Part of our morning ritual in kindergarten is to check the weather outside. Someone’s classroom job is to open the door and peek his or her head out as the class sings the weather watcher song that is to the tune of Frère Jacques (I did not create the weather Continue Reading →
Building relationships and making connections with other peers is important for students of all ages! My kindergartners recently buddied up Meghan Curry’s fifth grade kids. The Littles and Bigs used a Google Slides presentation to record their first interactions and capture their first memories of being buddies. Getting to Know Our Buddies Continue Reading →
#GAfE4Littles in Simi Valley Schools Trackpad in Motion Guest Post by: Cori Orlando Over the summer, my colleagues and I trained 465 Preschool-12 grade teachers on activities and strategies using Chromebooks. Our focus was not about the tech, not about the programs, not about the apps. Our focus was on Continue Reading →
Often times I try putting myself into my kindergarten students’ shoes and wonder how they embrace the world. Approaching a keyboard can be intriguing for students because they contain letters and numbers, items that little kids are learning about. Since the letters on the keyboard are out of their alphabetical order, Continue Reading →
On the second day of school I decided to do center rotations with the kids. One of our centers included the task of learning how to log into the Chromebooks. On this first day of using the Chromebooks my kindergarten students logged in, set their profile pictures, and signed out. Let the Continue Reading →
Teachers know the first day of school is about making those initial connections with students and explaining classroom procedures, routines, and expectations. An introduction to technology should be included in those beginning-of-the-school-year elements. I was sure to include a brace map of the primary device my students would be using this Continue Reading →
Students of all ages need opportunities to work collaboratively with their peers. Through collaboration kids learn how to think, share, and work together. Collaboration comes naturally to some children, especially during play. Collaboration through the use of technology is also possible for little kids. It starts off basic with the Continue Reading →
Alice Keeler designed an awesome Google Slides vocab template for a math scavenger hunt. In her version, students can use their mobile devices to take pictures of visuals that associate with math vocab terms and can demonstrate their understanding of terms through descriptions. I strongly suggest you read her blog post: “Math Continue Reading →
Day two of TK (transitional kindergarten) using GAfE, and the kids were already in spreadsheets! Credit for that fact goes to the EdTech specialist and spreadsheet queen, Alice Keeler. She was so curious about what the kids could do in Google Sheets and passed along her Pixel Art template. We were Continue Reading →
Classification is a DOK (depth of knowledge) level two skill. My transitional kindergartners had multiple opportunities to practice sorting with different concepts: animals that fly vs. animals that stay in the water, letters vs. words, etc. Through collaborating with Alice Keeler, EdTech Specialist who promotes critical thinking in all learning tasks, we came Continue Reading →