The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free School District recently began a subscription with Book Creator, a digital book-making app, for grades K-6. The app allows students to publish interactive books for their peers that contain digital content, voice, video links, images and more.

To prepare for the integration of the Book Creator app, teachers attended trainings on the program during Superintendent’s Conference Day on Feb. 1, as well as through BOCES Model School sessions.

District Technology Integration Specialist Jeanine Laurino recently visited Christina Sciarrotto’s first-grade class at Manor Oaks School to assist the students in using the app to create nonfiction books about the Winter Olympics. Students researched facts about Olympic sports and showcased their learning by creating digital books that featured both text and images. Laurino also worked with fifth-grade classes at Garden City Park School to design nonfiction magazines on student-selected topics of interest.

“It’s been an awesome experience to work with teachers across multiple grades and support the students as they transform their research into personalized digital books,” Laurino said. “They really seem to enjoy bringing their projects to life for their peers and families.”