The monster eats everything!

This post isn't about anything that I recently taught. In fact, this post is about a lesson I taught way back in October... around Halloween. But really, it's about a technology tool that I used in that lesson. My third graders learned all about monsters and their facial features during the month of October. For the final project, they had to create their own monster, write descriptive sentences about their monster, and present it to the class. All the final products when into a class book which I bound and put in our classroom library. The students LOVE seeing their work in book form and LOVE to read books by other classes. Facial features were a brand new topic to my third graders. They had already had words for eyes and nose, but didn't know how to say eyebrows, teeth, etc. I wanted a fun way to introduce these new vocabulary words without just using flashcards. One thing that I learned both from my professor and Helena Curtain is that stories with lots of pictures are a great way to introduce to new vocabulary and engage your class. I couldn't find a story that taught exactly what I wanted my kids to learn, so I wrote my own! Instead of doing a simple word document or power point to create my pages, I decided to create a prezi. (I'll provide the link to see my prezi at the end after explaining what prezi is all about.)


Prezis ("The Zooming Presentation[s]") are basically the new form of powerpoint. They allow you to zoom in and out, view at different angles, and just make power points that much more fun. My mother (who used to be a middle school science teacher and is now principal of that school - Go Mom!) taught me this tool and I have used it for so many slideshows, presentations, and my own stories since then. Prezi is great because it allows you to make the presentation so much more fun and engaging than just a regular powerpoint. It is also super simple to use. There are lots of tutorials on the website that teach you all sorts of cool tricks to make your presentation even cooler. The best part? It's free! Now, you can choose to pay for an option that allows you to do more (Check out the different options here) but I have found the free version to be exactly what I need. I guess the next option up is also free for students and teachers, but I haven't explored that yet. If someone does, please let me know what you think!


Since I teach elementary school, I, as the teacher, am typically the only one creating presentations. However, this would be a great tool for students to use as they get older. Like I've said, it's just like power point... only way cooler. There are some high school teachers in my district who use it with their students, and from what I've heard, the students are more animated about creating slideshows using prezi than just power point. 


Finally... as promised... my prezi about monsters! Enjoy!