Do you Kahoot? My kids LOVE it and their faces light up every Thursday morning when I get the iPads out and they realize we are playing Kahoot!
First of all - you might be asking "what is Kahoot?" Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that allows you to quiz your students on a variety of concepts. This is a great platform to review a concept before a test or quiz. We use this as a type of practice spelling test on Thursday before our actual spelling test on Friday.
How does it work?
First, you'll need to set up an account at
www.getkahoot.com. Setting up a quiz is easy and Kahoot will even walk you through the set up. You can find quizzes made by other teachers or you can create your own. You input your questions and then up to 4 choices for answers. At least one must be marked correct, as this is how student accuracy and points is determined. After you set up your questions and answers, you save, and then your ready to play.
How do I utilize Kahoot for spelling?
I utilize Kahoot! for spelling by making my students become very careful word detectives as they read the 4 choices of a word spelling and have to determine which one is correct. I have created quizzes for almost all of our spelling units that align with our spelling curriculum. Some weeks we will have multiple spelling patterns that make the same sound but use different letters (such as air and are in the images below), so students have to determine which pattern is the one for that word.
When it's time to play you will login into your Kahoot! account, select the game you want to play, and choose the way you want to play. We play Classic, since I am 1:1. If you want students to play in groups, you can also choose that option.
Students will then see this screen projected that will have their game pin. Students will input this code to join your game. That will keep others from all over the word joining the game you are playing.
As students login on their devices they will choose a username. I usually make students put their first name only, but if they choose to do a silly name - I can delete them and make them log in again. They will have a confirmation screen on their device that says they are logged in and their name will display on the board.
What students see on their device when they log in:
Once everyone is logged in it's time to begin!
Because I tell the students the word that they are choosing the spelling for, all of my questions are the same "How do you spell...?"
After the question is displayed, the time begins to choose the answer. Students will see this screen on their device for EVERY question.
But - the words will be different on the board!
For Question #1, students are deciding the correct spelling of the word "square". I do sometimes get a little funny with my misspelled spellings and the kids enjoy it! I sometimes try to channel my inner 2nd grader and think of some of the misspelled sounds that they make in addition to including our different weekly spelling patterns.
You can also trick them by making two answer choices correct! I don't have one pictured, but sometimes I get so stumped on funky ways to spell the spelling word that I just make 2 choices correct and spell the word correctly for 2 answers. Because I have selected both of these choices to be correct, any students that choose either of these get it correct.
You can change the amount of time that students have to answer the question. I have mine set to 30 seconds and most times all answers are in within 10-15 seconds. Once every has answers, Kahoot! will automatically show the correct answer and how many students got the answer correct.
Woohoo! I got it right! haha
In class though - we do celebrate it everyone gets one right!
At the top right, you see the "Next" button. By clicking that, you'll be taken to the scoreboard screen. Students get answers for getting the correct answer as well as how quickly they answer (you can turn that off though). My students LOVE competing against each other and themselves to up their score and get on the leaderboard.
We go through all of our spelling words in the same fashion. I usually do between 10-12 words depending on the list, which sometimes leaves us time to play GHOSTMODE! After you have played one round of a Kahoot! game, you'll have the option to play Ghostmode. The order of the questions will be the same, but you'll have twice as many players because each player has a ghost. So my 22 players in my first round would become 44 players during Ghostmode.
In Ghostmode, students are competing against their ghost, as well as their peers to get on the leaderboard. We have figured out that the ghosts are their score from the first game, so we make it a class goal to improve our score and keep those ghosts off the leaderboard.
Be warned - this is not a quiet game! I do try to make my kids keep their excitement and agony (when they realize they picked a word to quick and chose the wrong one) to indoor voices - but it doesn't always work. But, I can guarantee that your kids will LOVE this game and don't even get upset that they are practicing spelling words (or whatever other subject you choose!).
Do you Kahoot?
