Technology

I feel that it is important to introduce even young children to technology. But far too often a teacher puts in a disk with a game and says that she is incorporating technology. I feel that technology can be subtly incorporated into everyday learning.

The first piece in this section is a weather graph that I created in Kid Pix. I introduced the graph during our unit on weather. One of the jobs that a student could have each day was marking the weather. I changed this job to include marking this graph. The student would simply find the stamp at the bottom of the screen that matched that days weather and move it into the graph. The students enjoyed this activity. Not only was it a novel way to chart the weather, but it also introduced students to the Kid Pix program.

The second activity is webbing activity that I did using Inspirations. This software allows students and teachers to use webs to help in writing or creating lesson plans. I took this idea and modified it for the Kindergartners. Before we began a unit about the farm, I brainstormed with students different types of animals. I then created a web using their ideas. The children sorted animal pictures, placing them in their correct category. Then the students drew and labeled their own picture to put up on our bulletin board web.

The third activity is an activity about the White House.  This activity correlated well with a study of the government.  I simply typed up the questions for the students and they worked on it during their computer time.

As you can see these were only introductory lessons, but the children were able to become more comfortable with the computer.