Document Camera Ideas for Kindergarten
Remember those overhead projectors? They've been replaced with document cameras, which operate in a similar way, only without the need for transparencies; you simply place the document on the face, or lens, of the big camera, and extend the arm to project what you want where you want it. Objects such as books, pictures, worksheets or even a pair of helping hands will work for reading, writing and arithmetic.
Reading
Document cameras can be used for reading time while students read along to the projected reading on the big screen. Simply placing the text on the face of the camera, then extending the arm will project images large enough for the entire class to view from their seats. Answers to follow-up questions can be placed up as students answer them. The class can score them together, with the teacher filling in answers on the document.
In the absence of big books, document cameras can project the text from any story large enough for all to see as teachers read and students read along out loud. Placing a song up on the document camera for students to sing along with helps them remember the words as they see and sing simultaneously. Teachers can point to words as they are sung, conducting a class choir from the camera.
Word walls for quick access can be constructed conveniently using Word Art, with the printed document placed on the camera face to reinforce vocabulary and for independent writing time.
Writing
Class interactive writing works very well with document cameras. One student, or the teacher, can write while others observe the process. The teacher can point out specific features while writing by highlighting words in text using colored pens or pencils or Wikki Stix (bendable colored sticks made of yarn and wax).
Real text can be used to examine letter placement, identify words through word hunts or construct sentences as a class; sentence strips can be used to unscramble and reconstruct sentences taken from a story previously read. The teacher can demonstrate her own writing process while writing alongside the students as they journal; students can see firsthand the process one goes through to begin and end a writing piece.
Students also can take turns writing on the document face for interactive writing. In story writing time, for example, students can take turns adding to a story, with its visibility making it easy to conceptualize and thus engage more students in participation and interaction.
Math and Science
Using counters, cubes or any other manipulatives placed on the camera face, students can see and practice sorting activities, one-to-one correspondence, basic addition and subtraction, concepts of more and less, longer than and bigger than or taller than. Also, money can be counted on the camera's face to demonstrate place value.
For science activities, objects like leaves, pine cones, even worms can be placed on the camera's face for whole-class examination and scientific inquiry. The growing process can be monitored daily to watch growth using the document camera, allowing the whole class to see up close the scientific methods that underpin plant growth and cell change. Using caterpillars to demonstrate their metamorphosis into butterflies is an awesome experience under a document camera. Students can view the daily progression in the cycle of life from the lens of a document camera.
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