It's a Mario Party!

Do you remember those old Nintendo games...you know the ones you had to blow on before they would work? Well in the lab this week we discussed old school 8-bit graphics (complete with Mario Bros music as we walked in.) We talked about the old Nintendo games and how the graphics in video games had progressed since then. We then used Google Sheets ('cause y'all know I'm a Google Girl!) to create our own inspired 8-bit Christmas graphics. They were AWESOME! The kids were amazed when they realized they were also practicing math skills. (It's all in my master plan...queue evil laugh!) Well from there we took it even farther...

The kids shared their graphics and coordinates, which they typed into a Google Doc, with one another in a huge spreadsheet so they could try out one another's designs. Check out their graphics below and see if you can make your own!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A4iNQC2t9SO43bJH6L8bTDA-akbwXLCxm7VubX7qc5k/edit

How could you use Google Sheets in your classroom other than just for calculating numbers? A map? A building? Share you ideas!!

"OOOOOHHH AAAAH!"

This is the reaction I got when I told my fourth graders that we were going to be starting a collaborative project on North Carolina using Google Presentations. They love working in groups, of course, so this was right up there alley. Being a self proclaimed Google Girl, I use Google Drive all the time! It's just so easy to use and share! But I haven't used it much with my students for creating, mostly because they don't have their own Google Drive accounts. But, after talking to a few of my teacher "idols", I decided to give it a whirl. I created a Google Presentation for each group and shared it with them for editing. We discussed proper use of the documents and how to use the chat feature (which they love). The students were amazed that they could sit at their own individual computers and work with 3 others scattered around the room. They were actually communicating and discussing their project more by using the chat feature than they usually do simply talking about it. It was so great to see them collaborating and working together that I shared the links with a teacher in Pennsylvania. He let his 8th graders look in while my kids were working. They sent a nice message in the chat box thanking my kids for sharing and how great they were doing! My kiddos were ecstatic!!! All their little chests poked out and their chins raised with pride that 8th graders in another state were commenting on their work! They should be finishing their presentations next week and then we will be presenting them to the class (and possibly on UStream) the next. I'm sure this is only the first of many Google Docs projects we will be doing!

Helping Our Students Help Themselves

Have you ever had those students who want to search for something but just can't spell the keywords? Or when they do find a site they can't read the information? This makes research very frustrating for the students. We, as tech loving teachers, want to make researching FUN and SIMPLE for our students! Well here's how!
Google now has a voice search. By clicking on the microphone on the right hand side of the search box, students can vocalize what they want to search for.

Google then records the student's voice, types the correctly spelled word into the search box, and displays sites dealing with the keyword.

So now the kids can easily find sites focused on what they want to research. But how can they make sure that the sites are on their reading level? Google's got that under control also! Students can filter the sites by reading levels.

Basic **Best for Primary Grades

Intermediate

Advanced

To filter the results students can click on Show Search Tools on the left hand side of the screen.

Then scroll down and click on Reading Level.

Students can then choose what reading level suits them best. Basic is the best choice for most primary students.

Once they choose a level, websites links are displayed below and the researching can begin. 

Researching doesn't have to be a hassle for the students or the teachers! Google makes researching easy and fun for even the youngest student! By using the Voice Input and Reading Level tools, we can help students to become more independent workers!

What are some of your favorite ways to use Google?