Learning with iPad - Sticker Stories

Context

What if you could pull your favorite people, pets, and objects right out of your photos and bring them into a new world? This lesson introduces students to the powerful and fun "Lift and Drop" feature in iPadOS, turning them into digital sticker creators. It’s a touch of magic that bridges the gap between their personal photos and their creative expression.

Preparation and Flow

For this lesson, students will need a few photos of people, pets, or objects saved in their Photos app. They can take these photos at the start of the lesson or use existing ones

1. The Magic Trick: Lifting a Sticker (5 mins)

Begin by projecting your iPad screen. Open the Photos app and select a photo with a clear subject.

Demonstrate the "magic": press and hold on the subject until a shimmer outlines it and it "lifts" from the background.

Show students the two options that appear: Add Sticker (which saves it to their sticker drawer for later) and Copy.

2. Sticker Studio Session (10 mins)

Give students time to become "Sticker Makers." They should open their own Photos app and choose 3-5 photos.

Guide them to lift the subjects from each photo and tap "Add Sticker" to save them to their personal collection, which is accessible from the emoji keyboard.

3. Introducing the Canvas: Freeform (5 mins)

Explain that now they have their stickers, they need a place to create. Introduce the Freeform app as an infinite whiteboard.

Show students how to create a new board and, most importantly, how to access their newly created stickers by tapping the emoji icon on the keyboard and then the sticker icon.

4. Creative Challenge: Build Your Scene (20 mins)

Give students a creative prompt for their Freeform board. They can choose one of the following:

Dream Scape: Create a surreal scene by placing your stickers in an imaginative setting. Use the drawing tools in Freeform to add a background or other details.

"All About Me" Collage: Use stickers of yourself, your pets, and your favorite things to create a visual introduction. Add text labels to describe each sticker.

Character Mashup: Combine stickers of different people or objects to create a funny new character.

Let students create freely, arranging, resizing, and rotating their stickers on the board.

5. Gallery Walk & Story Time (10 mins)

Have students leave their iPads on their desks with their Freeform board open.

Allow students to walk around and see their classmates’ creations.

Ask for a few volunteers to share their screen and explain the story or idea behind their "Sticker Story Scape."

This activity moves beyond simply making stickers. Students will use their custom creations as storytelling tools on a Freeform board, an infinite digital canvas perfect for brainstorming and visual thinking. They will learn to think like designers, arranging their stickers to create surreal dreamscapes, "About Me" collages, or tiny visual narratives.

The lesson combines practical tech skills with creative composition, encouraging students to see their own photos as a library of assets for new, imaginative works. It’s a celebration of personal identity, creativity, and the simple joy of making something cool.

Possible Extensions

Stickers in Keynote: Show students how to copy and paste their stickers into a Keynote presentation to create dynamic, personalized slides for a school project.

Sticker Dialogue: In the Messages app, have students carry on a short conversation with a partner using only their custom-made stickers to convey emotions and actions.

Sticker Your World: Using the Camera app, students can paste their stickers onto the live view to create funny or surreal photos that blend their digital creations with the real world.

Combine with Procreate: Import stickers into Procreate on different layers to add artistic details, shadows, or custom-painted backgrounds, taking their creations to the next level.

From the LearnGrowCreate Team

Main author: Sharon