Sketchfu
Ever asked a Kindergarten student to tell you about a favorite activity, a pet, or anything specific? Answers will range from telling your every specific detail, to telling you every detail about anything and everything in their life, to the deer in the headlight stare. How then do you begin to introduce writing skills related to a specific prompt, yes we do that in Kindergarten now too. One of the best ways I found was to draw with my students first. The visual helps them to focus on a specific topic and it doesn’t hurt their fine motor skills either. The problem with this is finding the time to squeeze it all in the school day, well maybe not anymore.
The Web 2.0 tool I discovered offers the teacher an opportunity to create custom drawing lessons that kids can follow from the computer. Students would need to practice with the teacher at first to build their confidence, but once they understand the concept of following the simple step-by-step directions it could easily become an independent pre-writing activity for centers. The tool is called sketchfu and you can use it to draw simple step-by-step kid friendly drawings like the dog pictured below. The speed of drawing is adjustable which makes it great for little ones to follow or the project can be stopped completely and restarted if necessary. Couple this simple drawing with a thinking map containing some key words and you have two centers that work together to create a skill based lesson in writing that students can complete without you having to worry about where to squeeze it in and even better it's fun.
The website for the fun tool is http://sketchfu.com and while you’re there check out my fun puppy http://sketchfu.com/drawing/421704-dog
As a matter of fact, I have asked a Kindergartener to tell me something before and have gotten those same responses. Plus, when I have asked them to draw something, I have gotten "I can't draw that." Of course, when I model it, their picture often looks better than mine. I can see using this as a whole group project first, possibly on a SMART board. The kids should be able to use it independently once they get the hang of it. I wonder if it would be best to use individual accounts or just use a class account. More than likely an entire class account would be easier to work, but I am not sure if it can only log on to one computer at a time.
ReplyDeleteI can also see using this for art instruction. By choosing a fairly detailed picture and slowing down the playback, the students can see exactly how someone uses techniques such as shading to make something that is two dimensional appear three dimensional.
Joanne,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure most kindergarten teachers have gotten the same responses are you have when you ask that same question. I've often used that question as a prompt for a writing activity and while they will tell you 9 million things about their pet, the writing never seems to be quite the same. I love the site you chose. I went on it and created my very own animal, a pig. I think Tia is right on, when she suggests using it on the SMART board to begin with. I think the Art teacher in my building would love this site and I know I will be sharing it with her as well as our IT. I would love to use it to tie into a writing lesson some way. Great tool!
Kim