New Student Orientation Video

Each year some grade level's going to be the new kids on the block at your school (examples: Kindergarten, 6th grade, 9th grade).  A neat way that I welcomed new Kindergarten parents and students at my school was to create a video of "A day in the life of a Kindergartener".  The video was fairly simple to make.  I used my school issued Flip Camera to video record the daily activities of our Kindergarten students.  Before taping, I told each class of students that I needed their help in welcoming the new Kindergarten students for next year (great way to let them have ownership in the project).  I told them that because they were such awesome Kindergarteners now and headed to 1st grade for next year that they could share some of the things that they did this year with new kids coming to Kindergarten for next year.  They were all on board with the project although at times I had to remind them to "act normal" and "pretend that there's no camera". There's just something about having a (recording) video camera around that makes young children point, make faces, scream, yell and ask you numerous times "did you record me?" 

I filmed over 3 days during different times of the day and actually didn't get the "whole" day (I didn't get their all specials: music, PE, art, Spanish) but the video shows for the most part, how their day goes.  I used iMovie to create my video.  If you're not a Mac user, Microsoft has Movie Maker which is very similar.  For those a little confused about using either, here are links for tutorials for iMovie & Movie Maker.  I added music over the finished video to drown out some of the noise (example: me talking telling children to "pretend that I'm not here filming") and I chose the tune "ABC" by the Jackson 5 (I'm a huge Motown & Michael Jackson fan so this song was already in my iTunes library).

This video format can be used for any school setting (elem, middle & high) to welcome and show new students to the school what to expect.  Students are always willing to participate and provide input on what's like to be in their shoes.

Here's rundown of what I used:

-Flip Camera (school issued)

 

-Students & Teachers:  Easy to find and use!

-Movie editing software

      -iMovie (which I used)

      -Microsoft Movie Maker
      -The technology teacher at my school also suggested to me Adobe Premier Elements to create movies.

      -Here's a list of various movie editing software.  I haven't used any of these, but they're on CNET which is pretty reputable on tech. 

Here's the finished product:

What ways do you welcome new students to your school?

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