I was browsing for a game a few days ago in a local shop, and I discovered this really great little trivia game. It came with a dice covered in QR codes. I did what most of us in education do. I examined it, and came up with an idea to make it useful for kids, at the cheap price of free.
I thought of those dice templates we’ve all used. You know, the ones that are a bit of a struggle to fold and glue together when you’ve got a room full of kids. But, they work.
Then I thought of Google Docs, and how simple it is to create and edit a presentation slide. What if you set up a folder in Google Docs, and had one slide for each of the six sides of the dice? Here’s an example of one slide, with a permanent link that will take the code right to it. Now, I can edit the slides, change out the questions, and re-purpose the dice anytime.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14qlV6F8reEgCMOWR_jf8A8DoD3n4iHzx2uF2LBZlzaQ/edit?usp=sharing
Next, I visited a Free QR Code Generator. And I love just using the Google URL Shortener to create a QR code. I copied the web address from my Google Slide and pasted it into the address URL space on Goo.gl. Here’s a great tutorial for using the Google QR Code Creator.
This leaves two options. Print the six codes out and use a copy machine to create your dice template. Or, copy and paste each square into the dice template in a Word document. Just in case you’d like an editable Word doc of a template, here you go. I plan to print the codes I create, use ModPodge to attach them to a wood or foam block, and I’ll have a QR dice that I can customize anytime by editing my Google Presentation slides.
This might seem like a lot of trouble to make dice you can only use once. But, the possibilities here are endless because with Google Docs allowing you to edit, you can use them for a variety of things. Once you have your six separate presentations, with one slide each, set up in Google Docs, put them in a folder so you can find them easily. Slides are nice because they display full screen on a variety of devices.
Consider the following possibilities for using your new Customized QR Dice in the classroom:
- Put a different photo on each slide to be a writing prompt for a child that is stuck. Seeing a random unique photo might jog their creativity.
- Create questions that pertain to current studies to take kids to a higher level. Open ended questions that will spark the layers of the brain that feed on inquiry to come alive.
- Make fun tasks for each slide. Call it the “Mystery Dice” and have students roll to find out a new topic they’ll get to study or a fun activity for the class to do for a quick brain break.
- 6 Different Sites for a Holiday Shopping Extravaganza
- 6 different numbers, fractions, or amounts of money for math practice.
- Rolling the dice to discover a photo of a new habitat for their animal to live in.
Or, if you just want to print a cube and try it, Tony Vincent has an amazing cube of questions already created.
Either way, these will be a great way to spice up a center, provide kids with a variety of inspiration, and take a fun new twist on rolling the dice. After all, learning should be fun.