Autumn is upon us and we are in the midst of fun projects in both 4th and 5th grade encore tech!

4th grade students are having fun learning digital photography techniques. This time of year makes it especially fun to get outside and take photos. The fall colors are spectacular and we are doing our best to capture the essence of fall with our Panasonic Lumix Digital Cameras! We have some beautiful foliage around the school including two outdoor gardens and a large wooded area adjacent to the school. The natural beauty that surrounds us at Avoca West makes this project especially fun. Before going outside to shoot, 4th graders learned advanced photography techniques like the rule of thirds, how to shoot a closeup of the subject and practiced taking great photos without using the digital zoom.  They worked in partners or groups of three and students passed the camera back and forth after taking two pictures.
With a bit of guidance and a short lesson on photo techniques, we were able to capture some great photography. Click below to see what we are up to in 4th grade encore tech!

(Please click the play button and give the videos a moment to render)

Fall Photo Shoot 2

The 5th grade students just began a unit on foley art. Foley art is the art of creating sound effects. They will be making enhanced poetry podcasts that are related to the month of October by layering their voices with sound effects, voice effects and music using GarageBand. Students chose an Autumn poem or a spooky poem and broke the poem down in script format with their small group. Then, they brainstormed sound effects that would work with their poem to make it more interesting for listeners. I provided students with a box of sound effect creation tools from around my house. The students are having fun playing with all of the items and creating interesting sounds.  For more information, check out my 5th grade page. Click below to see this project in action!

FoleyArt