One of YouTube’s best improvements for schools? The YouTube Kids app! Allow your primary age students to safely locate content through the app using voice search for all those non-readers!
Investigating nonfiction texts and learning about “real world” topics is an important part of early learning. Combining nonfiction exploration and technology is easy with YouTube Kids and the search function. Use a student-centered approach so that your students can learn about topics they are interested in and report out on those topics. For example, some students may be interested in polar bear babies and others are interested in polar bear predators. When students search by voice on YouTube Kids, they will find many visual choices, peaking interest in either what they were searching for or opening the doors of inquiry. Students can watch videos and report out their findings in a journal, drawing, conversation, or report booklet.
Unfortunately, YouTube Kids is not available as a web application, but you can create a Symbaloo page with all the appropriate websites that you want your students to visit.
Just visit the Symbaloo website and click on a tile. Here you can paste in a link from any website that you want your students to visit to create a graphic website choice board. Share your Symbaloo with students to give them choice in the topics that they would like to research!
Symbaloo is a quick and easy way to help your students organize the websites that they frequent or that you would like them to explore.
Symbaloo pages can be created and accessed on iPads, tablets, and computers.
Kirstin McGinnis
@mariemcg72