Introducing QR Codes to Little Learners {A Freebie}

Have you even wanted to introduce your little learners to QR codes, but you're not sure how? 

This year, we're working on creating introductory lesson plans for all of our go-to apps, and Qrafter happens to be one of them! QR codes are wonderful for students because they get kids up and out of their seats, are a quick and easy way to get information to students, and the novelty of QR codes never really wears off!  

This is the perfect lesson to introduce primary students (1st and 2nd are ideal- this would work with 3rd and 4th as well though! Kinders may be too little to do the reading; but you could DEFINITELY make it work with big buddies or parent volunteers!) to QR codes! 

Students get practice scanning and opening QR codes. There are two sets of QR codes included. 

The first set includes QR codes with a kid-friendly and silly joke. When students scan the QR code, they'll find the answer to the joke. 

The second set includes QR codes to review rules & procedures (perfect for the beginning of the school year.... OR anytime of the year! ;). Students scan a QR code and a question about your classroom rules or procedures will pop up. Students answer the question on the recording sheet! 

Find complete teacher lesson plans, directions, helpful rescues, teacher tips, the QR codes, and recordings sheet {HERE}!

How do you introduce QR codes to your littles? I'd love to hear in the comments! 

Enjoy! 

0

President's Day QR Code Reading & Writing Freebie

This is an oldie but a goodie! If you have devices to scan QR codes, make sure you read the blog post about this engaging activity HERE!

And download the updated activity HERE! 

Happy {almost} President's Day! 

2

Working with Short Vowels

Well HELLO there!!!

Onesie from Hello Apparel 

While everyone was off having a blast in Vegas (I was living vicariously through Instagram!!!...) we were working on this fun new short vowel literacy center! (When I say 'we' I mean I worked and little man kept me company ;-)

I am so excited to share this idea with you!

In second grade, we work a lot on distinguishing vowel sounds within words. On the state tests, there ALWAYS used to be questions like "In which word do you hear the short 'a' sound".....

My students had a tendency to always just LOOK at the words, and pick the one that had an 'a' in it. Which doesn't always work out. 

I really wanted my students to LISTEN to the words, rather than look at them. So I created this!

It's a literacy center activity where students scan the QR codes, LISTEN to a word being read, and determine if there's a short 'a' or a short 'i' sound within the word!

Students directions for both Scoot and Center activities! 

(Students can scan that QR code and HEAR the directions being read to them! No more "I don't know what to do..." !!!) 

Recording sheets for Scoot and Independent Center activities!

30 total cards with QR codes to scan and listen to! 15 short 'a' words and 15 short 'i' words! 

There's also an answer key included so students can check their work!!!

This activity aligns with the 2nd grade Wonders curriculum, Unit 1, Week 1 spelling skill; Short A and I! Although you DON'T need to be using Wonders to enjoy this center! 

If you'd like more info on how to create a QR code linked to an audio file, you can find it HERE!

Need more info on QR codes in general....HERE you go! 

And feel free to download the preview of this file by clicking the picture below! Let me know what you think!!!

You can find the whole center on TPT HERE! Enjoy!

I'll send this to the first five people to comment and tell me what they're doing on this beautiful summer day! (Don't forget to leave you email address!)

Happy summer!!!! 

11

Creating Audio QR Codes for Your Classroom!

Here's a step-by-step on how to create an audio QR code! I've decided to create these as often as I can and attach them to directions (mostly for independent centers and stations)- that way, if students are having trouble or aren't sure what to do, they can scan the QR code and listen to the directions! 

This is the easiest way I've found to create these audio QR codes (since I'm recording directly to the computer, rather than on an iPad or iPhone. This eliminates having to sync or email the recording and house it somewhere online- like DropBox)! 

Here are a few other ideas for audio QR codes in the classroom:

- Create a recording of a book and glue the QR code to the inside of the book- instant listening center! And you can do this with ANY book you want! 

- Have students create a review of a book from your classroom library. Glue the QR code to the inside of the book- then students can scan to hear a peer review of the book! 

- Have students record themselves reading their writing. Post the QR next to the student's writing so when visitors come in, they can scan and hear the student reading their writing! 

- Like I said before, attach a QR code of you reading the directions or instructions to a center or station. This eliminates the "What am I supposed to do here....?" question!  

- Give spelling tests this way! Record yourself reading the list of words. Students can scan the QR code and listen to each word and write the words down at their own pace! Students can even pause and go back as they need! 

Now I'm off to have a lazy Sunday!!!...

How do you use audio QR codes in your classroom!!???

2

Five for Friday

It's literally been FOREVER since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday! 

Here's a little peek from my week. :) 

I'm off on maternity leave now, waiting for baby to arrive (any day now!!!)! So most of my time has been spent getting the house ready! I'm so excited that his room is all ready to go and it turned out more amazing than I had hoped! 

This is my favorite room in the house! I love the light!!! 

I'm also SUPER excited to be getting a new blog design from Megan at A Bird In Hand Designs! See!

I kept seeing all of her amazing designs and I just couldn't resist! So make sure to check back soon to see my new design! Yipeee! 

I've also had some time to work on some TPT stuff {finally}!!!! I'm thinking ahead to the beginning of next year (crazy- I know!) and started working on some centers to align to our new Wonders curriculum (although you don't have to be using Wonders to enjoy these!).  

Does anyone else use Wonders!?!?!? I'd love to hear your thoughts! This was our first year with it, and there was definitely an adjustment period! Although I do have to say- I LOVE the text selections; they're all really high interest for the kids and lend themselves to great conversations!  

