Activity #6 Study Tools

Initially I was thinking this activity was not very applicable to kindergarten because there are so many emergent readers and we don't typically use flashcards with words very much. BUT... I was wrong!! Quizlet is really cool: you create "sets" of flashcards. I decided to make short vowel word sets. Once you create the sets, there are several things/"games" you can do with the sets. I am really excited about the "Speller" game. A voice speaks the word, and students try to spell the word. (We do this in class all the time!) I say a word, or our Jolly Phonics for the whiteboard program does and the kids write out the sounds they hear. The additional cool thing with Quizlet is that you can add graphics too! Very kindergarten appropriate! With this, I could have various levels of lists for individual or small group practice. I think kids could practice at home too, via a blog post with this embedded. What I really need next, is to figure out how to get some devices for kids to use... iPads, laptops, chromebooks, etc. And figure out how to efficiently load up this program on the devices so that 5 or 6 kids could use them during Daily 5 time. Here's a set of short a flash cards... Spicynodes: I had several technical difficulties for the 2nd study tool... I wanted to make a tagxedo. Couldn't load the operating system on my laptop or on my Chromebook, thus couldn't create anything. Moved on to Spicynode. I am posting the start of my project. But hit a wall with this too. I had added several more nodes to the "Mrs. Sabby" branch, but couldn't save them. Tried many times on my laptop, even moved to the Chromebook and had the same saving issue. So.... decided to post what I had so far. I want to keep moving forward. I like Spicynode, but am not sure about creating a mind-map with the whole class. The format for entering text is easy, but might be overwhelming/confusing for emergent readers and writers... I have to think more on this. And I like to involve the kids in generating the ideas for a mind map- so I probably wouldn't make one to just put up for them. Also- no option for graphics with this one (Popplet would be better) But I did think I could use this with parents just as a fun option for organizing and delivering info. I created a mind-map with topics I cover at our fall parent meeting. I could post this prior to the meeting and parents could get an idea of what I will talk about. Also, people who can't/don't come could get an overview from this.

Activity #5 YouTube channel

For this activity, I wanted to try uploading a video that was made/saved on my iPad. That's one of the things I would like to use iPads in the classroom for... making short videos. Sharing them out with families seems like the natural next step. I did not make a new video for school use, I am posting one my daughter, Madeline made. On her own one night, she pulled some photos from a trip to Haiti that Ellie(my oldest) and I went on. The text is all original from Maddie. When she brought it to show me, it brought tears to my eyes. I really think she captured the spirit and purpose of the trip, even though she wasn't the one on the trip. I am really proud of both my girls for their interest in caring for others and expanding their view of people and the world.

Activity #4 Screencasting

I can think of many times I might use screencasting during the school year. If I was blogging regularly, I think it would be useful to post some screencasts for parents; how to log in to IXL, How find or navigate other recommended websites, even having parents hear how to pronounce some of the sounds we teach so they can practice the homework in the right way.

I wanted to use Smart Notebook for this, because that's what I would most likely use at school, but I was getting behind on getting in to set up my computer so I decided to do it from home and use Screenr.  It was really easy, except that my Mac at home doesn't find Java easily, so I need to accept the terms, etc every time I use or save in Screenr. Hopefully I can work through that kink. Other than that, it was easy to use and easy to find the embed code. I do wonder if there's an option to save with Screenr, so that I could re-use or re-post recordings I've already made. I know you can do that in Notebook.

For this screencast, I showed students and parents how to access Turtle Lake's subscription to Tumble Books. Kids can have stories read to them via this site.

Activity 3 Digital Storytelling

For emergent writers, personal narratives are the best starting point. Fictional stories come later. First, kindergarten kiddos need to learn the mechanics of writing and build their confidence. Writing a story with multiple pages/parts comes later and even at the end of the kindergarten year, is for the most confident, capable writers. I do spend quite a bit of time teaching about sentences, though, and I think Storybird would be super for that! I think just one or two illustrations and one or two sentences about each is a way I would use storybird right away in class. Kids could dictate their ideas about the illustration. We could really talk about adjectives (describing words) and elaboration, and having your words match your illustration. Additionally, I like the exposure to different styles of illustrations.

Here is a "sentence" story I put together:

Here's another sample of simple sentences. I could have used another frog picture for this one...  but there wasn't a good option! Should probably preview the illustrations better before getting started.