Last week, I read about an app called Klikaklu (which I assume is pronounced Click A Clue) on Richard Byrne's Free Technology For Teachers website. Richard invited a guest writer/educator, Ben Wiggins, to describe how he had used Klikaklu for a orienteering scavenger hunt with his class. After reading Ben's article, I was so excited to try it in the library with my students! Just to be clear, even though I found the app on a website called Free Technology for Teachers, it is actually only free for seven days! When I realized the trial period was so short, I quickly set about creating a library search for my students that would quiz their location skills. (Also, our last day for book checkout was Friday, so our library shelves are fairly stationary!)
This week my classes are trying the library scavenger hunt and I officially love this app! First it works by matching images to pictured items. I have done library scavenger hunts with my students in the past, but I have used QR codes. This was even better because students had to use the clues from the images to find the location of the pictured books, then scan to see if the books match the images. The design of the app was perfect for an educational setting because each hunt can be randomize so that students are all searching for different books at different times! Love that!
I let the students partner up for their search. It was thrilling listening to their conversations about finding books in our library! It was loud and chaotic, but through all of the commotion, students were discussing authors, genres, fiction, nonfiction, biographies, picture books and best of all they were enthusiastically discussing how to find books on our shelves!! It was a fantastic way to end our library school year!!