Listening Center Q&A

Saturday, June 2, 2012
After my recent guest blog for Jeannie at Kindergarten Lifestyle (thanks again :]) I have received many questions about my students' lovely listening center :)




When it comes to technology, I am a junkie! My students absolutely love our listening workstation. It's so bad that I have to beg them to stop reading so that we can get to lunch. I currently have it set for 4 students and the choice of about 100 books. All cds have been loaded to their iPod Nanos and students just have to search for the cover of their selected book. (Beats the old cd player with 4 sets of headphones that I was constantly resetting during reading groups)

I first introduce them when I started blogging {here}.
In that post you will see close ups and explanations of how things are actually hooked up.
If you'd like to see the DonorsChoose projects the materials came from {here} & {here}

 Our Listening Workstation:
consists of 4 individual listening centers. Each child is in charge of their own story and book! They love the fact that they are completely independent and everything is up to them! Books are stored in the middle box and each nano is clipped to where the child should sit to read.



Each book has its picture filed alphabetically so that the students can either find the book by title or picture. Students match the books cover to picture on the screen and click! (as easy as that!!!)



Students then follow the prompts to turn the page and follow along in the story. Our book box includes many different levels of books to meet all needs of all readers. My students love this center!!

Now for your Q&As
How did you get all the books downloaded to the Nano?
In my projects on DonorsChoose I asked for not only iPods, but the books as well. I ordered books that came with audio cds and all I had to do was load the cd's into iTunes, plug in the nanos, and transfer the audio file.

What products did you use?
Click image for webpage

Mainly I used this kit and supplimented old cd reader books that I had already.

If you have any other questions please comment below and I will add them!!
                                              

13 comments

The Colorful Apple said...

You can download books on tape from iTunes as well! Some are expensive though. My students love using my (old) iPod in the listening center.

Sara :)
Smiling In Second Grade

Jessica said...

LOOOOVE it! Thank you so much sharing this b/c I have been contemplating what to ask for my next donorschoose project! This is PERFECT! =) You rock!

Jessica

Colleen A. said...

Thanks for sharing! I definitely want to try this. I would have never thought to use a nano. Great idea!!!
Colleen
Totally Terrific in Texas

Elizabeth said...

Wow! I love this idea! Thanks for sharing how easy it is to download the books. This seems like the perfect solution for a listening center.

Elizabeth

Fun in Room 4B

Sue said...

What a great idea. This is a wonderful way to reuse old ipod or ipod touches.

Sue
theverybusykindergarten :)

Miss Trayers said...

You have very lucky students to have a teacher like you! :) I'm sure they just love the independence they have with it.

NotJustChild'sPlay

Corinna said...

What a wonderful and techy idea!! I will have to look into this for my next Donor's Choose project!!

Aloha,
Corinna
Surfin' Through Second

Anonymous said...

Ahhh...I am half way there. My last donor's choose project was the same box of books on cd. I love the idea of having them listen on nanos. Way cool!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh...I am half way there. My last donor's choose project was the same box of books on cd. I love the idea of having them listen on nanos. Way cool!

Kathy said...

Thanks for sharing your station. I shall now 'wait' for my nanos to be delivered. I have been holding out as I wanted a system that would show a pic of the cover. This seems to work well.

Unknown said...

How did u get the picture to show up with the cd? I have them downloaded into iTunes but no picture
Thanks
Heather94@gmail.com

Unknown said...

How did u get the picture to correlate with cd? I have them downloaded but no pictures
Thanks
Heather94@gmail.com

The Brown-Bag Teacher said...

Hi Jessica!

Did you request all the materials in one project or did you separate them? How many iPods did you request?

Thanks so much for your help! :)

Catherine Brown
Brownbagteacher@gmail.com

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