As I search for new tools to use in my classroom, I found this site through one of my RSS feeds. How exciting! Technology is great! I seem to find myself focusing each week on something I can use to help teach writing in my classroom. Contrary to how it may seem, we do learn to do other things in my class besides writing. We typically write about small moments in kindergarten, but as I told my parents during conferences this week, as five year olds there are only so many small moments to pull from. I’ve started using photos to help jump-start our writing.
This week’s tool fits right in there. The website www.piklits.com provides the user with a plethora of photos to choose from. It lists several categories of words. A variety of nouns, adverbs, adjectives and other words are listed below to pull from.
The user can write sentences, rhymes, or simply just use labels to write about the photos. The photos are fantastic. There are pictures of nature, people, things, just about anything one can imagine. As I spend each day trying to find new ideas to motivate my students to write, I find that giving them a realistic photo to write about is making an enormous difference in the writing I’m getting from my students.
Each day I’m amazed at the writing each and every one of my students produce using the new ideas I’ve found during my research!
I am so excited for them and for you, Kim. I wish I could be there to see those little light bulbs going off! Great stuff!
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