Sue+Hirthe

I have had a smartboard in my room for about 5 years. I use it to show pictures, websites, daily calendar, a center for math and reading and science. I use it to record data for the question of the day. I use it for practicing writing numbers and letters and words. I really like the board because you can print out the finished product if you want. Anything you have as a word document can be used on the smartboard. You can take a picture of overheads from www.pearsonsuccess.com to use for math activities.The very first year I had a smartboard I used it to take a picture of a group of students at a table with the writing tools we use everyday. I used the picture to write on, so a student who just came for Germany could see the objects and the name of the objects. I printed this out for her to take home. We also had a copy right by her desk each day. She very much liked the picture,as she was in the picture with her new friends. Labeling anything is a good use of using the smartboard. I use the smartboard almost everyday. I continue to expand my knowledge of how to implement smartboard activities. All of these lessons can be changed as needed.

Lesson One: Kindergarten Question of the Day This activity is from Investigations and can be used for both kindergarten and 1st grade. In first grade we refer to is and a survey question. The activity can be changed anytime you change the question. The students can drag their name to the proper answer for themselves to answer the question. Then we look at the data and talk about what we noticed. I print out the results and place them around the smartboard. They like to refer back to them.

Lesson Two: Concentration with words. This activity is to have the students play during guided reading time. They can play with a partner. As they get really good at the game I will have them take two of the pictures and write them down on a small piece of paper. This will help them with handwriting and reading. This game can be adapted to all learners. The students touch two gray cells and see if they match. If so, they can go again. If not they can return the gray cell into the rectangle.

Lesson Three: This lesson is part of Investigations. As you roll the counting cubes you record the numbers. This can be used to make number sentences (equations) to match the number of cubes shown. This is an activity that is used with two counting cubes. I would have students do this on the smartboard, as well as with real counting cubes. Using the board allows many people to see the activity at the same time. Again, we can print out the students work. Students enjoy using the smartboard and seeing the counting cube roll right on the board.



Lesson 4: A big part of kindergarten and first grade Language Arts is working with word families. We use Words Their Way. This lesson was created to see if the students can notice the pattern in the **at** word family. I used a different color to change the first letter to a different word. The students can draw a picture of get a picture from the gallery to match the new word they made. They can write the word next to it as well. Some students can do this lesson on a dry erase board while others use the smartboard. This engages all learners. They can't wait for their turn to use the board. The students seem to be very comfortable and enthusiastic about using the smartboard.



Lesson 5: In first grade Language Arts we work with blends and digraphs. Using Words Their Way sorts, I came up with some activities to help strengthen the understanding of what is the difference between blends and digraphs. There are some website activities included to support learning and understanding blends and digraphs.

Lesson 6: This lesson introduces direction, map reading and map skills. This also has a page where you can explore Google Maps with the children.

Lesson 7: We are teaching fractions in 1st grade with an Investigation Unit 5. These notebook pages provide practice and pictures for children to better understand fractions.

Lesson 8: First graders use an Einstein Unit, Balls and Ramps for one of their science units. The children explore how balls roll and how to use ramps. This lesson gives the children an opportunity to explain what they know about gravity and how ramps work. They also get to have fun playing a game called Snowline. There is a link to the game. The game requires the children to think about the angle of the ramps and how fast an object can go down the ramp.