Skip to main content

Kahoot!




Kahoot! is my new favorite tech tool. It is a free online question response system that allows you to create game based reviews or polls. It works with any 1:1 or web based BYOD device. 

What I like is that I don't have to make any questions if I don't want to. There are literally thousands of Kahoots you can search in their data base, from science to ELA. 

The kids LOVE playing it. Teachers would register at getkahoot.com but students would go to kahoot.it to play. You the teacher would push out the kahoot you want students to play and they would register with the provided pin. They would then register their name and the game would begin. FYI - You can also have a large number of players so if you needed to combine classes or wanted to do a faculty wide kahoot you could.


DRAWBACKS

1. The questions and answers DO NOT show up on the students device (only the four color answer grid - see first picture above). This makes it hard for children in the back of the room to see the answer choices on the interactive white board. It is a small limitation for a great free tool.

2. The data base for searching doesn't allow you to search by grade level so you can get a lot of different level kahoots when you search for something like "The Cold War." You can indicate "school" but that covers all levels of "school." You can preview so you can eliminate kahoots that don't fit your needs and you can "favorite" kahoots so you can quickly find them again. 

I use them as a warm up. For example -  I recently taught a class on multiplying fractions so I found a short 10 question fraction review to do as a warm up. 

If you are in a 1:1 or BYOD environment this is definitely something I would add to your list of "go to" resources. 



Comments

Mrs. Widget said…
My kids love kahoot.
One thing since they love it, I am going to have the students write the questions for it.

Jennibell said…
I also really like that it now gives data to the teacher. I rarely have time to come up with my own but they are still good exit ticket options in a pinch. I can see/the class can see immediately if a concept was understood and then I can download the spreadsheet to see *exactly* who needs a little intervention. It's a great resource!!

Popular posts from this blog

Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Activity

I saw this activity at a science conference years ago and haven't had a chance to use it in a classroom until this week (mainly because I didn't teach weathering, erosion, and deposition). It is a great way to reinforce the definition of the weathering, erosion, and deposition in a highly kinesthetic manner. Basically you break the students up into groups of three. One group is "Weathering" another group is "Erosion" and the third group is "Deposition". Add tape to the back because you are going to stick them to the forehead of the children in each group. The "weathering" students get a sheet of paper that is their "rock" they will be breaking down. At the start of the activity the "weathering" students will start ripping tiny pieces of their "rock" and handing it to the "erosion" students. The "erosion" students will be running their tiny piece of "rock&

Picture of the Day - Activity

I attended a training class and a science coach shared an activity that he does with his students to help them differentiate between observations, inferences, and predictions. He puts a picture on the interactive white board as a warm up (he gets the pictures from a variety of sources but uses National Geographic's Picture of the Day a lot). The picture above is from the National Geographic site. He has the students make five observations. Then he makes the students make five inferences. Finally he has the students make five predictions. He does this every day and it really drives home the difference between those three key inquiry vocabulary terms. I've done this activity with both my sixth and fourth grade science classes and the students really got into it and became proficient at telling me the difference between those terms.

Rock Cycle Activity

Today I got to spend the day with a 3rd grade science teacher doing a rock cycle activity. She had asked for help a couple of weekends ago to find some engaging rock cycle activities for her students. I quickly did a Pinterest search and came up with a link to a middle school blog where they featured a fun looking rock cycle station activity. That website took me to the originating activity site - Illinois State Museum Geology Online and their Ride the Rock Cycle activity . I read through it and felt it was doable for third graders (although I was a little nervous about the cartooning). I offered my help and we put together the activity. The kids did it WONDERFULLY. It was one of those lesson you wish was observed (but of course never is :) They are on an alternating science schedule so she only had two of the four classes today but it was a good sampling of children. She had one class that had a high portion of struggling learners and the second class had a high