They Can Do More Than You Think!

I often hear from people that projects or technology sounds great, but that little ones can't do it. (Not from teachers here of course - our teachers have wonderful expectations of the kids!) This week, a Kindergarten teacher brought her class to the media center to create their first PowerPoint presentation. They did great! They brought their plant journals and we created a slide for each page. Then they went back and were told to add clip art that fit with what they wrote on each page. Now, I know PowerPoint is not a teaching tool in itself and is not the newest thing, but the kids had a lot of fun and it was a fantastic way for them to edit because many of them found as they were typing the words into the slides that they had forgotten words or that they needed to spell something differently. The teacher commented how much they don't really like to edit on paper, but doing this helped them do it in a painless way that made it more relevant with a real life reason why it is important to edit your writing. It might take them a little longer to get it finished than older kids, but they can definitely do it! Of course, that was not news to this teacher since they send emails to their parents using ipod touches in the classroom already! Here are some pictures of the kids working on their presentations.

How do you use PowerPoint in your school?