
Kindergarten Lesson Ideas
Using Seesaw
*All standards reference the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills from February 2017.
ELA Activities
- Standard: 6(A) - Identify elements of a story including setting, character, and key events. Activity: After reading a story (either as a whole group or individually), students will work with a buddy to create a short film clip within Seesaw. Partner A will hold the iPad and record (using the built-in "Video" feature) while Partner B will hold the book and discuss the setting, characters, and main events in the story. Turn in to Partner B's journal and then switch so that Partner A gets to discuss the story, as well.
- Standard: 10(D) - Use titles and illustrations to make predictions about text. Activity: Students can take pictures of the cover, illustrations, and/or subtitles inside a book of their choice and upload these photos into Shadow Puppet Edu. Students can then record their voice and use the "magic wand" feature to point out elements in each picture and explain their predictions. The project will save as a movie file, which students can then import into Seesaw from the camera roll.
- Standard: 13(E) - Share writing with others. Activity: Take a picture of student writing (if you need multiple photos, you may consider using the Shadow Puppet Edu app), upload to Seesaw, and record the student's voice reading their story.
- Standard: 17(A) - Form upper- and lowercase letters legibly using the basic conventions of print. Activity: Students can use the built-in whiteboard feature of Seesaw and use a finger or stylus to practice forming the letters. (Teachers can even drop an image of a handwriting template that students could copy/edit from the feed and use the annotate feature in order to trace the letters if they needed a modification!)
- Standard: 17(B) and (C) - Capitalize the first letter in a sentence, and use punctuation at the end of a sentence. Activity: Teachers can: 1) drop the image of an editing practice worksheet into Seesaw, have students copy/edit the worksheet, and then use their finger to annotate over the top of the paper and edit capitalization and punctuation. -OR- 2) type practice sentences in the built-in digital notebook paper in Seesaw, have students copy/edit the note, and fix the capitalization and punctuation.
Math Activities
- Standard: 2(E) - Generate a set using concrete and pictorial models that represents a number that is more than, less than, and equal to a given number up to 20. Activity: Students can: 1) represent a number using physical math manipulatives, take a picture of the model, import to Seesaw from the camera roll, and then narrate over the top of the photo to explain their thinking, -OR- 2) use the built-in whiteboard and use a finger or stylus to represent numbers, and then use the whiteboard recording feature to explain their thinking.
- Standard: 3(C) - Explain the strategies used to solve problems involving adding and subtracting within 10 using spoken words, concrete and pictorial models, and number sentences. Activity: Students can use the whiteboard, imported pictures (from the camera roll -- of math manipulatives or drawings on paper), written explanations on the built-in digital paper, or even app-smash to demonstrate their problem-solving strategies.
- Standard: 4 - The student applies mathematical process standards to identify coins in order to recognize the need for monetary transactions. The student is expected to identify U.S. coins by name, including pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Activity: Students can either: 1) take a picture of the various types of money (fake money manipulatives) in Seesaw and record their voice over the top explaining what each coin is and their denomination. -OR- 2) app-smash with Shadow Puppet Edu by importing a different coin picture in the slides, using the magic wand to point to each coin, and narrating over the top of the project to identify and explain more about each coin. The project saves to the camera roll as a video file, which the students can then import into Seesaw.
- Standard: 6 - The student applies mathematical process standards to analyze attributes of two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional solids to develop generalizations about their properties. Activity: Students can go on a "shape hunt" around the school (or room) and take pictures of the 2D and 3D shapes they've learned about. Import the photos into Pic Collage and create a collage with labels to identify each shape. Export the image to the camera roll, then import into Seesaw from the camera roll and narrate the image to explain what's inside.
- Standard: 9(C) and (D) - List simple skills required for jobs, and distinguish between wants and needs and identify income as a source to meet one's wants and needs. Activity: Students can use Popplet Lite or Padlet to brainstorm required skills or wants/needs, export the image to the camera roll, and then import into the Seesaw journal from the camera roll.
Science Activities
- Standard: 2(D) - Record and organize data and observations using pictures, numbers, and words. Activity: In any experiment or investigation, students can use the built-in digital notebook paper or built-in camera or video recorder to record oral, written, or pictorial observations. Students could also app-smash with Shadow Puppet Edu (by creating a picture slideshow), Padlet or Popplet (by creating a brainstorm wall or web), or Pic Collage (by creating a collage of images), importing into Seesaw through the camera roll, and [optionally] adding voice narration to explain the data.
