Google Apps for Littles: Believe They Can

by Christine Pinto, Alice Keeler

Are Littles ‘big enough’ to use technology in the classroom? Yes! Pre-K and elementary school-aged children are naturally curious about the world around them. They love to explore and play, in fact, that’s how they learn. That innate drive to discover and willingness to try is also what makes Littles great at embracing new opportunities. In Google Apps for Littles, author-educators Christine Pinto and Alice Keeler encourage teachers to tap into their young students’ curiosity, particularly when it comes to technology. The authors share a wealth of innovative ways to integrate digital tools in the primary classroom to make learning engaging and relevant for even the youngest of today’s twenty-first-century learners. Google Apps for Littles equips you with . . . Practical ways to approach technology with young learners Activities for integrating Google Apps in the primary classroom Easy-to-implement ideas for using G Suite as an educator Exercises that build important skills, such as critical thinking and collaboration Children already know that they don’t need to wait for a grown-up to give them information, and many are already familiar with smartphones and tables. By helping them understand how to use these amazing digital tools to learn and create, rather than just consume information, you are equipping them for their future education. Empower your Littles with experiences that place learning at their fingertips! It is time to shift your mindset and believe that the youngest kids on an elementary school campus can do more. “Google Apps for Littles is jam packed with practical and innovative ideas and projects you can use with you littles tomorrow!” —Eric Curts, ControlAltAchieve “Inside this book, created by the dynamic duo of Alice Keeler and Christine Pinto, you will find nothing short of transformation. No matter what grade you teach, you will gain new ideas and insight by reading this book. Add this book to your reading list now!” —Kasey Bell, ShakeUpLearning “I love this all-encompassing guide to support teachers and students. Awesome!” —Lavonna Roth, creator and founder of Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E.® #GAfE4Littles

Genres: Education, Professional Development, Nonfiction, Technology

156 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 16, 2018

Reviews

[Faloni © · Rating 5 out of 5]

Encourage students to make cartoon avatars 💕

[Bobby Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary
Pinto & Keeler (2018) put it perfectly by saying, “It’s time to make a shift away from simply carving out time to do a technology activity and toward integrating technology into the natural course of a day to enhance overall learning and create new opportunities.” This book starts from the ground up, starting with how to set up G Suites accounts for students, to using all the Google Apps for younger students. Pinto & Keeler’s main objective of the book is to empower educators with the tools to guide and monitor students while providing an assortment of activities for students so that they become comfortable enough to use G Suite apps independently later on. Pinto & Keeler (2018) say that consistency is the key making sure that students start right away logging into and using G Suite Apps so that by the time they are older it has become second nature to them—classroom management and mastery of basic skills are essential early on so that technology does not get in the way of teaching. “No technology improves learning; it’s the design of the activity and the lesson planning that makes all the difference” (Pinto & Keeler, 2018).
Exploration of a device is needed and the book goes through how to introduce a variety of technologies being used in today’s classrooms, including: Chromebooks, PCs, iPads, and Tablets. Each type is explained on how to introduce the parts, functionality, logins, accessibility, best uses, and usage inside a classroom environment. With exploration on the student side there is also exploration in the book on the teacher side—giving multiple examples on how to use Google Classroom effectively during class time and while the students are at home; most intriguing part here is doing away with homework.
Pinto & Keeler provide a variety of activities in order for students to become familiar with the G Suite Apps, including Google Drawings (available on Chromebooks): Word Collage, Google Slides: Numbers 1-10 on Slides/Shape Sort, Voice Typing: Click to speak, Google Sheets: Pixel Art/Hidden Picture/Graphing/Pie Charts/Math Equations/Math Puzzles, Google Doc: Name Writing/Drag and Drop Images/Writing, Google Keep: Sketching to represent understanding of Vocabulary; just to name a few. Not only is it shown how to collaborate within their own classroom while sharing Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets it is also shown how to share across grade levels with the same Apps. When thinking of ELA, “Littles can use technology even as they are building their foundational reading skills” (Pinto & Keeler, 2018). Recommended here is that instead of leaving typed responses is that of leaving video feedback to students still struggling with reading (which is most K-3 students). When coming to Mathematics, worksheets and number crunching is the norm, but breaking that cycle is needed so that students can visualize their mistakes and processes beyond procedural steps—it is here where Google Apps “can help students to take a creative and visual approach to math” (Pinto & Keeler, 2018).

