On Dec. 18, 2018 John F. Kennedy Elementary School’s K3 class was invited to present Santa’s technology upgrade to the school board. The students shared five digital tools from their digital toolbox.

The first digital tool was their Seesaw Learning Journal. They created a digital learning journal on Seesaw for Santa. Using this journal, Santa is able to upload his annual Nice and Naughty Children’s List that “he could check once, he could check twice, on any device!”

Kindergartners Give School Board Digital LessonsThe Desert Sands Unified School District students took pictures of the audience using their tablets and opened the photos within the Pic Collage app, creating a collage and labeling the picture “naughty” or “nice.” These labeled photos were submitted to Santa’s Workshop Learning Journal so Santa could verify his list against the photos. Fortunately, everyone in the audience was on the nice list.

The next digital tool upgrade to Santa’s Workshop was the ability to make decorations using Google Draw. The students drew and decorated a lightbulb using Google Draw.

Google Slides was used as a digital tool to help the students write reports and letters to Santa. They learned how to add text and photos to Google Slides. Using these slides, the students created a Readers’ Theatre poem that allowed them to further investigate their poem, “Who Took the Candy Cane from The Christmas Tree?”

In the digital upgrade to Santa’s Workshop, the students also taught the elves how to create QR codes and create a more efficient process for identifying wrapped gifts and help find Santa’s packages more quickly.

Kindergartners Give School Board Digital LessonsAs the last digital upgrade to Santa’s workshop, students wrote an e-book bedtime story using the Book Creator app. They painted illustrations to accompany the book and recorded their voice reading the story. This was then exported to an iMovie and uploaded to YouTube to be shared and played.

These digital tools allow students to incorporate technology into the classroom and their learning, providing them a voice and reinforcing technology as an everyday part of their lives. These tools provide the students greater choice with how they present information and mitigate some of the fears students may have regarding use of technology.

In addition to the photos of the elves, the John F. Kennedy Elementary School Choir provided holiday music and spirit. The choir is conducted by Danielle Pillow who was accompanied by several teachers who came along to assist.