Technology in Preschool with the Kurio XTreme

technology in preschool with kid made photo books

My preschool classroom is a play-based one, meaning that the kiddos are learning through play and exploration. In my opinion, technology in preschool really needs to enhance the children’s learning experiences. So I’m very particular about what technological products come into the classroom! This post, sponsored by Kurio Xtreme, will show how my students and I integrated building, technology, and literacy. As mentioned above, this is a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts are (as always) my own. Please read my disclosure for more detailed information.

Table of Contents

Technology in preschool with the Kurio Xtreme Tablet

technology in the classroom - Kurio xtreme used in the block center

My students, like many preschoolers, love the building center. They plan, create, and demolish every day. Our building area doubles as our circle time and meeting area. This means that the students can’t keep their structures up past center time, which can be a little upsetting. For the past few years, I’ve taken to snapping photos of structures and displaying them near the building center. The children love this, and they tend to ask me to take pictures when they’ve worked hard building. Since I can’t always be at the kids’ beck-and-call for photos, I brought the Kurio XTreme in. The tablet is made for children, so it’s durable and it comes with a protective bumper (we chose the blue one, since my son’s favorite color is blue and he’ll be using it at home). I showed the children how to work the Kurio’s camera, explained how to take care of it, and off we went! Let’s just say it was a hit with the preschoolers! I’m glad I established some ground rules for using the tablet so there weren’t too many problems taking turns with it. The boys and girls were so excited to capture their buildings using the camera!

using technology in preschool to make books — Taking a picture of me!

Of course, the kids spread out beyond the building center to snap photos! They took pictures of friends reading, friends sorting and exploring in the science center, their buds swinging outside, and even of younger siblings in the toddler room window. I had to laugh as I went through the hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of photos that were taken – there were photos of teachers making funny faces, special books, and even of their feet. In case you’re wondering, many of the pictures were indeed blurry – but a surprising number weren’t!

taking photos with technology in preschool — The photo on the right was taken by one of the kiddos in our science area.

Literacy and technology in preschool

At the end of the day, I loaded the photos onto my computer and chose a variety to use for a book entitled “Our Structures”. I love creating books with my students, as it makes literacy even more meaningful to them. Each photo was paired with a simple sentence – for example, “Isaac made a tower.” I’m going to mount each page on construction paper, laminate them, and turn them into a book for our reading center!

using technology in preschool to create a book about structures — The front cover of our class book about the kiddos’ structures!

encouraging kids to use technology in preschool to create books

I plan on getting the kiddos to help choose more photos to use in creating more books about our preschool day. I’m excited to see how the children build upon this over the course of the year! My son has already decided he’s going to use the Kurio’s camera, too. So far, he’s planning to create a LEGO structure book for the house. He’s also talking about using it to make a video of his artwork and structures. I may need to learn more about video editing in the near future!

More about the Kurio XTtreme Android Tablet

In addition to a front and rear camera, the Kurio comes with close to a hundred kid-appropriate e-books, apps, and games. My son and I were most interested in the motion games, as we’ve never seen that in a tablet before! The motion games seem like a great way to keep moving when stuck inside on rainy or snowy days. I also really like the parental controls – I can set them up to stop the Kurio after a certain amount of time, block apps and websites, turn off wifi access, etc. The tablet also has an internet filtering system that ensures kiddos don’t happen upon inappropriate content in apps or online. For more information about the Kurio XTreme, pop on over to the Kurio XTreme site and explore to your heart’s content!

Would you like your own Kurio Xtreme tablet? Just leave me a comment telling me your favorite feature of the Kurio Xtreme and you will be automatically entered for a chance to win!

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 11/12/2014 – 12/8/2014.

Be sure to visit the Kurio’s brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

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