Kindergarten Diva: April 2016

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this year I am teaching in a different school--Miniota Elementary School in Park West School Division. It's a smaller school than I'm used to and there are a lot of benefits to this small size. My colleagues and their students are steps away and always eager to collaborate. At least once per week, we enjoy working with the older students in our school--as character buddies and reading buddies. After spending a morning together working on technology infusion, Mrs. Paull (Grades 5/6 teacher) and I decided to try an innovative literacy and ICT collaboration between our two classrooms.

Here is what we did:
-we partnered my kindergarten students with her Grades 5/6 students
-the partners selected a book
-the older partner read the book to his/her partner several times, working with his/her younger partner to find parts that the younger partner could read
-using a mobile device, the older partner photographed all the pages of his/her book
-importing the pictures into a movie making tool, the older student narrated each page, collaborating with their younger partner so both voices were included
-this part sounds simple, but it was a ton of work for Mrs. Paull and her students. I provided a tutorial to teach them enough to get started, and we let the students try it out.
-Mrs. Paull and her class viewed videos of the actual author reading the book. This provided a wealth of ideas for phrasing and expression.
-Mrs. Paull taught a variety of mini-lessons to enhance the students' oral reading abilities. She encouraged them to record a passage, then listen to their reading and decide if it was their best work. If it wasn't, it was simple to re-record and improve upon their previous recording. Mrs. Paull reported huge growth in the students' oral reading and fluency through this project.
-as an audience, the kindergarten kids and I were so impressed with the expression and phrasing demonstrated by our older buddies and how they incorporated their younger partner in every recording. Wow!
-the movies were uploaded to YouTube
-the students created QR codes and tiny URLs for their movies
-the QR codes were laminated and attached to each book in the project

-both classes had a viewing party to watch the finished movie projects

-during literacy time, students will have the opportunity to use a mobile device to scan the QR code and listen to the book, following along in the hard copy of the book or watching it on the screen
-once we have had ample opportunity to listen to each book, they will be placed in the school library and the entire school will learn how to use a QR code scanner so everyone can enjoy this project!

As my students are learning to read, having older mentors to model fluent, expressive reading and get my little ones excited about reading is invaluable! It was also really exciting to see the growth in everyone's ICT skills as we selected appropriate tools, set criteria, and created a final product that a real-world audience can enjoy. Another fantastic collaboration project is literally in the books!

Take a look at the students' audio books/movies:

Andrew’s Loose Tooth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sut8mUXzFM

Zoom!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ToeICM4CO4

The Balloon Tree

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UshfxwU328M

The Sandcastle Contest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUJuX1rzwSc

This is a Hospital, Not a Zoo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ysePddpjeM

Playhouse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Wd4NOK3ws