Upper grade teachers can do so many cool technology projects with their upper grade students. Often, K-2 teachers (and their students) get left out of the super fun educational technology projects. Here are a few ideas to get you started as the new school year begins.
Typing Practice
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml
Typing isn’t the most exciting skill to teach, but it’s one of the few things upper grade teachers want kids to be good at (on the computer). This site makes typing fun, and has many different levels.
Kid Pix
Every K-2 students loves Kid Pix. Lessons could be free choice (make something cool), guided practice (here’s what the stamp tool does), or give them an assignment (make an AAB pattern using frogs and flies). Kid Pix is also a great reward if a student finishes an assignment early.
Tumblebooks
Tumblebooks is like an interactive narrated book online. It’s perfect for beginning (or non-)readers. It is a paid subscription to access it, but there are plenty of small libraries (like the Oakland Library) that offer access to Tumblebooks through their own public library site.
Basic Computer Skills
K-2 students need to learn basic skills like copy and paste. I like to teach them the shortcuts (command+c to copy). A fun lesson could be to draw something/anything in Kid Pix, copy the picture, paste it into Word, type your name, and print. Those are many, many skills, especially for a kindergartner, but it makes for several great computer lab lessons.
Podcasting
example at http://www.billselak.com/pt/archives/category/group-1
I’ve podcasted with students as young as second graders. The above link is for 20 podcasts from second graders. During summer school, they researched an aspect of life in Italy, wrote a script, and recorded it. They chose photos for a slideshow, and I put it all together. There are much simpler versions of this–students can read a story they write, or sing a song they’re practicing for a winter performance. For kinder kids, they could count, say their ABCs, or describe a photo. As long as you publish it, it’s a podcast!
I hope that helps. Please add your thoughts and ideas in the comments.
