QR-azy Numbers and Operations in Base Ten

My students LOVE using QR codes to practice math skills. So far when I have used QR codes it has been in a hunt around the room. Although the students have enjoyed rooming the room with the iPads, there has been more preparation involved then I would like to spend on one lesson. Soo... I decided to try something new... folder packets of QR code activities. I love them! I created six activities that cover CCSS Numbers and Operations in Base Ten each with a student direction page, 12 question QR codes, 12 answer QR codes, and one recording sheet. Each activity fits into it's own folder so that students can choose which folder they would like to work from, or I can place one folder a week in a math center.

So how does it work? Good question. Students will first scan each question code with the iPad (or other device with a QR reader). Next, they record their answers on the recording sheet. After all questions have been answered, students scan each answer code to check their work. They will "grade" each answer by coloring in the happy face for correct answers, and sad face for incorrect answers.

Here are a few sample pages...

If you would like to see a larger sampling of the activities, or would like to purchase, click on the link below to view in my TpT store. I hope your students are as engaged in these activities as mine have been!

Educreations Student Lessons

Educreations is an interactive community in which lessons can be created on an iPad or computer and shared by anyone, anywhere. I have been reading about all the different ways educators are using Educreations in their classrooms, and have been eagerly awaiting the moment that it would fit into my classroom. (I truly believe that when integrating technology into the classroom it must have a purpose based on the needs of the instruction, not because it is just a "cool" technology). Anyways, my students have just started to grasp the concept of place value and are able to answer questions about this concept. In terms of Blooms, they could understand and remember the concept of place value. Now it was time to apply place value - enter in Educreations. I decided to challenge my students to pair up with a partner and teach others about place value, thus asking them to use higher level thinking of applying their knowledge and creating something. With this being our first experience teaching others through Educreations, I first modeled for them how to use the app on the iPad, as well as provided a model for their thinking and speaking process. After one time of modeling a lesson, they were on their own to figure out how teach others. My first grade students did an outstanding job! I was so impressed to see them working together to create their own instruction. Once their lessons were created, we used the Apple TV to project each lesson on the IWB. Each lesson lasted about 1 minute and provided the opportunity for us to discuss correct and incorrect parts of each lesson. I am so excited to use this tool and explore other ways in which it will enhance the learning of my students!

Steps to Successfully Create Student Lessons

1. Identify the curriculum goal and learning objective

2. Model how to use the tool

3. Create rubric or other assessment tool for evaluation of the lesson (I will admit, I did not do this for this particular lesson, however it is something I would change and will do next time :) )

4. For team or partner lessons, guide students to assign jobs for the tasks involved. In this lesson for example, one partner was the recorder and the other was the speaker. The recorded wrote down the "script" during the discussion before teaching the lesson. The speaker used the iPad to write and speak the lesson.

Script written out for the speaker

This team consisted of 3 students. They decided to also add the third job a director. The director helped to hold the iPad and start and stop the lesson. 

5. SHARE, SHARE, SHARE!!! Students will be SO proud of their work, so show it off! Share it with the class as soon as possible, email links to parents, or post to your class website. For lessons that have errors in them (as one of mine did), discuss with the class what would need to be improved and ask students to rerecord their lesson. Talk about immediate feedback and  authentic learning!