Learning and Sharing Everyday!

We have learned so much this year about iPads in the classroom. Recently we have shared some of our experiences with others. Please read more about that below. My students LOVE to share so if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.


Thanks to Moms with Apps I met Jody from 2Bme. She and her husband taught us about creating apps and we enjoyed sharing all we know with them. It was a great day for everyone and we can't wait to see what their next app does!!

Read more about our visit from 2Bme Here!

Sharing What We Write

All our writing has led to lots of books on our ipads. The kids all love to read each others stories. This week we are trying something a little bit different as a way to share stories with our friends in class as well as other friends in and outside of the school. I have been making up QR Codes that link to the stories on my blog. I am so excited to have this be a center this week. I love that the students can scan a code and it will link to a friends story. Qr codes are very easy to make and fun to use for so many different things. I have used them in the past for Sight Words, Look and Find Pictures, and Links to Websites. I will blog about those things at another time but for today the focus was on QR Codes that link to the books that students have written. Here is a sample of some of the pages that I made for out in the hall to invite people to read our stories. 

I also put QR Codes on paper plate cookies that we made to encourage people to read our If you Give A Mouse A Cookie Books. In the classroom this week students will have the opportunity to use their iPads to scan codes in the book area and read books that their friends have made. Lastly, I am planning to send QR Codes home with students so that they can share their stories with their families. Happy Reading!!!

If you Give A Mouse A Cookie...

We are writing up a storm in Kindergarten right now and I love sharing what we are doing. We are talking about adventures! We have talked about the real adventure we are having with our iPads and other adventures that are in our imagination! Both are so much fun! Recently we read the Book...

After reading the book we talked about what would happen if we gave the mouse a cookie and he followed us to school. We talked about what kinds of things we like to do at school that the mouse might like to do. Here are some of the stories that have been completed. As the children complete their stories I will post them, so check back often! 

 Norah

 Nico

 Cooper

 Maxwell

 Mia

Happy Birthday Dr.Seuss!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR.SEUSS

Today is the perfect day to celebrate and we LOVE to throw a party!  

Before starting our center rotation today we read the book The Cat In The Hat. This story fit in perfectly with our overall theme of adventure as we read about the rainy day adventure the Cat in The Hat brought to the children. During our center rotation one of the independent centers gave the students an opportunity to build their own house for the Cat in the Hat. Each child used blocks to build their house. Once complete the students added The Cat in The Hat to their house and took a picture using their iPads.

 (We will use these in writing activity later)

Students took pictures of their house and then had a friend take a picture of them with their house.

There were four to six students at this center at a time and students were engaged in the activity.

Writing with

The Cat In The Hat   

by Dr. Seuss

We use our iPads in writing lessons often. There are several apps that we have used and one that is easy to use and FREE is the iPhone app StoryKit. 

For our Dr.Seuss writing we went back on an adventure with The Cat In The Hat, The children and I brainstormed all of the things that The Cat In The Hat might do if he came to our house. 

The class discussion included things such as:

-fishing in the fish bowl

-wearing Mom's makeup

-knocking over items

Students took all of these ideas and began to create a story. We started with the house that had been built earlier. Students put that picture in StoryKit and described their house to the reader. From there, students illustrated and used pictures off their iPad to create a story about the visit The Cat In The Hat made to their house. Most students started with the photography of their house and a description of the house. On pages that students included illustrations we discussed what was more appealing to the reader,  a picture that is colorful or one that is one color. Students were encouraged to use inventive spelling and used their knowledge of sentence structure to create sentences that started with upper case letters and ended with some kind of punctuation.  We also talked about organization and how important it is to create a story that makes sense to the reader. 

Here are some of the links to the stories:

Nico's Story
Maxwell's Story
Nikolai's Story
Donovan's Story
Norah's Story
Hayden's Story
Mia's Story
Emily's Story
Kendall's Story
Maxwell's Story
Nico's Story
Caila's Story
Dylan's Story
Nicholas' Story
Karaline's Story
Ciara's Story
Brianna's Story

Thoughts...

I have noticed that when students write on the iPad many barriers are removed. 

-It is easy to make changes to colors, words and page order.

- Students can move pages around , read the book and go back and move the pages again with the touch of a button. 

-I think students add more detail to illustrations because color selection is easy.

- What students love most is the record feature! 

-When you are five and six years old there is nothing better than hearing your own voice. 

I believe that this is the first step to being able to be successful in speaking to groups. 

At another center we explored two iPad apps that were created by Oceanhouse Media. This was an independent center and the children were given the opportunity to explore both apps at their own pace. Here is a brief description of each app. 

Dr.Seuss's ABC is an app that teaches the alphabet using funny words and pictures. It is reasonably priced and the children enjoyed reading the story. 

Dr. Seuss Band is a free app that was a hit in the classroom. You can use the app to hear notes and play your own tune or follow a pattern that is given to you. 

Here We Go...

This blog will focus on the wonderful world of kindergarten and all that is happening  with technology!

Students in my classroom each have an iPad. I believe their use of the iPads on a daily basis is making a difference and I want to share all that the children and I are learning! 
Before I share the world of iPads...

At the end of the day I come home to a wonderful family and I am so grateful for that!

Welcome to my World! :) Heather