As I have mentioned, I currently teach in a small, private school. While I love it- there are some areas I wish would improve- namely, the technology. For six years, I’ve been “spoiled” by SMARTboards. Since graduating from college, I have never had to teach without one. Naturally, most of my lesson plans and resources centered around this technology.
When I wanted to teach a simple lesson on the four voices to my kindergarten class the other day, I was at a loss. I searched Youtube for videos, scanned websites, and tried to convert my old SMARTlesson to a pdf document. I came up short.
I was so used to my SMARTlesson which included graphics to demonstrate singing, speaking, whispering, and shouting to the young non-readers. The lesson had multiple sound bites demonstrating each use of the voice and more than a few sorting and matching activities. After demonstrating the voices to my students, it was clear that they had a basic level of understanding, but the point hadn’t really been driven home.
That’s when I decided my lesson needed a technology overhaul. And if I couldn’t use cutting-edge technology to improve my lesson, I would take it old school! I found coloring pages on Teachers Pay Teachers for free and snagged a perfectly cube-shaped box from the recycle bin at home. Add some scotch tape and markers, and…
Viola!
I had an interactive tool my students would love to use. The voice box (as I’m calling it) had the graphics that I wanted and enabled us to do activities much more fun than sorting and matching. Now, we pull out the voice box a couple times every lesson and practice the different voices. When we are repeating facts, reading a new rhythm, or reviewing a song I’ll select a student to roll the dice and we will do our task using the voice that comes up on the die. The kinders love it!