Procedural Writing Unit with iPad Integration

Last week we began our Procedural Writing Unit.  We began the unit immersing the students with different procedural books.  Students went on a hunt in our room for procedural texts and they found them in many of the books they had in their book boxes.  We also brainstormed procedural writing topics.  The students came up with so many things to write about!

We have done many activities in the past two weeks about procedural writing.  Here are a few ideas:

1. Using The Explain Everything App To Produce a Procedural Video

One of the activities Mrs. Pelletier and I did with the students to show the purpose and how to model how to write a procedural text was a science experiment.  We performed the experiment in front of the class and then the students and I wrote out the materials and steps we performed.  Students took pictures of the steps and then imported the pictures into Explain Everything.  Students then recorded their voices explaining the experiment.  Here is the finished product.

2.  Bubble Gum Fun!

The second Procedural writing activity was to have the students blow a bubble and then write the steps to blowing a bubble.  If you are interested in doing this activity, you can download it for free here.  Students were given a piece of Hubba Bubba to chew and then were asked to blow a bubble, thinking of the steps they performed while blowing the bubble.  Students then wrote their procedure down, created a face that looked like them and blew a pink balloon up to insert where the mouth should be.  The kids loved the lesson and the overall project turned out really cute!

3. Gingerbread Fun Using Explain Everything

In our third project, we read the Gingerbread Baby.  Students were then given gingerbread cookies and a picture of a gingerbread man.  Students were instructed to eat the gingerbread cookie and to take notes on the picture of the gingerbread man  according to the order they ate the gingerbread man.  Students then wrote their procedure for "How To Eat A Gingerbread Cookie"  Tomorrow, the students who have completed the writing assignment will be given another gingerbread cookie to take pictures of it for their video.  Then, the students will import the pictures into explain everything, explain their procedure using their writing assignment and post their final product on their blogs. (Using the Science Experiment video as a guide)  I have taken a screenshot of the success criteria checklist I created for this particular project.  

*As I am writing this post student's are still working on this project.  I will update when they have completed their videos and have uploaded them to their blogs.

Stay Tuned...
Next week, students will be choosing a procedural writing topic of their choice to write about and then will explain their topic on any content creation app of their choice using words, pictures, and video for their final project.  Students will then post their projects to their blogs.