Minds in Bloom is thrilled to have Ann from Little Library of Learning guest blogging for us today! Ann has written a great post for us all about an incredible app called Quiver. When you’re using Quiver in the classroom (or in the library), you provide your students with coloring sheets and assign them to color them in a way that aligns with your lesson topic. Then, you use an iPad or other tablet to view the colored sheet with the app, which turns it into a 3-D image! Pretty cool stuff! Keep reading to learn more.
Hi, I am Ann Tracy, an elementary school librarian. For years, I had a very traditional library. I read picture books to the little ones and introduced the Dewey Decimal System (yes, we still use it). Upper grade students learned to use reference books (dictionaries, almanacs, and encyclopedias). I had my pocket charts and Velcro board. Gradually, technology made me rethink some of these lessons.
The district installed a SMARTBoard. We subscribed to online databases for our research projects. I got an iPad (yes, only one!). I bought some PowerPoint game shows from Teachers Pay Teachers. Suddenly, some people thought we were having too much fun in the library!
Recently, I started a Makerspace in my library. I joke with the students that sometimes we will actually make something (bookmarks, origami, geometric drawings, etc.), and other times we will use technology or do STEM projects. Since we have no computer teacher in the building, it is often up to me to introduce technology.
One lesson combines a “low-tech” activity the kids love (coloring) with “high-tech.” There is an app called Quiver that allows coloring pages to pop into 3-D via augmented reality. AR imposes video and audio multimedia components onto “real-world” objects. Some books and flashcards now contain AR “markers” that use other apps. It is also used in some video games, such as Pokemon Go, where animated figures are projected onto a real-world environment.
So, in Quiver, sneakers dance, planes fly, firetrucks race down the road, kids kick soccer balls, birds start flapping their wings, and flags wave in the breeze (all from a flat coloring sheet)!
The app is available for iOS, Android, and Fire OS. I had it installed on my iPad and hooked it up to the SMARTBoard so the kids could see the results on the “big screen.” You need to print out the coloring sheets from the Quiver website.
I introduced the app in a dramatic way, just handing out coloring sheets and colored pencils. Ho, hum! Well, coloring in the library is better than database instruction, right? (Thought the students!) Then, after a few minutes, I casually put my sheet under the iPad’s camera. Suddenly, a 3-D sneaker started dancing to music!
“Whoa!”
“What’s that?”
“Awesome!” The kids started screaming (who said, “Shh we’re in the library”?)
Even though the coloring sheets have fun themes, of course I wanted to keep it academic. So, third graders decorated sneakers with celestial bodies from the solar system (from their Science curriculum). They got a bit carried away with the thought of becoming NBA sneaker design moguls.
I said, “You have been studying the solar system in class. We did some solar system activities in Library, too. Today, we are going to design a solar system sneaker. Questions?”
“Yeah, does the design have to be about the solar system?”
[SIGH!]
For the Starbucks latte cup, fourth graders made presidential campaign cups (they had just finished researching the U.S. presidents). I showed them some mottos from presidential campaigns, such as “I Like Ike.” Or, they could write their own, such as, “Log Cabins Are Us.” My sample was Millard Fillmore, who read the dictionary for fun and started the first presidential library (a man after my own heart). My motto was, “Fill More Libraries.” Yes, they groaned!
Fifth graders colored polyhedrons (which they study in Math), specifically Platonic Solids. Platonic Solids have the same polygon on each face. The most common is the cube (all square faces), otherwise known mathematically as a hexahedron. The polyhedrons “exploded” into 3-D, with lightning bolt special effects! Cool!
Other coloring sheets you might try: designing a flag for a real or imaginary country, creating a logo for the Ford truck (for a local business), writing a fact sheet about butterflies to go along with that sheet, and retelling a fairy tale using the farmhouse picture. Since the company was developed in New Zealand, there are some coloring sheets of New Zealand native animals—great for a multicultural study.
There are now four Quiver apps: Quiver, Quiver for Education, Quiver Fashion, and Quiver Masks. Most of the apps and coloring sheets are free; some have a modest cost. Even though Quiver for Education costs $5.99, I did the “educational” lessons above using the free Quiver app. You just have to be creative!
Ann Tracy is an elementary school librarian in New York. She combines her love of traditional library lessons with technology. She has achieved certification as a Google Educator, Levels I and II. She sells library and other products on Teachers pay Teachers at Little Library of Learning Store. Her Cocker Spaniel, Kilian, keeps her busy at home and is sometimes featured in her blog, Little Library of Learning Blog.
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