Fantastic Flying Books app is Fantastic!

On Friday, my students had a chance to spend some time with the app of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  I had planned on having students read/listen/interact with the book for part of the period and then write about it, but they had such a great time with the app that we never got to the writing part.  Students were paired up with their headphone splitters, headphones, and iPads.  They spread out throughout the library absorbed in the book, and all I heard were their reactions to the app:  laughter, giggles, oohs and aahs, and comments like, "Look at his face!", "That's cool!", "Let's see that again."  

Thinking about how to write about the story

They loved playing the piano within the story

 

They had a great time creating words within the alphabet cereal and then taking photos of them.

 Afterwards all the students said they preferred the app to the movie. One student expressed the reason why so well; she said, "You felt like you were experiencing the story."  The interactive app draws the reader in rather that being a passive watcher of the film.
Students will continue with their ELL teacher on Monday to write about the app with this objective:
Students will be able to summarize a story by writing about it in complete thoughts and sentences.