PebbleGo Polar Animal Reports Finished!

They are done and my students (and I) couldn't be happier! The reports turned out better than I anticipated! Check out my previous posts about PebbleGo Polar Animal reports posts 1 & 2. After completing our reports my friend and technology in teaching inspiration Angie Kalthoff (@mrskalthoff) came to my classroom to help my students use various apps to record their reports. For every student she had them make a video using the ChatterPix Kids by Duck Duck Moose. They turned out super cool! Check them out below! She also had some students use YAKiT Kids and 30 Hands to see how they would work with Kinderfriends. Be on the lookout for more posts about those apps coming up!

For the final touches on our reports I created a QR (Quick Response) Code for each video so that my students and others can access the awesome work they did! I will write a post later detailing how to do that. I will post their reports with the QR Code on the cover page so that my students can use our iPods during reading and academic play to listen to the others' research reports. What a fantastic way to get my students hearing informational text full of vocabulary words while they are showcasing their author and speaking skills. But the BEST part...it is all independent! This is all them and they are taking such pride in their work. I can't wait to show the parents at conferences in a few weeks!

The front of a completed project with QR Code

 

The back of a completed project.
The students read what they wrote for the speaking part of ChatterPix Kids

But for now I wanted to share the final products so you can see for yourself how easily you can integrate research reports with technology (by my last count we used 3 different forms of technology here: Chromebooks-PebbleGo.com, ChatterPix, and QR Codes! in KINDERGARTEN nonetheless! If we can do it so can you, I promise!!!) I love when my brand new ideas work out....especially when they work out so well! From their ability to self direct their learning to recording facts and vocabulary words my students worked hard and had fun doing it! Great job Kinderkiddos!!!

Pebble Go Polar Animal Reports Update!

We are finishing up with our  PebbleGo Polar Animal Research Reports and so far so good! A few reflections about the process:
*Students LOVED the exploration week. By giving them a lot of time to learn and investigate all of the animal reports on PebbleGo the students were taking in vocabulary, informational text and scientific information like I have never seen!!! And because of the great features like spoken text and short videos all of my students were engaged, including a my new to English speaking students and my Special Education students.  I highly recommend giving your students an extended period of time to research and look around on PebbleGo, I promise it will be worth it to see them be so excited to learn!
*The paper that I created for students to record their information seems to be working wonderfully! I did have a few students draw just the eyes of their animals in the first box (my fault, I put an eye clip art there as a visual for what it looks like. Some kiddos are just that literal). The small box keeps them on task and the 2 writing lines are about the right amount of writing space for where we are at academically right now. 

*Speaking of the writing piece, this has gone a lot more smoothly than I thought! What's cool is that when you press the speaker icon in the PebbleGo articles not only does it read to you but it highlights each individual word.  If you press the speaker button again it pauses and leaves the highlight box on that word. This proved to be worth it's weight in gold as my lower skilled students were able to just copy the word in the highlight box, allowing us to be able to read what the label to their picture was.  I'd have everyone listen to the entire paragraph for each tab, think of the key words, then listen again to the article and when they heard their key word press the speaker button to pause the highlight box on that word.  You have to be paying attention and press quickly, but it worked well! It was a good teaching moment to make sure the word we were writing had matching sounds as our key words. My higher skilled students would paraphrase what they read and sound spell it out or copy the tougher vocab words by using the highlighted box in the article.  I didn't have one student say "I can't do it!" or "Teacher how do you spell..." LOVING the independent factor here!

*For the cover page illustration we discussed as a whole group how to draw the animals as best as we can (reviewing shapes-bonus!) and what our rubric for drawing it would be. We discussed using proper colors (no polar bears are not pink) and how to make it fit in the space. Since I knew we would be using the pictures in Chatterkid I wanted the, to be large enough to make the mouth needed for the Chatterkid app. I then divided the students into their animal groups and put a Chromebook with each group with a large picture of their animal. I had thought to let them look for their own image but we were short on time and I chose animals that looked easier to draw.

Well that's it for now! Don't forget to check out my other posts on PebbleGo! Let me know if you are using it and if so, how!

Pebble Go Polar Animal Research Report

Bring on the research reports! I used to be TERRIFIED of our research report standards. Not because I don't love teaching students all about how to research something, as they truly enjoy merging being scientists and authors. But as a Kinderkiddo teacher it has always been difficult to find a way to provide the same high quality materials to all of my students, including my non-readers and new to country EL students who need significant vocabulary support. Well I am afraid no more because of my most recent find, and now favorite website for science and social studies, PebbleGo. Click here to learn about how I discovered it and how we used it for researching Needs vs. Wants in my Kindergarten classroom. I'm such a fan of this website that I wanted to use it again as the database for our polar animal research reports that I do every January. This is an introduction to nonfiction research reports, a way for us to start to understand what researching a specific topic means. Plus we get to work on our speaking and listening standards as well. In the Spring my students will complete a full length, in depth research report about various farm animals. But for now what better way to get started in the research project process than learning about something relevant here in cold Minnesota-polar animals!

PebbleGo has an entire section of polar mammals in their animal database. In years past I have limited my guided reading groups to learning about 1 animal per group, making it easier for me to focus their learning and keep everything organized. Tough, because as I mentioned before, finding appropriate on level nonfiction animal books with enough meat in them to write a project about is agonizing. And it limited my students ability to choose what they wanted to report on. By utilizing PebbleGo this year it will allow the students to each choose which animal they want to research....LOVING the choice factor here!!! In fact, they will get to investigate all of the polar animals on PebbleGo for a few days before choosing their favorite. Talk about maximizing learning and expanding our knowledge base! Remember that PebbleGo has audio built in for each subject, so the words are read aloud to the students while being highlighted. The students can click on vocabulary words in the text to hear a brief kid friendly definition. Many subjects have a short video clip, providing further understanding for visual learners. Perfect informational text for all of my Kinderkiddos, no matter what reading level they are at!

Here is my plan for the next few weeks to conduct our polar animal research reports:
1-Students will spend their independent time for the first week on the Chromebooks in my classroom (15 min a day) investigating all of the polar mammals on PebbleGo. I have the page linked to our SymbalooEDU page, making it easy for students to locate the correct site and maximize their learning time at the computer. Read more about how I use SymbalooEDU in my classroom here.
2-On Thursday of week 1 I will introduce the report sheet in guided reading groups and tell students that they need to think about what animal they want to complete their report for.
3-On Monday of week 2 I will ask each student which animal they will be reporting on. In our guided reading groups we will review the report sheet and discuss how good researchers gather information and listen for key words. I will then give each student their first copy of the report sheet to take notes on for the week as their rough draft. Because we are beginning writers I except mostly pictures with some sound spelling for labels and descriptions. FREEBIE! PEBBLEGO POLAR MAMMAL RESEARCH REPORT!
4-Students will fill out their report independently during Chromebook time throughout week 2.
5-On Friday of week 2 students will complete their final draft copy of their report, focusing on editing and adding details during our guided reading groups and whole group literacy times.

6-During week 3 I plan on having students create a presentation for the class using either Yakit Kids or Chatterkid. Haven't decided yet on which one,  but I will let you know when I do! Students will then get the chance to share their presentation with the entire class!

By utilizing an amazing online resource, adding a simple writing prompt and finishing with a fun creative app my students are taking their nonfiction learning into their own rockin' researcher hands! Check back to see how it goes and the final projects!