Getting To Know You

We've been getting to know one another in kindergarten.  We just completed week 3 (teacher inservice day tomorrow) and are settling into a routine.

Our current them is "I Feel Amazing, I Feel Fine".  I wanted to do a little introduction to Project-Based Learning (PBL) but it had to be easy and not very time consuming as time is limited at this point!

I partnered students up with a same-sex classmate who I don't normally see them interact with.  I wanted students to "meet" someone new.  The question they had to answer: "What can you teach us about your partner?"

Students started off by taking a picture of their partner using the iPad.  This was quite an adventure!  Many students had used iPads prior to this, but holding the iPad and taking the picture while standing was a new experience.  We had a couple retakes, but they did got it.

Next, I brought each partnership over with me one group at a time.  The partners "interviewed" each other.  They practiced asking one another questions about things they liked.  I recorded their answers for them on dry erase boards.

Then I opened the app WordFoto.  Students first had to find the picture they took of their partner in the camera roll.  After adding the photo to the app, students began typing their partner's favorite things into the app.  The trick is one word per line.  Things like "mashed potatoes" had to be typed with no spaces so they stayed together.    The app takes the words you entered and covers the picture in the words- similar to a Wordle.  Once the words were put in, students went and got their partner to show them the finished product.  They saved the completed projects to the photo roll.

After school, I printed the photos to our color printer and laminated them.  Students then shared what they learned about their partners with the class.  I hung all their creations on the board along with copies of their names that they decorated.  These will be up to share with our visitors who come for Open House next week.

The kiddos LOVE looking at these and are so proud of their work.  I'm proud of us for completing a project, and I enjoy hearing them reference what they learned about their partners.  I learned some new things about each of them through this project as well.  That is a success in my book!

How do your students get to know one another?  How do you get to know them?