Wiping Off the Dust... So to Speak!

Where has the time gone? I can't believe it's been so long since I have found time to sit down to share any updates on here. Summer is long gone, and I can't believe tomorrow is the first day of October!

We hit the ground running this year! My position has evolved from previous years. This year I am supporting less sites, however I am stepping outside of my Kinder Code bubble into the world of supporting entire school sites. I am excited about this change, however with any change, there has been an adjustment period. All four of my schools are Title 1 schools with 1:1 student devices. Two of the sites are rolling out their 1:1 program for the first time school wide this year. I found myself helping to quickly create rollout plans that best supported teachers and students. We are still adjusting these plans to make the process more efficient for next year.

I'm looking forward to this upcoming month to start diving into collaborative and creative projects with teachers. I've already started hooking teachers by showing them Seesaw, and I can't wait to see how these teachers integrate Seesaw into their own rooms. This afternoon, I will be joining a Kindergarten teacher's classroom to introduce the "microphone" to her students. They have been capturing pictures this week in Seesaw to add to their journals, however today, we will use the voice recording feature to add a new layer to their items. Hopefully I'll find time this weekend to blog about it, if not, I'm sure it will at least be posted on Twitter. Please follow me @MsHorsma.

Do your students like to chatter?

Then you must introduce the free iPad App, ChatterPix for Kids!

This has always been one of my favorite Apps to use with students. The name of the App hints at it's purpose... allowing you to make a picture talk! The art of creation is very simple, yet students can express themselves and information in very creative and unique ways. For example, students could take a selfie of themselves at the beginning of the year and record their voice talking for up to 30 seconds to introduce themselves to the class. This App allows any image to talk. 

Here are some lesson ideas using ChatterPix:

• Have students share their opinion on a given topic with supporting evidence 
• Use a selfie to make themselves talk
• Use an image related to the topic 
• Have students use their selfie to share facts or things they learned about a given topic 
• Use a selfie to make themselves say the facts 
  
• Use an image of an important person or figure to share knowledge about them
• Use an image of artwork or animal and provide them a voice to talk 
• Use the camera to take pictures of shapes and share attributes about that shape
• Use the camera to take pictures of stuffed animals/characters from a book 

When looking at ChatterPix through these lenses the list of ideas start multiplying!! The possibilities are truly endless! What ideas are you thinking of now? 

What do you do for Wiggle Breaks?

Go NOODLE! 

It's normal, almost in any classroom to see that students need a chance to get up and move. Especially younger students, however this is just as important with older students. NO ONE likes to sit in one place for extended amounts of time. What are some things that you do in your classroom to help with this?? 

As a classroom teacher and now as Ed Tech Specialist, I highly recommend checking out Go Noodle! This website allows teachers to create a free account, create a class and select highly engaging videos that let your students get up and move. Each class has a champ character that helps motivate your students. After each video session, the site automatically tracks how long your students have been using Go Noodle. The progress bar tracks every 10 actives to help their champ grow. Once the progress bar is completed, students can select a new champ.

Go Noodle has tons of free videos. Our kinders LOVE Koo Koo Kanga Roo's videos, especially Pop See Ko! You can use the heart to mark your favorite videos and to easily find and select content to use with your students. Go Noodle also allows you to add your own videos from YouTube to your Go Noodle account.

If you haven't tried Go Noodle yet, I highly recommend you testing it out with your students! 

Getting Going With Kodable

Here's a little background: Last year, we jumped head first into using Kodable at SEVEN schools in TK and Kindergarten starting about halfway through the school year! Teachers created their classes, added students and loaded their class code onto their set of iPads. Many teachers depended on my support to make this happen! Most students were introduced to Kodable during centers, and we provided support during this time.

I've had the opportunity to work many of these same teachers again this year! It has been an exciting, rush of energy these first couple weeks of school! As with any classroom, but especially Kindergarten, the first few weeks are ALL ABOUT ROUTINES! Kinder students are learning how to learn at school, how to transition and listen to their teachers, and so much more. With routines and procedures coming together in many of my Kindergarten classrooms, teachers are starting to inquire about ways to introduce Kodable to their students.

What's the best way to introduce students to Kodable??

This is a great question that we are constantly looking to improve how we introduce and continue to reinforce coding with Kodable to our TK and Kinder students. Here is an outline of how our introduction lessons have evolved this year. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please reach out to me on Twitter or email. I'd love to know what you think!

