We Are Going On an iPad Shape Hunt… and I Am Assessing You!

My Kinders have been learning a lot about shapes and how to describe them.  My Kinders love to use their iPads in any way possible so all through our shape lessons we have been drawing, identifying and describing shapes on our ipads.   I decided it was time to assess my kiddos and see where they were at with all of their shapes and what better way to do it than on a shape hunt!

Each student was given a shape hunt recording form so they knew what shapes they were looking for around our room.

They were to find each shape around our room and take a picture.

Then edit the picture to isolate the shape.

 

Finally, the students used Puppet Edu to create a mini book  They selected each picture they took and then describe their shapes using the recording option in the app!

 

 

 

After modeling the process for my students

 

once, they were off! I did leave the directions on the board for my students to see in case they needed reminders but they did great! It’s amazing that 5 and 6-year-olds can complete all these steps independently!

After they finished their project in Puppet Edu they saved to their Seesaw portfolio. I was able to listen to all of my students recordings and see the shapes they took pictures of in about 15 minutes after school and I didn’t have to find time during our already busy day to individually assess each student.  I love saving time….there is just never enough of it in the day.  Now the other great thing about Seesaw is not only do I know if each student can identify and describe shapes but so do their parents!   No more waiting for report cards or parent-teacher conferences to give them updates.   Who knew that assessing for common core math standards could be so easy and so fun! There will definitely be more “hunts” in our classroom!

Kindergarten teacher Kristy Hopkins @HopkinsKinder

Using Audio Recordings to Give Every Student a Voice!

Today we read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. After a class discussion about how important it is to be kind to one another, our class decided each friend should make a promise to think about what we say before we say it!

Sounds like an everyday activity in a Kindergarten classroom right!?!

Well guess what…..what happened next made it so much better! Each student got the chance to reflect, create, and take ownership over this simple activity by simply using their voice and a drawing pad on a device!

Today we used the Explain Everything App for the task at hand!

Step 1. Each Student opened Explain Everything on their device and chose a background.

Step 2. We drew a heart and wrote our name using the writing tools. Don’t worry if it isn’t just right your students can erase and try again.

Step 3. Each students was able tell me their own promise and why it was important to them by simply pushing the record button to start and stop their own recording! Everyone gets a voice and can share their learning!

We took this one step further by exporting the recordings and pictures to seesaw so each student’s family could hear these promises as well! Seesaw is great for allowing families to see, hear, and share in what their child has been learning about in school!

Kristy Hopkins