Drawing Digital Pictures for Dot Day Together From New Hampshire to Iowa With Our 4th and 5th Graders

Last week the 4th graders connected with their friends in Mr. G's class in New Hampshire.  Steve and I had been thinking of fun ways to connect using technology to celebrate creativity and the message of Dot Day with our students.  

Then Steve told me that we could connect using the website Aww.  Aww is a web whiteboard that can be used with a computer, iPad, tablet, or smartphone.    

                              

With Aww you can sketch and write in different colors and sizes.  

The coolest thing about Aww is that you can "Invite" others to join your Aww.

                              

Once you click on Invite, it gives you a URL to share with others.  

Steve created a Dot Day Room in TodaysMeet and his students added their Aww URL's to the room. They gave a short description of what they were drawing too. 

I added the Aww website and our Dot Day TodaysMeet to the 4th Grade Symbaloo so they could get to these two websites easily.

The students in Van Meter then went around the room and called out which drawing they were going to jump into online.

Mr. G told the kids a few rules before they got started.

They were using pointillism (drawings created using little dots) to create their art work so the kids in New Hampshire wanted our 4th graders to continue with that style.  Also, they couldn't erase each others work.

The main thing....work together to create something awesome.

Shortly after our students logged into the Aww drawings, they had questions for their friends in New Hampshire.  They went to the computer and asked questions over Skype.  It was fun to see them working together.

The 4th graders were a little hesitant to draw first but by asking questions or typing a message they got more comfortable.

Ben, from Mr. G's class, gave good advice to his partner in Van Meter.

I really enjoyed seeing how they compromised and talked through their drawings too.  

We definitely could have worked together for a lot longer than what we had allowed for that day.  But by using these two tools together, Steve and I found a possibility for a future project and connection.  

And the students made their mark while working together with a partner to create a drawing over 1,000 miles away.