Using QR Codes to Email in the Classroom

Ahhhh the relaxing month of February is upon us... said no teacher ever! I mean you have black history, dental health, Groundhog Day, 100th Day, Chinese New Year, my birthday (hahaha ha you all celebrate it right?!), Valentine's Day, President's Day, Leap Year... you get the point. At this point in the year I'm trying to keep the kiddos on their toes and manage to get to everything I intend to cover. Easier said than done, right? That's why it's great to multitask and kill two birds with one stone. 

At my school we have been working hard on building writing skills the last month or so and dying to tie in our iPads with it. This is where this idea popped up. A teacher across the hall came up with the idea and I ran with it.  The month of love notes is upon us, right?!?!

QR codes that link to your email! We downloaded a free QR reader app on our iPads and I used QRstuff.com to create my QR codes. It was super easy. You choose email address on the first step for 'data type' and then enter your email or the email you would like the code to lead to. For today I projected the QR code on my board, but you could aways print them for their tables or folders.  

Bada-bing bada-boom, it immediately opens an email as soon as they scan it. 

My kinders then took out their morning writing page and typed it up (corrections and all) and sent it to my email.

They loved getting to send me special mail and this teacher loved that they were building keyboarding skills!

They couldn't have been more proud of their work and loved asking me if their email made it to my Apple Watch for me to read! 

Just one simple activity brought a days worth of teachable moments:

-Writing rubrics also apply to typing.

-How to capitalize and punctuate on a keyboard.

-Finger spaces are just like tapping a finger on the space.

-Why does a squiggly red line come up under my word?

-Hitting the spacebar twice adds a period and a capital for me.

This activity would also be great for: 

-students to email their parents for incentive of good behavior

-students to email spelling lists or sight words home

-student pen pals 

-students to email about upcoming events

The possibilities are ENDLESS!

What would you use it for?