Jan
12
Kindergarten Technology
January 12, 2009 | Tagged early_literacy, early_numeracy, kindergarten | 3 Comments
Hello my name is Betty McLeod from Albion Elementary. I am working with two classes of Kindergarten students. Last term, the students used the digital camera in our puppet center. This was a very successful literacy center in the classroom. Besides the children’s improvement in their early story-telling skills, I was able to share their work during classroom time and receive peer input for ways to improve their skills from a Kindergarten’s perspective. 
Now, I am getting ready for my second term. I am very fortunate to have access to 11 laptops for this term. My plan is to improve the children’s numeracy skills by using digital cameras and comic life. We will take pictures of objects with their accompanying numbers, download them into comic life with our Big Buddy’s help and thus create a number book using technology.
Are there other ways to use technology in the Kindergarten classroom? I’m interested in hearing further ideas to improve the Kindergarten curriculum using technology.
Comments
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Great to see your post here! I no longer teach Kindergarten, but I have a site that may be of help to you. I am a member of TappedIn – http://www.tappedin.org – which is a place with a major dedication to prof. development. They have a group there called K-3+ Resource Room and another EduSource. These groups meet online and provide great tech resources for teachers. Betty Gilgoff is also a TappedIn member. If you’d like, drop on by, log in as a guest and visit the reception desk and look for JeffC or BJB and ask them to tell you a bit about the place and the groups. There is also a group for Action Research. They were amazingly supportive when I joined them for a session.
Cheers
Cindy
Hi Betty! I have used Comic Life with my students and they really love it. The classroom books we have made using that program become fast favourites so I am sure your Ks will really enjoy them as well.
The only issue I came across was printing them. I hope you have access to a colour printer because the black and white ones are not quite as effective. But maybe you could create a slideshow of their comic strips to be veiwed on a classroom computer rather than printing them all?
You can use a digital camera as a week long center choice or assignment in K. The class ‘photographer’ can be a week long position where one child is responsible all week for recording special events, etc in the classroom with the digital camera – kind of like a photojournalist assignment. Each child gets a turn if you want, or it could be a choice – there are many ways you could set it up. I taught K for two years a while back and I really miss the fabulous world of five year olds! Enjoy your TLITE experience in that special environment!