Using your computer and projector in
the early childhood classroom
Have you got the "new technology
blues"? The ideas
below will give you new and exciting ideas for using your computer and
projector in the early childhood classroom. Using a computer
and projector combo in the classroom will revolutionize the way
you teach and the way your students learn. Using these tools in your classroom
daily will take both you and your students to a whole new level of
teaching and learning you never though possible.
Music:
Upload all of your music to your computer and play it through
the speakers on the computer so you can get rid of your CD
player.
Create play lists for each of your units/themes so you never
have to waste time switching back and forth between cd’s
again.
You can buy a PC Remote (see resources) so
your
computer works just like your CD player. Bonus- your CD’s
will
never be scratched or broken again!
Create a sight word play list in Windows Media
Player using the music CD from
Heidi Songs. Write each sight word on a piece of
paper with a
marker to use under the document camera. Have students come
to
the front and use a pointer to point to each letter of the
sight
word as the song plays.
PPT's:
Go to Kelly's
Kindergarten and see all of her fabulous Power Point
presentations to go with Dr. Jean and Jack Hartmann songs.
You can project these on the screen as the music plays- a very
powerful learning tool. I have created many Power Point
presentations to go with thematic songs as well as sigh word
PPT's using music from Learning Workshop and Heidi Songs.
See the resources section below for links to all sites mentioned
above.
You can also
create Power Points of vocabulary words with clip art for each
unit and project them in a loop on the screen during waiting or
transition times to maximize learning.
Writing Prompts:
If
your district subscribes to United Streaming or Power Videos
then you can show clips of educational videos to your
students. The fear of infringing copyright is completely
gone; by subscribing to these websites your district has an
automatic license to show any video on these websites. All of
the videos are aligned to curriculum and categorized by grade
and topic. You can show non-fiction, fiction, Scholastic
videos etc. Each video has links to teacher’s guides and
correlations.You
can show a video as a writing prompt to your class. For
example, before a field trip to the zoo watch Goodnight
Gorilla and have the students drew a picture and write about the
video clip.
During a study of life cycles I showed a clip of the
life cycle of a butterfly to the class to establish prior
knowledge; the clip showed a time lapse of a caterpillar
morphing into a butterfly- the kids were spellbound!
Then we got our own caterpillars and watched them turn into
butterflies in the science center.
Interactive Games:
Use
web sites likeLiteractive's Road to Reading
or Starfall and project on your screen. Have students use pointers and fly swatters and point
to their answers on the big screen.
