Five for Friday: Keeping Them Engaged!

The days are winding down to Spring Break and the kids definitely know spring is in the air! That means we work extra hard (even though we are exhausted too!) to keep learning fun and exciting! Here are some of the randomness that has been going on to keep us moving forward.

{one} 

This is from the The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, Grades 3-6: Four Steps for Turning Assessment Data into Goal-Directed Instruction. I have loved using this to kid watch during our Read to Self time! Thankfully the kiddos always stay engaged in their reading! :) Love it!

{two}

 Like my facebook page to get updates on free iPad apps! It's hard to find good apps for kids that are educational and free of ads, but when I find some fun/interesting ones for free I will share the info through my facebook page! 

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Have you heard about Kahoot? Or am I the last one? ;) I heard about it on Wednesday and by Thursday we did it in class together! Tons of fun! check out my post here!

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I have been handing these out to a couple kids every day. When I catch them doing something good I write a note about it to their parents on the back. There are a couple kids who need the extra encouragement and it has made a huge difference!
You can find the cards here. I print them four to a page. You can print them in color or in black and white on colored card stock!

{five}

Origami has become our other positive reward! I pulled it out one day when we came back from lunch pretty worked up. But, since it was so novel, they calmed down as they listened and followed along to make a cup, then the next day a dog puppet. Thursday afternoon during dismissal, we made the sonobe unit  to make the one with 12 pieces. Each kid made a piece and when I put it together they all were pointing out the one we made. We decided to keep making pieces until everyone can have one! Aren't they the sweetest! Not only is it fun, but they are learning how to listen to directions and building better spacial awareness, and starting to work on those first grade geometry standards (partitioning!) Plus, origami has always been one of my favorite past times! So we are all having a good time!

This year is really flying by! I can't believe we are nearing the end of March!
Linking up with Doodle Bug Teachings' Five for Friday! Be sure to see what other teachers are up to these days!

Do you Kahoot??

I had seen Kahoot on pinterest and maybe in a blog or two. It has been on my "check that out sometime" list, but I had never gotten around to it. Yesterday our technology specialist brought it to our attention and I decided to set up an account last night.

Best. thing. ever! 

Seriously, it is a perfect tool for formative assessments. Basically, the kids see the question on the smartboard and they answer the question on their device. You can use any kind of tablet, computer, etc to have the kids answer the question.

Sign up for an account at getkahoot.com. It took me less than 20 minutes to make a quiz or you can search through the thousands of kahoots already created. If you need help creating a quiz, there are lots of youtube tutorials out there, and they guide you step by step so it is really easy! I used some clip art and asked kids to choose the correct vowel team spelling of each picture.

So today I tried it out with the kids. We did it in a whole group with partners working together on the iPads. This morning, I opened up the website they use to answer the question (kahoot.it) on the iPads and saved it to the home screen. Now it is like an app on the iPad and they can easily click on the link to get to the site.

Then they type in a game pin and their usernames. We did initials since they were doing it with a partner. It took the first question or two for them to figure out how to answer on their devices, and a couple turns after that to realize if they took their time they would have a better chance of answering correctly. ;) It shows them immediately if they got the correct answer and then there is a graph that shows how many kids got the answer correct. At the end you can also download the data to google drive! 

We played the game twice to really get the hang of it, but the second time they were already typing in the game pin and their nicknames without needing any help! 

I told the kids we would do a new quiz together every day before spring break... if we were making great choices. ;) They were so excited! And now I have an engaging way to review all our third quarter learning before we go off for spring break. 

I'm looking forward to having this be a station activity sometimes too. This is a great tool to add some novelty and excitement into your daily routines! 

Have you used Kahoot before? What are some quizzes you have made?