Mrs. Tiffany's

EdTech Toolbox

Waterford

🔨Tool #1: Waterford

Waterford is a tool used to increase student readiness in the areas of Reading and Math. Waterford is focused on grades Prek-2nd grade. Students are placed on individual learning paths after a baseline assessment. Each learning skill in Waterford is presented in the following methods: teacher directed, a song, guided practice, and independent practice to show mastery of a skill. Teachers are able to monitor student progress to see how well they are retaining/mastering each skill.

Waterford is accessible to students in person and virtually and sessions last approximately 15 minutes. In person students are able to log on to Waterford using a unique QR code or typing in their login information. Students are taught that when they see a stop sign, they should let the teacher know, so they may help them log off. Student login codes have been sent home for students to access at home during any time they may be absent from school. Students may work on Waterford activities at school or at home.

Students have been eager to work on Waterford after lunch this year. The program keeps students engaged, but may need teacher assistance at times. Waterford is meeting the needs of my students by meeting them where they are academically and preparing them for kindergarten. Even if a student is not mastering all skills on Waterford, they are learning how to operate a keyboard mouse. A big struggle in Kindergarten is students operating mice and keyboards since they are used to everything being touch screen.

Professional Development

Pre-k Teachers received Personal Development to learn more about the Waterford program. Shown above are the domains in the Waterford program. Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Comprehension/Vocabulary, Language, and Fluency.

Progress Tool

Teachers are able to check their accounts for weekly progress. Students are expected to have 15 minutes/day for 5 days to have fidelity.

All Done!

Students know that when they see this image, they have completed their required time for the day. They get excited to let us know they "GOT A STOP SIGN."

StarFall

🔨Tool #2: StarFall

Starfall is a website that is designed for use by students in grades PREK-3rd grade on a computer or touch screen device. A variety of different content areas are covered on StarFall. Some of the areas covered are holidays, alphabet recognition, and math activities. Access to an interactive calendar is useful in helping students learn the months of the year, days of the week, and learning important dates.

Starfall is free for everyone; however, there is a paid subscription to Starfall that allows access to more content users. Starfall could be used at school at well as at home as an extra resource or during time students are absent from school.

We use StarFall often in my classroom for literacy activities and closing activities. One of our favorite activities is the retelling of the Gingerbread Man. We also use the alphabet activity to help students recognize the letters in their names

By using StarFall, I am able to gather data for many WSO indicators in the area of Language and Literacy, Mathematical Thinking, and Social Studies. I use the data collected from Starfall activities to help meet the needs of my students. My students are eager to take turns using this interactive program!

Click on the images below to be taken to the corresponding StarFall activity.

Earth Day

In this Star Fall activity, students help clean up a park. They move the trash into different buckets labeled plastic, paper, and cans.

Gingerbread Boy/Girl

Students were able to retell the story of the Gingerbread Boy/Girl using the Star Fall story. Students are also able to identify shapes through this activity.

10 Little Snowmen

Students decorate a snowman giving him all the necessary components. Afterwards, they are able to retell the 10 Little Snowmen poem

Youtube

🔨Tool #3: Youtube

YouTube is a video hosting site that is great for music with movement videos, as well as other videos to promote learning in Pre-K. YouTube is accessible for FREE at school and at home for everyone.

During in person learning, we display YouTube on our smartboard, primarily during Music with movement time as well as during outside time when the weather does not permit us going outside. During virtual learning, parents have access to the videos that we would normally do in class. When completing live virtual lessons, Pre-K teachers were able to share our screens with our students so that they could still interact with their teacher and friends while dancing. When completing "take home packet" virtual work, Pre-K created a Google Slide presentation with various songs for parents to practice using while we were learning from home.

As a part of our Pre-K guidelines, I use YouTube daily to meet the required music and movement activity for each day. Each music and movement activity must have a focus. Our focus varies each day, but may focus on counting, letter recognition, creative movement, and even social emotional skills just to name a few. Before centers each day, my class sings Sharing is Caring and Sparkly to help remind us to use kind words and to share.

YouTube meets the needs of our students by giving them ideas and suggestions of how to dance creatively, while learning Pre-K content. Previously for music with movement time, teachers played old school CD player boombox style. Now with our technology, students are able to engage with the tools. They always want to “touch” the buttons on the board such as the SKIP button for ADS on YouTube, and closing out the popups on YouTube videos to make their experience more enjoyable. This also meets the WSO indicator that student understands how technology affects their life.

Sparkle Song

We use this video in our class to help remind our students about sharing and using kind words as we transition to centers. This helps cover our required social and emotional standards in Pre-K

Virtual Learning

During virtual learning, Pre-K teachers continued our normal routines and activities. In addition to a read aloud, math, and literacy activities, teachers participated in music with movement with our students each day.

See It, Say It, Sign It

Students love listening to this song during Music with Movement time. Students are able to not only learn their letters, but they are also able to learn the sign language for each letter. They take these letters and show other staff members what their "Letter" looks like as an ASL sign.

Google Slides

🔨Tool #4: Google Slides

Google Slides is used to create presentations to use for a variety of purposes that is similar to PowerPoint. Google slides is used to create presentations for a variety of purposes such as interactive games, informational presentations, and editable worksheets for virtual and in person learning. Teachers can use Google slides to guide students in notetaking during in person learning. Virtually, students may complete worksheets and slides created and assigned by the teacher. Students have access to Google Slides both at home and school but log in using their school email.

I have used Google Slides multiple ways in my classroom. During

our Buildings unit, each Pre-K teacher created a slide of unique buildings and we used all the slides to provide students with an educational experience without physically visiting each building and were able to share each teacher's building without being in the same classroom. I have also used Google slides for Phonological Awareness activities with my students. One example of our Phonological Awareness Google Slide activity is Mr. Forgetful Rhyming. Mr. Forgetful forgot how to rhyme and students help him think of words that rhyme with each item on the slide. During virtual learning, we created “lists” of work for students to complete during at home learning.

Buildings Study

To show students places that were meaningful to PREK Teachers during our Buildings Unit, We each collaborated on a slide featuring different buildings.

Mr. Forgetful Rhyming

Students listed words that rhymed with a given picture in this Mr. Forgetful PREK Created GOOGLE SLIDE presentation.

Rhyming Buildings

In this created google slide activity, for phonological awareness skills, students are given the task of moving over pictures of words that rhyme with the animal "of" that building. Ex: Bear (in Cave)--hair, chair, share, pear, etc....

Google Images

🔨Tool #5: Google Images

Google Images has been an excellent learning tool in my classroom. Google Images allows people to search for images on the internet. During large group discussions, I am able to search for images based on students' interests. For example, when we were learning about Presidents, students asked what George Washington looked like and we were able to use our smartboard to search for images of George Washington. During black history month, we also searched for images of George Crum(the inventor of the potato chip).

As a Pre-K teacher, I feel that Google Images help build my student's knowledge and understanding of our topics being taught. One may not understand what we are discussing, but Google Images helps provide a better understanding by giving them a visual to go along with the topic. During Virtual learning, parents are able to search Google Images on the internet as well as view Google Images provided by the teacher in Google Classroom.

George Crum

Students were shown a picture of George Crum (inventor of potato chip) when learning about Black History Month.

George Washington

Showed image of President Washington, when discussing Presidents during our "February Holiday" Theme.

Lonnie Johnson

We showed students an image of Lonnie Johnson inventor of the Super Soaker as a part of Black History Month inventors.

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