Tried It Tuesday: Kidblogs

I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper this week for Tried It Tuesday.  This week I tried Kidblog with my first graders. I first heard about using Kidblog with young students this summer at Confratute. The idea intrigued me so I spent some time researching it and decided this was definitely something I wanted to try.  I set up our blogs, wrote a sample post, and even uploaded several of my students KidPix creations.  But trying to keep up with the required elements of our curriculum didn't allow a lot of time to experiment with new technology so I put it on the back burner.
Until today!  I decided this weekend that our fairy tale unit was the perfect vehicle for reintroducing blogging so I created a blog assignment requiring the students to write a summary.  We have been using the "Somebody Wanted But So Then" format so the assignment asked them to summarize a fairy tale using this format.

I checked out a set of netbooks and we went to work.

What Worked:
1.  The kids were so excited- especially about the prospect of sharing their work with their families.
2.  Logging on to their blog on Kidblog couldn't have been easier!  A dropdown menu makes it easy for each student to find his/her name, select it and enter the password.

What to Work On:
1.  I need to create a link or shortcut to actually get to our class blog.  Typing the web address was NOT successful!
2.  I'm thinking about having the next group of students prewrite their summaries before typing.  Typing was S-L-O-W so maybe if they weren't trying to think and type at the same time?

The activity was a big hit with at least one student. One of my girls is a "teacher's  kid" and she was still talking about "blogging" when I saw her after school! I am really excited to see where this new adventure takes us!