Introducing the stylus

As I discovered last year, the stylus is an important part of using the iPad, as the learners are able to get more precision and it definitely helps with writing on the iPad.  Again, all styluses are labelled with learners name and a corresponding label on the stylus holder.  I carefully scaffolded the importance of looking after the stylus with the learners and we had a whole class session today using it for the first time.

One of our achievement objectives in maths is numeral identification, as learners are able to count to 10 but not identify each number by sight.  I created a Bingo board using Explain Everything and learners used their stylus to cross off the numbers as they were called out.  We will continue to use this as a warm up over the coming days to reinforce number identification.

Later in the day we again used the stylus to help us with writing our name.  Using a name card prompt, learners opened a blank Explain Everything project and used their stylus to write their name.  This activity gave the learners an opportunity to again use the stylus, which reinforced the messages from earlier in the day.

The power of 'the voice' with Explain Everything

The learners being able to record their voice is a very powerful feature of Explain Everything.  As a teacher we can 'replay' their learning through Teacher Dashboard, and this can assist with identifying any gaps in their learning.

Yesterday for writing, a group of learners used Explain Everything to write their story.  They used their stylus and started with a lined page - I created the lines and set it as the background on a blank Explain Everything page, using Teacher Dashboard to share this with all learners.   The focus was on crafting their own story, based on what they did over the long weekend - we shared our weekend activities first with our peers and then as a whole class.  On the whiteboard, we documented just some key words from their ideas next to each child's photo.  At the teaching table, the learners came up with their own sentences and we worked on identifying high frequency words and sounds within a word.  

Once the writing was completed, learners read their story and recorded this using the iPad.  While this session was guided with the learners, it opens the way for the learners to create a story independently, recording high frequency words and known sounds in a word before reading and recording their story so we are able to hear and compare their oral language with their writing - powerful!

Introducing the Stylus ...

We feel it is important for students to get used to using the stylus quickly before they get too used to using their fingers.  The stylus will assist in their pen grip and we think it is important to improve their fine motor skills.  Today we introduced the care of the stylus and how to use them properly and then students tried this out individually which gave us the opportunity to correct them quickly if they were using the wrong grip or the wrong end of the stylus.  We were able to explain carefully to the students the need to look after them and return their to their proper home in the classroom.