My didactics partner and I were beyond excited when an interactive projector showed up in our classroom afterward the vacation break last twelvemonth. We knew it was going to change our didactics. A year later, many of our classroom routines have shifted cheers to the projector—and we've learned a lot along the fashion. Below are some of our favorite ideas for using 1.

1.Turn ANY apartment surface into an interactive whiteboard.

Kids around table with interactive projector in a classroom

Always wanted a touch-screen whiteboard? With the correct projector (like this one), you can take ane at a fraction of the cost. You lot tin bear upon the wall or table with your finger or a special pen, and it responds only like a finger on a phone, tablet or other touch-screen device. How cool is that? We are dying to teach our next social studies lesson with an interactive map projected onto a table.

2. Share picture books on the projector.

Yep. You can throw out that towering stack of big books from the '90s that are taking upward valuable space in your classroom. Never again worry that you're going to hear, "I can't see the pictures!" from one of your students. In that location's nil like gigantic images of favorite stories to keep kids engaged. If y'all've got an interactive projector, you tin invite kids to the board to interact with the book while yous're reading. We've asked kids to "Circle all the pictures that outset with /g/" or "Count the animals yous see on this page."

iii. Take calendar time to a whole new level.

Apply an interactive agenda, similar this complimentary one from Starfall.com, to totally change the way you do circle time. It's got many of the aforementioned features your traditional calendar has. Kids tin can come to the screen (or your reckoner if you don't have an interactive projector) and help fill out the daily calendar.

Starfall Interactive Calendar

4. Play online games and quizzes.

Hook upwardly your estimator to your projector and play your favorite learning games. Teachers especially dear playing Quizlet, Socratic and Kahoot! with their projectors. You tin can make your ain Jeopardy! games with SuperTeacherTools. Information technology'due south even more than fun when your projector is interactive because you lot tin invite students to do the clicking and dragging. With our kids, adding in a game for learning is always a plus. A game on an interactive projector that lets them move around while they're learning is icing on the cake.

online game examples

five. Teach your lessons with interactive PowerPoint.

Many teachers build PowerPoint units to practise with their students, which make it possible to create games like Bingo and Jeopardy! and even runway classroom beliefs. Some teachers accept designed PowerPoint units that invite children to collaborate on the big screen. Really, the possibilities are endless. Nosotros've been blown abroad by some of the PowerPoint lessons we've seen for interactive projectors.

Does designing your own PowerPoint lessons sound like a lot of work? Don't worry, we've got you covered there as well. Y'all can really buy pre-made PowerPoint lessons for interactive projectors on Teachers Pay Teachers and other lesson-plan sites. Some kindergarten teachers we know were raving about this sight-word packet. Watch how this teacher uses it with her kids:

Kids exercising to sight words.
[VIDEO] <– Click to Lookout.

6. Have attendance.

This can exist particularly fun with an interactive projector. Check out this website with lots of free PowerPoint slide sets that you can utilize to take attendance. In this i, the kids walk upwardly to the white board and slide their fish from one side of the board to the other to indicate that they are at school.

Screen shot of Interactive Power Point for taking attendance with fish graphics

vii. Connect your iPad and use apps.

Whether you're didactics kids how to use a new app or desire to play a familiar game with the whole class, either is possible when you have a projector. All yous need is a digital AV adapter (they're not that expensive and your tech department probably has a few on hand) to connect your iPad. You lot tin also use an adapter like this one to connect to your projector to present wirelessly from your tablet or smartphone. We dear to play learning apps as a class. One of our favorites is Kodable.

eight. Apply a Daily-5 check-in chart.

Angela from Just Dear Instruction created this fantastic interactive chart to manage her morn Daily 5 time. Kids movement their picture to the station at which they're working. Read more about how she uses her chart for Daily v here, and take hold of a free version of her nautical chart hither.

Daily 5 Check in Powerpoint

nine. Stream videos.

I teach footling kids, so we stream trip the light fantastic toe-along learning videos like HeidiSongs. My friends in the older grades stream virtual field trips and other instructional videos. Using an interactive projector takes showing educational videos to a whole new level. Can yous imagine pausing a video on an interactive projector and so using your finger or digital pen to describe directly onto the screen to highlight a point or concept? Your kids will flip! (And the concept will probably stick too!) Nosotros loved being able to become rid of the giant lxxx-pound animal of a tv set that had been hanging unused in the corner of our classroom.

10. Make your morning message interactive.

How many pads of newspaper practice you go through each year when you practise a daily morning message? Tin can you imagine how many copse you could save if you converted that message to a projected version? Since an interactive projector lets you lot write direct on your projecting surface, you could take your kids writing their numbers and words in digital ink.

Want to endeavor out this engineering science with your students? Visit BenQ to find which projector is the best fit for your classroom!

10 Game Changing Ways to Use an Interactive Projector in the Classroom