‘Must Try’ Classroom Tech Tool: Kahoot!

Must Try Classroom Tech: Kahoot makes learning fun with engaging review games in a trivia-style atmosphere! A student favorite! | www.chalkandapples.com

Technology in the classroom is constantly evolving. There’s always a new tech tool out there to explore in your classroom. One of my favorite finds this year is an incredibly fun site for
reviewing content with your students… Kahoot!

I first learned about Kahoot
last year, when my friend Juliet posted about it on Teaching Trio. Since
we’re not a 1:1 school, I had kind of written it off as something that looks
really cool, but just won’t work for my class. (I was SO wrong!)

Fast
forward to this year, and I finally gave it a try. I am HOOKED! My class is
HOOKED! If I dare to review before a test with anything other than a Kahoot
game, there is likely to be a mutiny in my classroom! By the end of the year, my students were asking, “are we going to Kahoot again before summer?”

In case you haven’t
heard of it, Kahoot is a
free site that allows you to play ready-made, multiple choice, trivia-style games on a variety of sujects. You can also adapt any of the public Kahoots to fit your specific lesson or create your own games.

Students can play on any internet connected device – desktops, laptops, iPads,
tablets, smartphones… you name it! No student accounts are needed – students
join your game using a pin number from a web browser or the Kahoot app.

Game play works very much like the popular trivia games you may have
seen in restaurants & sports bars. After each question, students can see who is in the lead
based on how quickly they entered the correct answer. (Only the top 5 are shown,
so no one is ever shamed for being last.) A graph of the number of students
choosing each answer choice is also shown, to help the teacher gauge and correct
any misconceptions.

Creating games is quick and easy, because the site
has thousands of public Kahoots that you can use, modify, and add to. The first time we used Kahoot in my class, I used two public Kahoots as the basis for a review on cells, and had built two
ten-question Kahoots in under ten minutes.

I was able to modify the
questions and answer choices to specifically fit the concepts I had taught and
the questions I wanted to review for the test, so it was a perfect match to our
curriculum. My class has never been so engaged and excited about reviewing
before a test! We had a blast!

So what if you aren’t 1:1 or BYOD? We aren’t either! At my
school, we have done away with the big computer lab filled with desktops in
favor of several laptop carts. When I want to Kahoot, I just bring a cart to my
room, and each student has their own laptop. If you don’t have this option, you
can always set up a Kahoot in your computer center during small group work or have students play in Team Mode.

If you want to learn more, Kahoot has a master class with a video and PDF that will help you get started. 
 

Throughout the summer, I’ll be sharing more of my favorite tech tools here on the blog! Follow me on Bloglovin or sign up for email updates so you don’t miss any of the great tools I’ll be sharing!

 
Happy Teaching, Kristen
Share

Shop Teacher Favorites

Find ready-to-go lessons, activities, and organizational tools to simplify your life and help you fall back in love with your job.

  • Reading Digital Rotation Board with Timers (Editable)

    $10.00
  • Sale!

    Digital Rotation Boards for Reading & Math (Bundle)

    $15.20
  • Math Digital Rotation Board with Timers (Editable)

    $11.00
  • Word Work for Big Kids: PRINTABLES for Vocabulary

    $4.00
  • Great Mail Race Complete Kit

    $4.50