Mystery Book Club via Skype

We have participated in quite a few Mystery Skypes this year and my class loves them! Almost all of our Mystery Skypes have been geography based, guessing the location of the other class by asking them yes or no questions. However, last week we branched out and did a Mystery Book Club via Skype.

It was very challenging! While there are only 50 possible states to choose from, there are literally millions of books! Although my class consists of voracious readers, we have not read every single book ever published, so we had to use our research, problem solving and deductive reasoning skills to solve the mystery.

Clues that helped us guess the books the other class presented us included author information, award information, publication date and genre. When students realized they were not going to be able to effortlessly figure out the book title, they quickly took to the Internet and started researching. Students also formed great follow up questions to help them figure out the book title.

My students really enjoyed this new challenge and I was impressed by their research and presentation skills.

Biography Book Report

Can You Spot Helen Keller, Ronald Reagan and Abigail Adams?

We had a lot of fun presenting our biography book reports and most of the students got really into his or her character!

Can You Spot Thomas Edison, Jackie Robinson and Christopher Columbus?

Watch the video clip below to see exactly who we had in our classroom!

Using Augmented Reality With Book Reports

Earlier this year students created book jackets for a book report assignment. Then we took this activity a step further! Students recorded their book jacket presentation using an iPad. Then, we took a photo of the actual book cover, not the one they created. We uploaded the photo and the video into the Aurasma App. Now, when we use that app and scan the book, the video of the student presenting their book report pops up. 

Screenshot From the Aurasma App
 
This is a type of technology called Augmented Reality and it has been a lot of fun to integrate into the classroom this year! At home if you download the Aurasma App (it's free) you can search for my channel. If you scan the book your child read, you may be in for a treat! We created a brief video on this project. Click below to view.