QR Codes in First Grade

Hi everyone, it's Becky! Hopefully everyone has had a good start of 2015 with their students and you are starting to get back in the routine again! I'm linking up with the super cute Mrs. Stanford for her new Hump Day Highlight weekly link up! 

Some of you may have read in previous posts that my classroom is now 1:1, which is AWESOME! When this happened, I knew that I had to find some engaging ways for my kiddos to use their iPads instead of just doing apps. (Don't get me wrong, apps do have their time and place, but I'm more of a 'what can we do with our iPads?' kind of gal!) I began thinking about ALL of the phonics skills my first graders learn throughout the year, and how they can always benefit from additional practice of applying and practicing those skills. So I thought QR codes would be a great way to incorporate phonics skills and technology integration!

My first experience with QR codes and first graders was in December when my students tried out my QR code task cards for the digraph th. 

After this experience my students were hooked...and so was I! The amount of collaboration and thinking that went on was AHH-MAZING...way more than I had expected! So let me tell you how it all went down!

Since it was our first experience with QR codes, I had my students sit down with me at the easel, which is also where I had taped the first QR card. (I had all 10 cards taped in different spots around the room.) I modeled how they need to scan the QR code. Once the code was scanned, we saw a picture. 

QR Codes Cards Posted Around the Room (This is what the students scan with their device)

This is the image that comes up on their screen after the QR code is scanned.

Some of the codes take students to cloze sentences like this one.

The students came up with words that they thought went with the picture/sentence, and then I reminded them that it had to be a word with a "th" in it. I then showed them the recording sheet. I decided to give them all recording sheet C with the word bank. I thought it would be too easy for them, but it was actually perfect! They needed to have the word choices to figure out what the pictures were. And I realized that it was OK if they didn't understand the picture at first. They were applying their phonics skills when they repeatedly read the words in the word bank to figure out which one went with the picture they were looking at! 

After explaining the process, their little eyes lit up and they were ready to get started! (FYI-The students all have a QR reader app on their iPads and they all knew where it was. We made sure that they could open the app the day before so when we wanted to get started the day of the lesson, we wouldn't have any of those hiccups!) 

I put my students into pairs. One had the iPad and was the "scanner," and the other was the "recorder," with the recording sheet and pencil. Once they had scanned 5 codes, they switched roles and materials. When they were all finished we went through the codes pictures together. (I have a reflector app on my iPad and computer so my kids can see what I scanned on my iPad via my projector.)

I originally expected this to be a quick 5-10 minute activity and was not sure if it would be worthwhile. But after implementing it, my opinions quickly changed! I'd say the whole activity took 20-30 minutes from start to finish. The best part was the amount of collaboration and discussion my kiddos had...and it was worthwhile! They were talking with each other about what the word was for the picture, they read the words together in the word bank, they helped and reminded their partner of the sound "th" made if their partner forgot, and they discussed what made sense in the cloze sentences that are also included! (Swoon...a teachers dream!) 

Look at the discussions going on in the background of this picture!! LOVE IT!

Don't have a lot of iPads in you classroom? You can still make this work! Place the task cards at your iPad station, and have the students rotate through during your center time! 

Needless to say, I decided that I needed to make more QR codes. We are starting to learn long vowels so I decided that was the best place to start! If you have never made QR codes linked to PDF files, let me tell you that although it's not hard, there are many little steps that can make it very tedious if you are making a lot of them! But nevertheless, I clicked my way through 55 QR codes for my newest product: QR Code Task Cards: Long Vowel Bundle

We will be using the Long A codes on Thursday, and my kiddos are already excited to use them again! They saw them sitting on my desk and wanted to know when we are scanning codes again! (Tip: Don't laminate the cards right after printing them. Sometimes the heat can make the ink smear, and then the code won't work. Give the ink time to dry before laminating!)
Happy Scanning!