Teacher Tech blog with Alice Keeler

Paperless Is Not a Pedagogy

Alice Keeler

Google Apps for Littles #GAfE4Littles

Google Apps for Littles
Google Apps for Littles #GAfE4Littles

Google Apps for Littles Workshop

Friday, Christine Pinto and I held a Google Apps for Littles workshop at the ViewSonic office in Brea. Christine taught Transitional Kindergarten (TK) to 4-year-old last year and used Google Apps. In the workshop, Christine shared how 4-year-olds were able to independently log into Google Classroom along with the Google Apps templates she used.
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Christine Pinto

You can find Google Apps for Littles resources on:

christinepinto.com

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Chromebooks or iPads

Believe littles CAN! Kids as young as 4 years old can independently sign into a Chromebook or iPad.

YouTube video

This is a video of my 6-year-old (her nickname is Bacon) on my Acer R11 Chromebook. I created a Google Apps account for her the previous night. I asked her what sight words she knew and made her password 3 of her site words. I did not show her at all how to type in her password. I let her pick her icon for the Chromebook. I handed her the Chromebook, she identified the icon she chose and was able to independently type in her password. In being confronted with Google Classroom for the first time, she looks at the assignment and asks if she should click on the assignment title.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom makes it easy to get students using digital tools. Tip to number your assignments and include a hashtag # to clearly identify assignment numbers. Christine gives the tip of clearly identifying the assignment number, for example on paper, to help students match. Students go to Google Classroom and click on the OPEN button.
students click on OPEN button

Even if students are not able to read, they can identify the CREATE button in Google Classroom.
click on create in google classroom

The first icon under the CREATE button is a Google Doc.
blue docs icon

This gives students a blank document to type on.
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Templates

Google Classroom makes it easy to provide students with a template. For younger students, Christine recommends providing a blank Google Drawing template. Attach the template as “Make a copy for each student.” In the corner of the attached template is a red triangle to signify Google Drawings. Students can click on this to create drawings of what they are learning.

Spreadsheets

Not only can Kinder, 1st and 2nd graders use Chromebooks and iPads, they can use spreadsheets. The first activity Christine Pinto did with her TK kids on the iPad was a spreadsheet activity. The pixel art template allows students to create pictures by typing in single digit numbers. Students can also use this template to model different concepts.

alicekeeler.com/pixelart

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View templates that Christine has posted:

christinepinto.com/templates

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Slides

Slides are one of my favorite tools to use with students. “I do not use Slides to GIVE information, I use Slides to GET” information. Students are able to demonstrate their learning by creating things on a slide.
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Slides are great on an iPad. The drawing engine in Slides is the same as Google Drawing. Since Google Drawing does not work on the iPad, these activities can also be done in Slides.

Slides is repeatable. Duplicating a slide template or modifying the slide master layouts allows students multiple pages.

Slides are collaborative. Rather than every student having their own document, Slides allows you to have only one document to open. This is not only easier for the teacher but creates a culture of collaboration. Peer comments are a snap when students are already in the same document.

Christine has a template on her website to allow students to collaboratively “see” and identify sight words in the room. The students add their own slide to the collaborative Google Slides, take a picture on the iPad, resize the picture themselves and then use voice typing to identify what they found. By the end of the semester, the 4-year-olds could type their own sight words.

This template allows for collaborative groups to contribute to the same slides. The slide layout templates are color coded for each group.

AliceKeeler.com/groupslides

Choose the group layout slides

Attend a Workshop

If you are interested in attending a Google Apps for Littles workshop please fill out this Google Form. You can also find more information on dates of future workshops at alicekeeler.com/membership.

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