Sunday, December 16, 2018

A Virtual Reality Trip To The North Pole With The Polar Express, Merge and Our Kindergarteners!

I had so much fun visiting our kindergarten classrooms, with Molly Wosmansky and Melanie Smith, last week with the Merge goggles and a little virtual reality that tied into.... 
The Polar Express and holiday season.  After they read and...
....listened to, The Polar Express, by Chris Vans Allsburg, 
we told the kindergarteners they were going to have the chance to visit Santa at the North Pole and other places celebrating holidays around the world using the Merge goggles and virtual reality. 

They were so excited!  
I put together a few Google Slides to use during the visit with The Polar Express video and...
...360Cities, which included the Tallinn Christmas Market, Christmas Market in Berlin, Santa Claus in Finland and a parade of Santa Claus in Japan;
the Coca Cola Virtual Reality for Christmas YouTube videoand...
I also included the Christmas and New Year Holidays Collection from Roundme, which can be found here.  We didn't have time to do this one on this day, but I did do it with a few of the other elementary classes. 
It is very easy to set up the VR tours in Google Slides with QR codes, because it takes the little ones straight to the 360 image or video we want to take them.
By setting them up in Google Slides, we can project these in the front of the room and let the students have choice on where they want to visit. 
The teachers also printed the slides so we put a few of these around the room to give them even more options.  These could be sent home to show their families too. 
Working with virtual and augmented reality with our youngest learners has been amazing.  I love watching them figure it out together.  
They are so passionate and excited about this new technology and experiences, they always do too!
 When we put them into pairs, they help one another and take this job very seriously.
I think you can tell by the look on their faces what they think of these special virtual reality experiences. 
Also, don't forget to include the teachers too!  This technology and experiences has opened windows for everyone. 
And even when they need a little break to take it all in like our kindergarten friend Vinny, 
the extra work and technology needed to provide these wonderful opportunities are a game changer for education. This picture truly says it all! 

I will visit Ms. McClintock and Ms. Cranston's kindergarten classrooms this week, and quite a few others as we work with CoSpaces, Merge Cubes, ThingLink and more!  I can't wait to open even more windows and opportunities for our students and community with this amazing technology and resources. 

Please feel free to visit and use the Holiday and Santa Trip Google Slides here too

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