Technology Resources

This Mad-Lips Movie: The Quarter Note, is a great example of why The MadLips iPad APP is fast becoming one of my favorite tools for “Hooking” my students right from the beginning of class time. Mad-Lips is Easy to use! (unfortunately, this app is no longer available in the US) I find Mad-Lips is such an easy app to use once I shut my door so no one can make fun of me as I contort my lips and body –  holding the iPad at just the right angle to get the lighting perfect and my mouth at just the right distance away from the camera to avoid showing all the lip wrinkles and crooked teeth. It’s a hoot! All pride goes out the window! Mad-lips Movies Grab Attention! The Mad-Lips Quarter Note Movie is perfect for reinforcing the quarter note with my little ones. The kids listen to every word coming out of her squeaky voice and insist I replay it once more before they leave music class. For 60 seconds, I have their undivided attention and transitioning to the teachable moment is much easier than trying to calm them all down before starting to teach. The paid version of Mad-Lips allows for a 90sec recording and that’s the perfect amount of time to tease the children with an interesting blast of information. Mad-Lips, Snipping Tool, and DropBox Before I make the recording, I create the image and send it to my camera roll. In the case of the Quarter Note Movie, I created the image on my desktop computer by layering the girl’s face on top of the quarter note and using the “Snipping Tool” on my computer to create a .png image. I sent that image to my DropBox folder and was able to import it into the Mad-Lips app on my iPad.  The “Snipping Tool” on my computer is located in the Accessories folder and I use it constantly. Even while using the SMARTNotebook software, I use the Snipping tool to quickly create images that would ordinarily be time-consuming to create in Illustrator – and I’m pretty good at Illustrator! The Snipping tool is simple and works just like the “Camera Tool” on the SMARTBoard. The difference is that I can save the image I “Snip” to a folder, but in Notebook software, the image is kept just in that Notebook file. (It is possible to export images from Notebook, but that is another post) Here is my Mad-Lips Quarter Note Movie. Mad-Lips Quarter Note Girl This movie was originally used in the 18 SMARTBoard Musical Activities for Young Children. It was used in that setting to set up a “Pop the Bubble” game. If you are using Mad-Lips to use in your classroom, consider posting them on YouTube so others can use them. Cherie