My goal was to encourage the students' involvement, provide parents with key information, and generally improve the parents' and students' experience. I found my answer in ToonUps animated clip art. By incorporating ToonUps in my email newsletters and classroom Power Point presentations, I caught the parents' attention on back to school night, and am keeping the students' attention in the classroom!
For our annual Back to School Night I incorporated a classroom Power Point presentation with the students' images and voices welcoming their parents and talking about what they are enjoying about Kindergarten. I can still remember the fun reactions of the parents as they saw their children in their new school environment talking to them via animated clip art!
As a Kindergarten teacher, the relationship I develop with their parents is critical to their success. This relationship starts with Kindergarten Orientation. Using a classroom Power Point template to deliver my presentation with ToonUps, made all the difference. I added fun ToonUps clipart designed for teachers to break the ice, introduce myself, and discuss what their children would be learning this year in Kindergarten.
As a teacher, ToonUps provides me with much more than just animated clip art images to use as teaching tools.. The full product line includes downloadable high quality cartoon clip art images, innovative PowerPoint backgrounds and templates, and animated clip art to which any user can add their own photos and edit their own audio. Can you imagine - customizable clipart that allows you to add images that may include your own photo, photo of students and even their own voices? This was more than I was looking for and am using this product throughout the year.
This year instead of our typical announcement about Kindergarten Orientation, I reached out with bulk emails to all parents. I used ToonUps this year as part of these emails. I downloaded the editable clipart images and added my own picture. I used my own talking head to remind my parents of upcoming events in a fun way (ToonUps for Teachers site)!
In addition to this, for an upcoming field trip to the local zoo, I am sending families a ToonUps animated eCard as a reminder and including those with fun animal images! The ecard includes a list of things the students will need to bring. The ToonUp animated clip art is great for email messages that remind parents that students need to turn in their picture money, party money, book order or a form for the office. It's such a great way to prioritize our student's needs and communicate with parents at the same time! I love to use ToonUps Animations as an interactive introduction to classroom lessons. I took pictures of each of my students and added them to ToonUps YouStar clip art. Each student's image is used to introduce topics or lessons. Their pictures are on characters that are dressed for the topic! This is so much more engaging and will spark their interest right off the bat. George Washington himself can co-star with me in my PowerPoint and help history lessons come alive.
In Kindergarten, we spend a lot of time focusing on social interaction and making good choices. I use the ToonUps animated clip art in Power Point presentations to create problem solving scenarios. After we watch the scenarios, we discuss the best ways to solve the problem using cooperation.
The holidays are just around the corner. I love the ToonUps animated holiday e-cards to email holiday greetings to parents and teachers throughout the year. Birthdays are always exciting in the life of a student. With Toonups birthday e-cards it's so much fun to wish my students a happy birthday! I enjoy the e-cards for my colleagues too. It's a time saver and fun way to let these important people know I am thinking about them during the busy school year. They are so easy to put together and my students and their parents love getting them! This link shows you how: http://www.toonups.com/free-holiday-ecards.7
I showed ToonUps to one of my fellow teachers who has a class of energetic fourth graders. She instantly had a brainstorm when she saw the site. To keep students' attention she created a classroom trivia game using the Historical cartoons in a classroom power point presentation! The kids loved the fun images, and sound effects. It keeps their attention, makes them laugh, and aids in retention of information!
As you can probably tell, ToonUps animated clip art is a big part of my school year! I feel lucky to have found these great teacher tools. They are easy to use, easy to customize and fun to view. Just a few simple clicks and you can download something that is will change the way you communicate with students, parents and colleagues. For more information and to start animating your clip art presentations, visit www.toonups.com and get started!
Debbie Sachar is entering her 16th Year of teaching. She has her Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education.and Psychology and a Master's Degree in Reading
No comments:
Post a Comment