Rachel+Swick

I have had a Smartboard for just about 1 year. I use it to show websites, create a daily calendar and as a center for my Kindergartners during choice time. I also use it often during math lessons. It is great for question of the day activities and teaching the Investigations student resources. I also like to open word documents that I already created and write on them. In this class I really learned a lot about Smart Notebook Software and some of the tools that are at my fingertips (literally) in the gallery. Previously, I was closing the program and mostly using my board with the web.

=Lesson 1 - Question of the Day= This activity is one of the routines in Investigations by Terc. It is a routine that is used at least once a week. I would have this activity open on the Smartboard when my students enter in the morning. All the questions follow the same table format. What changes is the question of the day and how I would like my students to answer it. They need to write their names or initials, drag their names, make tally marks or even use an infinitely cloned check-mark (or any picture) to answer the question. The following is the first question I used in creating this activity. The students move their name to answer the question. For future lessons, I just simply change the question or add the cloned object I would like them to pull into place.

=Lesson 2 - Habitat Sort= In Kindergarten we teach a unit about animals. In this lesson, I would like to have my class complete it as a pretest. The kids will need to move different animals into the correct spots. Are the animals farm, savanna, rainforest or ocean? After teaching about these habitats, I would like to have them complete the chart again. The coolest part is that in notebook software I found animal pictures that make the real sounds the animals make. The kids are going to love it!



=Lesson 3 - Geo-board= In our current geometry unit in math the kids need to make shapes on geo-boards and on paper. I found this dot paper in Smart Notebook and it will make teaching the concept easier and they can practice the skill on the Smartboard too. I would have them draw shapes that have straight lines on the dot paper. We say, touch one dot and start drawing the shape. I would have them use the "fun" marker. They could make rainbow or smiley face shapes. They would think that was way better than drawing the shapes on paper with a pencil!



=Lesson 4 - Words in the Box=

This activity will be used during guided reading centers. I found this tool in the Notebook gallery under teacher tools. It is an interactive box or frog, globe, book depending on the reason you are using it. You can edit it and add up to 15 words. Maybe it would be vocabulary for other activities. I am using it for sight word practice. I would have my students during guided reading line up and touch the box until the 15 words fly out of it. I would have them whisper read those words together. Then I would have them sit down and make those words with clay. Clay words is a center we do now but the words are written on index cards. Now, technology will be integrated, the kids will enjoy practicing their sight words more and they get gross motor by standing, using the board and working with clay. The words can be updated or changed easily.



These are some tools I wanted handy! I set them up at home and wanted to be able to grab them and save them on my school computer.