special card for mom or dad.  They can draw a picture of themselves with mom or dad, and then draw a mouth on them and record a special message to mom or dad. You can save these  little videos, and then you could email them to their mom or dad for something special.

Here are some we did today for Earth Day with the water cycle.  The children know the song, so in our small group, we heard the syllables and wrote the HUGE words 'evaporation,' 'condensation,' 'collection,' and 'precipitation.'  We illustrated these words, then drew a big raindrop in the middle of the paper.  We gave our raindrop eyes- and then had a ball with the app! I called each child up one at a time during free choice to record.

                                        

                                        

                           

This one is a shy little raindrop.

                                         

I have an Apple TV so I can airplay from the iPad onto the TV.  You could save these as videos and play them on the Smartboard, too.  

I think it would be a great app to use when I am going to put the videos together for a whole group project at the end, even for an Open House or end of the year video.  

OK  I wasn't going to leave this in- but whatever... It's fun AND creepy at the same time!

Have a ball, and thank you for stopping by!