Last Friday I had the pleasure of participating in a ITRT meetup. ITRT meetups are a lot like a food truck meetup. The only difference is less food and more technology. (We don’t have a catchy name for our group, so if you have one please tell us!) We traveled to two wonderful schools, Fair Oaks Elementary and Trevvett Elementary where we worked with Kindergarten. We had a blast highlighting different technologies Kindergarten teachers can use everyday in their classroom.
We started the day off reviewing kindergarten concepts using the learner response system called Kahoot. Kahoot allows students to respond to multiple choice questions using any web enabled device. The students had a blast using Kahoot to review.
We broke the grade level into small groups where each group got to use a new technology tool. Check out what each ITRT did in their small group. If you have any questions contact any of us and we’ll get you all set up.
Matt Caratachea
Matt used Padlet and had a small group of kindergartners make different combinations of 5. Students showed many examples such as 3+2 and 4+1. The coolest part is when a child posts to a Padlet wall, all the other students can see the post as well. Padlet works on both iPads and laptop computers.
Julie Smith
Julie used Google Presentation in her small group. The kindergartners worked collaboratively to put the pumpkin life cycle in the correct order. Just as with Padlet, any change a student made to the presentation was visible to all students on their computers. It was so awesome to see these students working together.
Jim Covais
Jim used the iPad app Chatter Pix Kids. The students went on a shape hunt and took a picture of it using the app. They then used the app to make the shape talk. Students had their talking shape say the name of the shape and the number of sides.
Karen Hues and Sarah Green
Karen and Sarah cooked up a great graphing activity. Students tallied up different pictures of food that they pulled out of the mixing bowl. Most teachers would have stopped there and just asked which one has the most or which one as the least. Karen and Sarah took it to the next level and had the students take their results to the iPad app Easychart. The students then constructed a bar graph. This program is extremely user friendly for a kindergartner.
Jessica Robinson
Jessica had the students create different types of patterns using Halloween themed props. She then use the iPad app called Educreations to take the activity to the next level. The students were able to take a picture of their pattern and then explain what type of pattern it is and how they came up with the pattern. Such a useful tool to use in the classroom.
Tyler Hart and Ryan Stein
Tyler and Ryan played the game of Garbage using activinspire. Garbage is a game that most students play in their classroom in file folder game form. Students have to place numbers in order on a number line. If they pull a number that is already out, they place it in the garbage. Students used this familiar game to improve their number sense and to become more familiar with using activinspire. Many teachers don’t know that you can use flipcharts on a laptop as well as a Promethean board.
