We always enjoy collaborating with our Kent State Child Development Center (CDC)and are so happy to welcome the 2015-16 CDC Kindergarten class to the AT&T Classroom. The kindergarteners kicked-off their afternoon by learning to use the Tocomail tool. Tocomail is a free email service designed specifically for young children. To use the service, parents simply create an account for their child and are also able to create and monitor a “safe” list of contacts with whom the child can email. The tool runs on both iOS and Android devices. Our kindergartners will have an opportunity each afternoon to check and respond to emails from family and friends. Children are excited to receive and send messages and the activity itself provides a very authentic context for building children's’ literacy skills.
The children celebrated their first day in the AT&T Classroom by creating Pic Collages. PicCollage is a free app that can be used to create collages of photos taken with an iOS or Android device. Features of the app allow children to customize their collage by adding text, backgrounds, and stickers. As the children worked within the various app features they gained experience with specific elements of visual and spatial design while creating a very personal and unique project. After creating their collages the children did a gallery walk to view one another’s work.
