QR Codes and Popplet

My very techie kindergarten teacher always comes to me with the greatest ideas. She had been reading about QR codes and wanted to brainstorm a way to use it with their science unit on living and nonliving things. After a few brainstorming sessions, we decided to use QR Codes to link to pictures of living and nonliving things and the children would decide which category they belonged in. In preparation for the lesson, we used QRStuff to create QR codes for the pictures we would use. In a separate lesson, the students explored and discussed what makes something living or non-living.

During the lesson, the children went around to stations and scanned the QR Code at each station. They used the QRafter app to do the scanning. They chose to find either living or nonliving things. If the picture fit into the category they chose, they opened it and saved it to their photo gallery. The students went around to 6 or 7 stations and found as many items that worked in their category.

After finding their items, the children used Popplet to organize the images. They typed in the category they selected - "Living" or "Nonliving"-  and then added each of the pictures to a separate Popplet. At the end, they added their names to a Popplet and chose a background color.

It was a fun and simple activity to check for understanding of the characteristics of living and non-living things and a great way to kick off the science unit on living and non-living things.