First, we tend to start with a whole group lesson with the students sitting on the carpet. The students do not have any devices in front of them, this helps to have the students focus on the introduction instead of their iPad screens.


Students are informed that they will be learning a new, special language that computers know how to read it too! We connect this to what they are learning in school, their letters, sounds and high frequency words to know how to read English. Our computers don't know how to read English, they read their own special language called CODE. What is it called? "Code" we make sure all the students respond.

Next, we talk about how they have a brain, which helps them learn and think. Their brain makes them very smart. Do you think computers are smart? NO, they don't have the same type of brain we have. To help us learn how to code, or use the language computes can read, we are going to use a fun, App called Kodable. What's the app called? Kodable. Turn to your partner and share, what is the name of the App? We try to have the students focus on key words throughout this whole-group direct instruction chunk of the lesson.

To help us learn code, we will be coding our Fuzz Friend aliens through a maze. Now, do you think our aliens are very smart? NO, you are right! Our aliens are not very smart. They only know how to read these... (holding up paper arrows). Don't say it, think... what is the name of this shape? If you know the name of this shape, whisper it to your neighbor. Depending on the class, it's been very common in most of our title 1 sites, that only a handful of students know the name of the arrow. We spend a few minutes introducing the arrow as a shape. We point out that it is a rectangle with a triangle. The direction of the arrow can be rotated to have different meanings. When the arrow points up, which way would our Fuzz Friends move?

We have the students show the meaning of up on their fingers by pointing in that same direction. Next, we point out that if we were aliens we could go all the way up until we hit the ceiling. Can we go through the ceiling? NO! Would we want to tell them to keep going up? NO, that would be silly. Next, we turn the arrow so it's pointing down. This time we model moving all the way down to the ground and repeat the same procedures for left and right. To help students visualize and make a connection to the Fuzz Friends' movements in the game, we physically move side to side until we hit a wall in the classroom. This visual movement has really helped our students make the connection from the arrows and their meaning in Kodable.

Once we introduce the arrows, our next step is logging into Kodable and modeling the first 2 puzzles. In the second puzzle, we always model a mistake and how to debug our mistake.  Also, as the students point using their fingers (up, down, right and left) to show which arrow comes next, we will purposely point to the wrong arrow on the screen to make sure they are following along. Also, this helps to build a deeper understanding that the direction of the arrow matters. After completing the first two puzzles, we usually say, "Wow! Coding is a lot fun! Now I could continue this all day, but I'm thinking that you are ready to write your own codes!" This is where students are given the opportunity to practice this new skill on their own. Depending on the access to devices, students will log into Kodable and beginning coding either all together or during center rotations.

Other Helpful Hints

• When creating your class on kodable.com, create a class code that will be easy for YOU and your students to remember. With our TK and Kindergarten classes, we usually invest in the time to preload their class codes onto each device. We have found this easier for the students, that having then enter the code. The students only need to select their spaceship and find their name to begin coding.
• We use the playlists to stop students from starting new content. For example, we stop the students after the first two stages, right before the Bugs are introduced in the Sequence unit. We have our students who complete the first 10 puzzles quickly, go back and practice. When most the class has passed the first 10 puzzles, then we have another whole group lesson to introduce the students to Bugs and Debugging! Here's a link to my blog post on our Bugs! Lesson activity! 

The 100th Day of School is Coming!!!

Are you starting to prepare for the 100th Day of School?? 

Our District's 100th Day of School isn't until Wednesday, January 27th this year, however as we all know, that day will be here before we know it! Today I prepared a sample of one of my favorite 100th Day of School Activities... THE AGING BOOTH! The AgingBooth is a FREE App for iOS and Android.

I dare you to take a glance at yourself in the Aging Booth! I find it a little too realistic and frightening to see myself aged that much, however, your students will LOVE seeing themselves age!

Once you have an aged image, the real fun can begin. You can use this image as a jumping off point for multiple conversations and activities. For example, this image can be used with a writing assignment about their lives or what will ____ be like in 100 years from now. One of my favorite extensions, is using this image in ChatterPix for Kids. Students can record themselves talking for up to 30 seconds and then their aged self will speak. Again, with all activities, you have to have a sample for your students, so I've included a link to view my ChatterPix video about what I hope to have done by the time I reach 100 years old! Once recorded in ChatterPix for Kids, we save to the camera roll to be exported to Seesaw.