How I Use Kahoot in My Classroom

Today I'm excited to share one of my favorite apps with you that I mentioned in my Friday Favorites - Favorite Tech Apps - Kahoot! Kahoot is an app that is new to me this year and the kids and I both fell in love with it! They would request that we used it and they'd be disappointed on days when we didn't.

I used Kahoot as a way to review content that I had already taught in the classroom.  It's a great way to do review without the kids having to do 20 problems on a worksheet.  Our school is 1-to-1 with iPads, which helps, but Kahoot can be done as a whole class, partnerships, teams, or independently.  I have used the multiple choice type questions, but I know they have other options too.

I like Kahoot because you can create your own quizzes.  They do have a bank where you can search for already made Kahoots, but I often prefer to create my own.  Creating your own is nice because you can tailor it to the specific way you've taught, specific vocabulary you've used, and your school's specific standards.

Below is an example of one of the Kahoots I created for my class.  I would create a new one each week that went along with our Journey's story.  We would do the Kahoot on Thursday to help review for the test on Friday. I would include vocabulary questions, grammar questions, and phonics questions.  

Below you'll see all of the Kahoots I've created. The wonderful thing is these are saved for next year.  So once you've created it, you'll have it to use year after year and won't have to recreate things.  

Here is an example of what the questions and answer options look like.  When you are creating the Kahoot, you have an option to have 2-4 answer choices.  You can also have more than one correct answer.

Below is an example of one of the searches I did on Kahoot. We do a unit on 3D shapes and I thought it would be fun to review the shape names and attributes using Kahoot.  It did work well, but I suggest you look closely at the Kahoot before the kids complete it.  Since these are created by other people, there are sometimes mistakes and often they don't teach the exact content you teach so you want to make sure it fits your class.

I know this was a quick post, but I want to leave you with a few of the reasons why I love using Kahoot in my classroom...

• The kids love it and they are engaged.
• It provides instant feedback. Once the answers are in or the time is up, the correct answer is shown.
• All students can play and participate. Sometimes too it's fun to break it up into teams and partners. They get quite competitive with the points!
• Great review of content and it's not a worksheet. I'm not a fan of worksheets. While I know paper is necessary for some tasks, I don't think kids need to be doing worksheets all day long. I love that Kahoot reviews the content, but in a different format then a worksheet.
• Quick and easy to make!