Kathy's class had their second experience with the tablets today. Since we only had 45 minutes of time, Kathy and I spent a few minutes setting everything up and saving their work before the first graders entered the room. Kathy mentioned that they were so excited this morning during Morning Meeting when she told them that they were going to haveaTablet lesson. I was welcomed with warm smiles and an enthusiastic group when they came back from Music class.
Since the Tablets were already in Journal, we went over some rules and the "stylus down" rule as being one of the most important rule. Kathy instructed them to write 1 sentence about their weekend and then draw a picture to go along with that sentence. We reviewed where the pen and eraser feature is located on the Tablet and reviewed how to get a variety of color choices using the pallet icon on the toolbar. Many remembered how to change the thickness of the pen from our last lesson. This really surprised me since it has been quite a long time since we used the tablets in this class.
The only thing that you heard in that classroom was the chirping of the crickets as the children were working. This group of first graders are great listeners and followed directions well. When someone forgot how to do something or needed help, they were very patient waiting for assistance. It is a bit more difficult for this age to not touch the button on the top of the stylus so some "strange things" happened. Some of them are also afraid to rest their hands on the tablet surface, I think it is hard for them to think of the surface as a normal piece of paper but with practice they will get more comfortable.
When we were finished with our "driting" we walked through the save and shut down process. This class's ability to follow directions enabled us to get through this process with ease.