How to Use Digital Activities in Kindergarten
It’s hard to believe that back to school season is in full swing! It feels good to be back in the classroom with less focus on social distancing and more focus on teaching and being together.
For those of us transitioning back to in-person instruction, I know it feels good. It’s hard to teach little ones through a computer screen. You lose so much of the sweet connection that makes kindergarten great. But, being back in the building brings back some of the old stressors that we all had a break from, like making copies. It’s great to be able to put paper and pencils back in kids’ hands, but it was nice to just open our lessons for the day and click play!
I’m here to tell you that you can have both. Reduce your copies, prep time, and stress this year, by incorporating some digital activities!
Ways to Use Digital Activities in Person
1.) Warm-ups for Whole Group Lessons
Before you kick off a reading or math lesson, project a digital warm-up on your screen and let the students work through it together! This is a great way to save you some prep work, but also engage your students in some skill review before your main lesson. Digital warm-up activities also can incorporate movement. You can get students up and jumping around to review letter sounds, fact fluency, and more.
2.) Digital Activities for Morning Work
A low-prep solution to daily morning work is to project slides with daily tasks on them. Assign one blank notebook to be the morning workbook at the beginning of the year, and have students complete daily work inside! No need to make copies every morning for your students! Digital activities as morning work is engaging, customizable to your needs, and can cover any range of skills.
3.) Digital Activities as Centers
Create one digital station (or two!) this year to alleviate some of your weekly planning and prep. Digital activities like Boom Cards, or other digital games and activities, make an ideal learning center! Boom Cards are self-checking, making them even more time-saving!
You can use other stations around the room to work on things such as handwriting, fine motor skills, and interpersonal skills. But there’s nothing wrong with having a digital station to help students practice digital literacy skills!
My Digital Day in K
If you need lesson plans, pre-made activities, and digital resources for community building at back-to-school and beyond, check out My Digital Day in K! Grab six weeks of lessons that will save you time and reduce your stress this school year! Happy teaching, everyone!
