Current+Uses

Using Webkinz in your classroom now? Share here! Here is a link to some work two second grade classes did last year using Webkinz to study communities. ( Linda Nitsche)

I'm introducing Gumdrop in Kindergarten this week with a lesson on healthy eating. I whipped up this Kidspiration file: [|Eat_Healthy.kia]

And my plan is to go inworld with the kids and let them guide/direct/show me around while we search for different foods, debate what is healthy and what is not, discuss overating, etc. Then they will go to their stations and move the food products into each of the two squares. It's a good fine motor activity for the little ones. (Kevin Jarrett)

Reflection: Having just finished the week with this lesson, I have this to share:

What went well
 * Featuring Gumdrop (our class mascot Webkinz) in the anticipatory set (and later in the lesson) was a huge hit. The kids essentially hung on my every word and answered questions quickly. Most importantly, few had questions once the lesson started.
 * The Webkinz interface was easy to navigate and the available food selections in the shop made it easy to discuss healthy vs. not-so-healthy foods.
 * The kids' knowledge of nutrition amazed me. Most had no problems identifying the items despite never having seen this program (Kidspiration) before.
 * Having all the lab machines logged in and the Kidspiration template loaded saved time and made things go very smoothly. It's also very dramatic when I use Synchroneyes "unlock" all 26 lab PCs at once (the screens are all black) and the template appears on the screen on every machine simultaneously.
 * I continue to be amazed at the ability of my students to absorb a multi-step lesson introduction (usually ~10 minutes, sometimes more) and then work independently on task for the rest of the class. This lesson didn't need THAT much time, it was a simple grouping/drag & drop, but many of them completed the assignment with no help whatsoever, including entering their names and SAVING THE FILE, then exiting the program. For the second week of Kindergarten, this is amazing.
 * The plastic food I borrowed from the Pre-K classroom down the hall was a huge hit and made my examples more "real."
 * Printouts, in color, were a huge hit and proudly brought home, I'm told.

What could have been better
 * As strong as the class is, some kids' fine motor skills were insufficient for this lesson. Some children even used two hands on the mouse. I showed them what to do they will need more work in this area.
 * "Excess enthusiasm" was a problem as many kids were so excited they found it difficult to contain themselves, particularly when we were inworld on the Webkinz site.
 * The lesson was too easy for kids with well developed fine motor skills and/or those who could readily identify the food items. Allowing them to use the symbol palette to add more items mitigated this somewhat. Letting them enter their onw names did as well.
 * Today, the Webkinz site was down for maintenance at 9:00 am EDT, which is understandable considering they must feel the majority of their user base is at school at that hour. If that continues, I may have problems the rest of the year, since I have KDG from 9:06 - 9:48 every day. We completed the lesson without actually using Gumdrop's Webkinz home and while still successful it wasn't nearly as much fun for everyone (including me!)

That's all for now...

-kj-