Bloglovin' Facebook Pinterest E-Mail Instagram Shop Home About Us Freebies Shop Image Map

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Back to School Activities: Getting to Know Your Students with Google Forms & Kahoot!



Hi all, It's Shana from Hello, Teacher Lady here. Today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite back to school activities -- it combines my trusty Google Forms/Sheets with everyone's favorite techie game, Kahoot!

In the past, I've had students fill out short little "inventories" at the beginning of the year -- which have been helpful to a certain extent, but I found that I didn't look at them as closely or as often as I should have. Stacks of paper usually don't survive long with me and ultimately end up tucked away in the filing cabinet of doom.

Since I started drinking the digital Kool-Aid and had been using Google Apps for Education for just about everything else in my classroom, last year I decided to nix the paper and create a Google Form for my students to fill out instead. That was a pretty good idea on its own, but then I had a lightbulb moment: why not turn the obligatory getting-to-know-you form into a class game! And that's where Kahoot! came in.

On the Google Form, I asked students to list three "fun facts" about themselves and made sure to note that some or all of the information collected would be shared with the class. I also mentioned that we will have to guess who's who during a Kahoot! game in a later class period, so I encouraged students to be creative and try to list things that aren't super obvious or that others might not know about them.

The results of the Google Form were then displayed nice and neatly in a Google Sheet, and it was a lot of fun reading through these facts and seeing what each student wanted to share about themselves. It also provided some unexpected insight, as I had one student write that he was a "good liar" who is "very lazy" -- yeah, definitely expect that one; we had an interesting year together. Anyway...

This next part was a little time consuming, but totally worth it. I took the information shared and compiled them into statements about each person (without using their name, of course) in a Kahoot! game for each class period. Sometimes I used all three facts, sometimes I only used one or two; it just depended on the type of information. For my smaller classes, I created extra statements based on some of the unused information, so some students' names appeared more than once.

Below are a few screenshots of statements from one of my classes last year:



In the answer section, I included the correct student's name and then chose three other names at random. I also included a statement for myself and sprinkled my name in some of the choices throughout the game as well. So not only was I getting to know my students, but they were getting to know me too! Pretty sure no one expected to learn that their teacher is a Star Trek nerd who played Rugby for 5 years. :)

Guys... we had SO. MUCH. FUN. playing this game!  I can't wait to play it again this year with my new students. It can get a little rambunctious, but again -- so worth it. 

For the record, since I'm an ELA teacher, I also gave students a separate reading/writing interest survey, which was crucial in getting to know their interests and habits on a more academic level. However, this year I am going to utilize Google Forms for that as well. I just don't seem to get along with paper, and Google Sheets can be accessed from anywhere! 

Tomorrow's post by Lyndsey from Lit with Lyns will go into more detail about using digital student interest surveys, so stay tuned!

Psssst -- there's a giveaway happening on my blog right now. Come on over to check it out. :) 

hello teacher lady

19 comments:

  1. What a great idea to combine the back to school inventory with an ice-breaker game!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Middle School Mob: Back To School Activities: Getting To Know Your Students With Google Forms And Kahoot! >>>>> Download Now

      >>>>> Download Full

      Middle School Mob: Back To School Activities: Getting To Know Your Students With Google Forms And Kahoot! >>>>> Download LINK

      >>>>> Download Now

      Middle School Mob: Back To School Activities: Getting To Know Your Students With Google Forms And Kahoot! >>>>> Download Full

      >>>>> Download LINK RQ

      Delete
  2. What a great idea to combine the back to school inventory with an ice-breaker game!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sharon! It really was a great way to start the year. :)

      Delete
  3. Shanna,
    I LOVE this idea! I always use Kahoot to review for vocab tests, but this is such a great way to incorporate the surveys! You just gave me lots of great ideas! Thanks so much for sharing!

    Lyndsey

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love Love LOVE!!!! Is there any particular survey you use? Any questions you avoid?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the idea... how do I learn to do this, too? New to Google Apps :(

    ReplyDelete
  6. Found this as a pin on Pinterest! I’m moving to middle school (ELA, as well) this year, and I definitely want to do this! I’m also interested in your paper based writing/getting to know you activity. Any in particular you use?? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Who does not wanted to go back their school life and stay time with their school friends and those corridors and those buildings and so on. http://www.personalgoalwriting.com/our-services/long-term-goal-essay/ to check the recent guide and tips about the academic writing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is fabulous! Thank you for sharing!!! Could you also share some of the other questions on your google form?

    ReplyDelete
  9. If I had a chance to get back to my school life and stay with those activities then I would love to stay with such a situation. read more to find out more helpful tips on writing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. There are different activities for you from which you can enjoy the best pace of learning. Enjoy the useful link from this area and see the list of this middle school for the dominance and better learning. You can also search different things here.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Everyone don't find the best site for learning their lake. This is so hard. I know how difficult to find the best one. I suffer this problems. And finally I find the best one for me and I think this site will perfect for everyone. http://www.graduateschoolpersonalstatement.net/personal-statement-writing-requirements/uf-college-essay-help/ this is the link of this site. You can visit this site for your any problems about writing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Students feel boredom when they go back to school after vocations. This kind of activity will courage them and provide fun. Students will love it and feel pleasure in staying school. learn more here you'll get tips how to provide fun to students.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Do you have a copy of your google form you could post?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Here's mine:
    1. Name/hour
    2. Tell me something about you that no one else knows
    3. Favorite subject/least favorite subject
    4. special talent/skill
    5. Farthest ever traveled
    6. special skill or talent
    7. Coolest thing seen or done
    8. Passion / want to try
    9. Something you want to tell me and I won't tell anyone else.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Middle School Mob: Back To School Activities: Getting To Know Your Students With Google Forms And Kahoot! >>>>> Download Now

    >>>>> Download Full

    Middle School Mob: Back To School Activities: Getting To Know Your Students With Google Forms And Kahoot! >>>>> Download LINK

    >>>>> Download Now

    Middle School Mob: Back To School Activities: Getting To Know Your Students With Google Forms And Kahoot! >>>>> Download Full

    >>>>> Download LINK

    ReplyDelete