Symbaloo

To continue my adventure, I needed my Chromebooks to fill areas of my day that I usually used iPads.  The first was my Reading Centers.  My iPads had several apps that covered many areas of Reading.  As I was looking through the Chromebook Apps I soon realized that it did not have many apps that would replace the wonderful apps that I had on my iPads. It was very disappointing. I also liked the icons that students just had to click or tap on to get to the app or website I wanted them to work on.  So I brainstormed ways that I could do the same on my Chromebook. Even though this tech is dated, a Symbaloo came to mind.  A Symbaloo is a start page that allows you to easily navigate the web and compile your favorite sites on a tile grid similar to icons on an iPad.

I started by signing up for a free account in the top right hand corner.  

I explored other teacher's Symbaloos by clicking the plus sign in the right hand corner of your screen. I was so excited.  I had found so many new websites that I had not seen before that would be perfect for Reading Centers. 

When searching other Symbaloos (webmixes) I put in a search criteria like:
Kindergarten

Reading

Phonics

You have the option to save those webmixes and use them as your own or you can copy some of their links and make your own.

To Create your own tile, click on an empty tile

Find the website you would like to add and copy the URL Address. 

Insert the URL here.  Then you can design the tile with a title, color, picture, etc.

To copy a tile from another webmix,

Find a tile to copy

Then click share button

 

Then click Stop Updates.  Then the little lock disappears and now you can copy a tile.

Right click on a tile

Then click Copy/Move

Then choose which webmix you would like it to copy to or move too. 

 Here is my completed Symbaloo.  I have a Reading Symbaloo and a Math Symbaloo.  It has worked very well.  It has been great for my kinders.  I placed it on my class website and made it my start page on the Chromebooks for each of my students.