I got a brilliant idea to attach an audio QR code to the student directions in these centers. That way, if students are not quite sure what to do, or if they can't read the directions yet, they can scan the QR code with a device and LISTEN to the directions begin read to them! {I'm hoping!} this will cut back on the "What am I supposed to do...?!!!?????" glazed over look. 

One easy way I've found to create audio QR codes is with this website: 

If you need more info about QR codes and how to make them, head {HERE} to learn more!!! Look for a post on this soon, too! 

And of course, I've been spending lots of time with these two... 

Have a wonderful weekend!!!! 

3

Learning All About Weather with QR Codes {FREEBIE}

About a month ago, my wonderful teaching buddy and I had an opportunity to present at the CUE conference in Palm Springs! 

It was SO much fun!!! We presented "iPad Projects for the 21st Century Classroom" and {we think!} it was a hit!  

I wanted to share one of the projects we presented on, and share this weather freebie with you! 

In our new Wonders curriculum, there is a unit on weather, and how weather affects our everyday life. We did lots of close reading, shared reading, and guided reading about weather. We're so lucky to live in beautiful Southern California, so many of the types of weather we read about were very unfamiliar to the students. 

For this project, students were randomly placed into groups of four. 

We wanted students to create a virtual "wall" using Padlet, which is a website that allows you to post "stickies" to the wall. {HAVE YOU USED PADLET BEFORE!!!!?} One group member created the wall, then shared it with the other group members using the easy share feature! This meant that all students in the group were on the same wall, and could collaborate with each other and see one another's ideas! 

(We use the Qrafter app to scan QR codes!) 

Once in groups of four, students chose from a bag to determine which weather type they would be the "expert" on. 

Once students knew which type of weather they were responsible for, they began scanning the QR codes that matched their weather type. 

Each QR code would take them to a slide I created using PowerPoint. The slides were then exported as a PDF and uploaded to my Dropbox account. I then "shared" the link through Dropbox to create the QR codes. 

The actual slides look like this, and there were six slides for each weather type (so this is what the kids saw when they scanned the QR codes):  

Once they scanned the QR codes, they added the information they had learned to their Padlet wall to share with their other groups members. (Any sticky one kiddo posts, all of the other students in the group can see it on their device as well!) 

Some kids even got really tech savvy, took a screen shot of the slide, and added it to the Padlet wall as a photo! By the end, some of them had even added videos of themselves SPEAKING about what they had learned! They also found photos and drew pictures!  

You can download all of the QR code resources for this project here! 

To evaluate how the project went, students took a survey on Google to determine how working with their group went that day. 

You can check out a video of this lesson here! 



As a follow up activity, students worked with their groups to create newscasts about their weather type! We used a green screen and iMovie! 

Check out one of the group's videos here! 
(I'm working on a how-to post on iMovie and green screening! Look for it soon!) 


 
Here is the outline kids used to organize their news reports!
(Click to download!) 

Finally, we had a wonderful opportunity to Mystery Skype with Kate from Purely Paperless's class in Montana! You can check Kate out here (she's wonderful!!!!!): 

When you Mystery Skype, you connect with another class around the country (or world!) through Skype or Google Hangouts (we used Google Hangouts- it was really easy!) and students ask questions to figure out where the other class is located. 

This was an amazing opportunity because while we were enjoying 80 degree weather in Southern California, our buddy class' playground was covered in inches of snow! We got see what it looks like to have a playground covered in snow, and we got to ask questions about what it's like going to school in the snow! They also got to ask us all about the beach! This was such a fun way to collaborate and communicate with students from another part of the country! 

***If you're looking for a class to Mystery Skype with, a great resource is Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #mysteryskype! Blogging is also a great way to connect with other teachers who might be interested! 

If you'd like more technology project ideas, or to see our resources from the CUE presentation, hop on over to 

and check it out! 

7

President's Day Fun with QR Codes {FREEBIE}

Happy February!!!!!!!!! Eeeek! Time is flying! It seems like we just started school! And now Spring break is right around the corner! (Wishful thinking, right!?!?)  

This is a super fun President's Day writing activity I've used in the past. 

If you're able to scan QR codes (using any device with a scanner- iPads, iPods, iPhones, and even computers can scan!), your kids will love this project and it'll keep them super engaged! 

There are 15 informational slides that include facts I want my students to know about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and all about the President's job today. I created each slide in PowerPoint, saved them as PDFs, and then uploaded each slide individually to my DropBox account. 

After they were uploaded, I clicked "Share Link" for each slide. This generates a URL, which I was able to use to create the QR codes with. I print out all 15 of the QR codes and hang them all around my classroom. When students scan the QR codes, they are taken directly to the slide with the information about the presidents. 

One benefit of creating these slides myself was that I am completely in control of what the students see and learn. I'm also able to tailor the project directly to my class' needs and reading abilities (which is impossible to do with some websites). 

As they scan, students use the graphic organizer to record and organize the information they are learning. 

Students then use their pre-writes to complete an informational writing piece about the presidents. Here is an example of a final writing project completed in Pages by a 2nd grade student. 

(We used the free version of the Comic Touch app to add the speech bubbles... ;-) 

Click the picture below to download all of the resources and QR codes you will need to complete this project with your class!

Happy scanning! Happy February! Happy almost President's Day! :)

For more techie ideas and projects, head on over to my collaborative blog I work on with my dear teaching partner and friend!  

4