- Standard: 7(A) - Observe, describe, compare, and sort rocks by size, shape, color, and texture. Activity: Take a picture of various rocks. Import each rock into a freestyle template in Pic Collage and add text to describe the size, shape, color, and texture. Import each picture into Shadow Puppet Edu to create a photo slideshow with voice narration to explain why the rock was classified in those ways. Import into Seesaw from the camera roll.
- Standard: 7(C) - Give examples of ways rocks, soil, and water are useful. Activity: The teacher can create a Padlet wall and drop the link into Seesaw. Students can contribute text or pictures to the Padlet wall to explain ways rocks, soil, and water are useful.
- Standard: 9(A) - Differentiate between living and nonliving things based upon whether they have basic needs. Activity: The teacher can give students pictures of a variety of objects (should be a mix between living and nonliving things). Students can take a video of the objects and record their voice in the background to explain what each object is, if it's living or nonliving, and why it's classified that way.
- Standard: 10(B) - Identify parts of plants such as roots, stem, and leaves and parts of animals such as head, eyes, and limbs. Activity: Students can use the built-in whiteboard to draw and label pictures of plants and animals. Then students can use the voice narration feature to explain the different parts and their function.
Social Studies Activities
- Standard: 2(A) and (B) - Identify contributions of historical figures who helped to shape the state and nation, and identify contributions of patriots and good citizens who have shaped the community. Activity: The teacher can provide a photo of a historical figure or community helper (AirDrop the photos to student devices or drop them into a cloud service for students to retrieve on their device). Then the student can import the photo into Seesaw from the camera roll and provide voice narration in the background to explain that person's contributions.
- Standard: 3(A) - Place events in chronological order. Activity: Students can use Popplet Lite to create a timeline with events (typed, in drawn format, or in picture format) in chronological order before uploading the image to Seesaw from the camera roll.
- Standard: 10(A) and (B) - Identify the flags of the United States and Texas, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag and the Pledge to the Texas Flag. Activity: Upload pictures of the Texas and US flag to Shadow Puppet Edu. Students can recite the pledge to each flag (using voice recording) before saving the project as a movie file to the camera roll. Then import the video into Seesaw from the camera roll.
- Standard: 10(D) - Use voting as a method for group decision making. Activity: The teacher can create a simple poll in Google Forms or Poll Everywhere, drop the link into Seesaw, and let students navigate to the survey from within Seesaw (instead of having to type in the URL on their own). After students participate in the poll, the teacher can review the results as a whole class.
- Standard: 15(B) - Create and interpret visuals, including pictures and maps. Activity: Students can create visuals in the built-in whiteboard and then use the built-in voice narration to interpret the visuals.
All Subjects
Tricks or activities you can use in all subject areas include:
- Getting images to students (so they don't have to conduct Google searches on their own!): AirDrop the image to [newer] student iOS devices -OR- place the image(s) in a folder in the cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and provide students with the link or access to the folder so they can download a copy.
- Directing students to instructional videos: Find the video in YouTube, filter it through SafeShare or ViewPure, and drop the final link in Seesaw.
- Guiding students toward a particular link: Drop the link in Seesaw. The link will open within Seesaw (on an iOS app) or in a new tab (on a computer) so the student doesn't have to navigate to the URL on his/her own.
- Presentations: Students can record themselves with Seesaw's built-in video recorder for up to 5 minutes, -OR- you can app-smash with another presentation tool such as Shadow Puppet Edu, Padlet, ThingLink, Chatterpix, Pic Collage, or Popplet Lite. As long as you can save the final project to the camera roll or take a screenshot of it, students can import the assignment into Seesaw to turn in.
More Resources
For more lesson ideas, check these resources:
- 100 [Generic] Ways to Seesaw: 1-page printable | flashcards
- Student Intro Presentation: PK-2
- Kindergarten Getting Started Guide
- Kindergarten Student Challenge
- Kindergarten Task Cards
- Seesaw Activity Ideas for PK-2
- Uses for Seesaw in the 1st Grade Classroom - Padlet (could modify for kindergarten)
- 1st Grade Seesaw Activity Ideas - Smore (could modify for kindergarten)
- App Dice
- Seesaw Go! Game for Students K-5
- Graphic Organizers for Seesaw
- Station Activities
- #SeesawChat on Twitter (the chat goes from 6-7 CST every other Thursday, but you can skim the feed for ideas that were tweeted in previous chats!)