Online pop-up books

I was having difficulties trying to come up with a fun and different way to introduce vocabulary to my students. I've read books, although most times those don't quite align with what I want to teach. In those cases, I've created my own "books" using power point and prezi (check out this post about prezi). I've shown little video clips and made my own (using xtranormal... read this post for more information). I've shown big, printed-off clip-art pictures and matched the pictures to labels. I've used props, like classroom objects or stuffed animals, and had the kids pass the objects around the class. I've done all these ways many times before during this year and I wanted something new for my 3rd graders unit on school subjects. I wanted something different but didn't know what to do...


Luckily, the technology person at my school just showed me this awesome new website a few weeks ago. It's this awesome website called Zoo Burst that allows you to make online pop-up books! It's different, it's fun, and it's easy to make! You can sign up for a free account (which I did) which has plenty of options for characters, backgrounds, and extra props. If you pay for an account (which the technology person did) then it also comes with a voice feature. I think if I worked with students that had and brought their laptops with them to every class, paying for this service would be totally worth it. I can just imagine students creating their own children's story and recording themselves telling the story. What a great oral assessment! However, my students don't have their own laptops, so I just signed up for the free version. It's very simple to create the scenes; you can upload your own pictures or use their clipart for characters, props, and background. Each character can say whatever you want it to, and there is also a narration caption for the page itself. There is a limit of 10 pages (may be more for the paid version, I'm not sure) and I found that to be plenty. Here is my example.


You're probably wondering what my students thought. Well, they loved it! They smiled and giggled every time a new character popped up and even started reading some of the words themselves. It made for a fun and interactive lesson. We read it through once while I asked them questions in Spanish about the content of the book (Do you use a calculator in math? Do you run in music class?). The second time reading, I asked them who taught each subject and gave ridiculous examples to help them understand what I was asking. All in all, it was a very successful and engaging day.