I started using coloring pages this year for our labeling center with Skitch on the iPad. (Need a tutorial on using Skitch app? Click here) The kids have always liked labeling pictures and being able to take those images home but using the coloring pages allows them to color them also and they love that added bonus. If you look at the images below they represent three weeks of examples. The first two you will notice the kids have most of the words spelled correctly. This is because I included an example with some of the things labeled for them and they were copying my example. Starting with the third week there is not an example and the kids will sound out all the words on their own. We will continue doing this many times throughout the year because the kids seem to never get tired of it and it is a great way to encourage writing and phonics practice. The expectation is that they label at least five things but often they label much more than that. My class always work in pairs on the iPad so these examples are two kids working together. I pair them so that at least one child will be strong enough to complete the phonics part. Setting up expectations for how the kids work together is important. For this project one kid pics what they want to label and then that child draws the arrow and writes the word. Their friend is allowed to help them figure out how to do this but is not allowed to do it for them. The friend can help them figure out the sounds and point to the letters on the keyboard if needed but not actually touch the iPad until it is their turn.
I find the coloring pages by doing a simple search for a keyword (such as Fall) followed by “coloring pages”. There are many sites that share free printables. Once the kids are finished I email the finished product to my teacher computer using the kids names as the subject line. To print the images I simply insert them into Microsoft word. To save paper I fit two images on each word document, print that page and then cut the page in half to give to each kid that worked on the project.
I got the idea for this lesson from the Math Pickle website. The video there talks about helping the kids recognize the patterns present in many stories and of course Brown Bear is an obvious one to start with. I took the original Powerpoint and changed it some so that it works exactly with the story (see below.) In addition I created small images to represent each page of the book (also below). I had my students cut out those pictures and then glue them in the correct order on a sentence strip. After that they wrote the correct color word under each image and for a challenge my higher kids tried to write the animal names above each image. Please note that the PDF is designed to be cut into four different strips (4 kids can use one page.)
Another idea I had that I will be trying next year is using the iPad for the kids to practice sequencing and retelling the story. One idea is to use the educreations app . I copied the images of the characters from the Powerpoint and added them to my iPad. Then I loaded them into educreations and had my son retell the story.
The first week of school I am going to make a picture (see above) with each student during teacher table time. My goal is to get to know them more while also providing a display that can be used for writing in our classroom. After I make a picture of every student I am going to hang them around the room. This will be a fun way for the kids to get to know each other better while also giving them some great words to write in their journal when we start our journal the second week. Since I teach Kindergarten many of the kids can’t write much more than their names and I always encourage them to copy words from the wall as practice while we are learning how to write. My hope is these pictures will give them words they like as well as a resource of words that are important to their friends.
To make this picture I used the app Explain Everything (more info here). There are many storytelling apps that could do the same thing. Skitch is an option if you want to make one with just words (see here.) This could also easily be done with Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.
What activities or games do you do with your students the first week of school? Would appreciate you adding your ideas here -> First Week Activities