Critique
This book was jam packed with activity after activity, filled with websites, addons, templates, links, teacher tools from start to finish—at first read it is rather overwhelming. But one must go back to what was stated early on when the authors stated to choose three activities: hon in on them, use them frequently, and become effective with them. After taking a breath and digressing from all the information that is read, it is easy to go back and pick out three activities to start with and go from there. I really appreciated how the book was split up into parts: the beginning where it showed how to set up a classroom with logins, to the middle (the main part) where it laid out all the activities (links, templates, addons, websites, ect.), and then finished with teacher tools so that educators could keep students and families involved. I fully believe the aim of the authors was to give insight of how technology is ever evolving and we must with it—this book provides a wide assortment of activities and strategies to choose and pick from, but also leaves open the capability to expand and create off of.
Author’s Qualifications
Christine Pinto is a full-time Kindergarten Teacher for Arcadia Unified in Southern California. She received her Masters of Education from La Verne University. Christine is an educator, author, innovator, moderator, presenter, and speaker about a variety of topics involving Innovating Play and Google Apps for younger students. She is the founder of the hashtag #GAfE4Littles coinciding with this book’s title.
Alice Keeler is a full-time math teacher for Chawanakee Unified and lecturer at California State University Fresno in the teacher credential program. Alice holds a Masters in Educational Media Design and Technology. On top of being a speaker, presenter, author (of 5 Professional Development Books), lecturer—Alice is also a Google Certified Innovator, Microsoft Innovative Innovator, and New Media Consortium K12 Ambassador.

[Jorge Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Google Apps for Littles: Believe They Can (Pinto & Keeler, 2018) should be considered a staple in the libraries for all early primary teachers, especially those in a Google Workplace district. Pinto and Keeler do a great job at bringing their strengths to assist teachers in introducing Google apps to young learners. Pinto outlines realistic expectations for working with “littles,” and Keeler brings her Google apps knowledge by discussing practical applications for teachers to give students creative and visual ways to demonstrate their learning (Pinto & Keeler, 2018). One of the best features of this book is how the activities are broken down. Pinto and Keeler organized them in a way that is easy to follow and provides detailed prompts to remove any chance of failure during implementation with “littles." This book’s handbook-like approach makes it easy to read, and the Kindle version has hyperlinks embedded throughout the text with templates and other resources. Even though a lot has changed since its publication, this book still holds relevance because of the 21-century learning skills it promotes.

[Stella Pollard · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an outstanding book! Google Apps for Littles focuses on techniques that will empower little learners and help them to become innovative learners. I love how this book focuses on ways to get our little students using tech in a way ghat is the most comfortable for them. My personal favorite technique is how Pinto gets her students to log into Google Chromebooks on their first day. I cannot wait to share this book with my district.

[Gaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Ideas!!!

This book was filled with ideas and strategies that can be used Him and the elementary classroom. Though it is based on google it really could be used on any platform the ideas transferable. Using Google makes it all work seemlessly. Trust in Littles. They can do it!

[Emily Northcutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and practical suggestions on how to use G Suite applications with young learners. I plan to share this with my colleagues teaching in primary grades and adapt many of these approaches to my own practice. If you work with littles, you need this book!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource for teachers wanting to integrate Google into younger grades. Even older grades can adapt many of these activities for older students.

[Olivia Davison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tools and lots of templates to use! Highly reccommend.

[Emerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of awesome ideas! Definitely need to go back to this during the school year!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of the resources can be utilized immediately; however, there are some outdated details and links that could be refreshed.

[Denise OBrien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for any primary teacher looking for easy tips and templates for implementing Google tools in their classrooms! Shared this book with all my 1st and Kindergarten teachers!