Kindergarten

=Kindergarten= This page is for best practices and resources utilizing technology to enhance learning among kindergartners.

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Table ? Poster Session June 27, 2011
 * KinderTech**. Janie Darnell, Kalamazoo School District. Some of her favorite K resources include:
 * [|www.tuxpaint.org]
 * [|www.nettrekker.com/us] GREAT teacher resources on this site. You can search with multiple tags, e.g., :topic, reading level, interactive, ….
 * Delicious.com
 * http://kinder-tech.wikispaces.com her site where she has gathered her favorite sites and resources.
 * [|www.dropbox.com] a cloud storage site
 * [|www.sqworl.com] bookmarking for kids. Might be a way to place icons on the desktop for easy access to websites.

What are 3 ways Kindergartners could access learning through technology in 2011-12?

 * Apple Lesson/Beginning-Middle-End: ways to animate? to manipulate?
 * Joseph - and other story boarding. From flannel to panel
 * use the SmartTable?
 * use the MacGiver Interactive Whiteboard?
 * Common Core Continents Unit - Google Earth? using overlay?

I took them to the lab and we went to a Shape Tool: http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=35 Students worked in pairs, and the first person would create two patterns of shapes; then, the partner would copy what the other person had done right underneath it. Then, if time allowed, the 2nd person would be able to create a pattern and the 1st person would copy their pattern underneath. The kids loved it! And it doevetailed perfectly with two things they were working on in class. I would work with teacher to do this after they have covered patterns and shapes. After reading, we ask the kids to come up with an idea for a trap. They "turn and Talk" to a partner, each explaining their plan, and then two or three share their plan with the class. Next class, they are given a paper with room to draw and also lines to write. They are asked to draw a picture of their trap and write a couple of sentences about how their trap works. IN the next class, we go to the computer lab, and using their drawings as a plan, we go to: [] where the kids replicate their drawing. It is neat because once they are finished and press play, Sketchfu "animates" or replays their drawing, and they can control the speed of that replay. If time allows, the writing can be added as a caption. What is very also fun is that their classmates drawings are visible once they have saved their drawings, and they have a great time watching eachother. These can the easily be embedded on a web page. These units went VERY WELL! I plan to use them every year.
 * From MarthaB.:** I had success in the computer lab with Kindergarteners last year, using two different tools:
 * 1**. At the same time as the K's were learning shapes (rhombus, etc.) as well as patterns,
 * 2.** This unit spans a few weeks. Towards spring, I read a favorite Book //Muncha! Muncha! Munc//ha!, by Fleming, in which a man develops increasingly elaborate barriers and traps to keep the rabbits from eating his vegetable garden. Grat patterns in this book also!