Using CHIRP to Teach Vocabulary

This technology lesson was a great way to focus on tricky vocabulary!  

Students were asked to take a survey using Google Forms to vote for the most difficult vocabulary word from our new Wonders series we were working on that week. Here were the results: 

The top four words to focus on were:
habitat
restless
journey
& escape 

Then students were randomly grouped into quads. Each student from each group picked out of a bag to determine which word they would be in charge of. One student was in charge of "habitat," one in charge of "restless," one in charge of "journey," and one kid in charge of "escape." Picking from bags this kept it fair!

Then, students dispersed to work with their specific word group (so all of the "habitat" kids worked together, all of the "restless" kids worked together, etc.) to create a visual representation of the word using the Drawing Pad app. (We use this app ALL the time and LOVE it!) 

Here are some of the pictures they came up with-

Once time was up (we put a time limit on this so we're not spending allllllllllllllll day drawing ;), students went back to their original groups of four to "teach" each other. Each kid had three minutes to be the "teacher" and teach their group all about their word and use it in context. The "students" were (supposed to be ;-) active listeners, and were allowed to ask questions about the vocabulary word. When the three minutes was up, the "teacher" used the Chirp app to wirelessly send the photo to the other students in their group. 

Here's what Chirp looks like in action: 

The beauty about Chirp is the photo will automatically be sent to anyone in the room with the Chirp app open. Since all students had to the app open to either send or receive a photo, students did not just get the photo from their "teacher", but from all of the "teachers" in the classroom and got to see different representations of the same word! This sparked some great discussion about the way the words can be used, and specific meanings in context! 

We went around the circle and made sure all four "teachers" got a chance to teach and Chirp! 

This lesson was a great way to make these tricky vocabulary words their own, and a great way for students to share their learning and knowledge with their peers! 

You can see a video of the project here!