Word Clouds

It's getting toward the end of the school year now, and my students are not always as kind to each other as they were at the start of the year.  The honeymoon is over! Way over!  I thought it might be a good idea for the students to think about all of their classmates' positive qualities.  So, I had the kids make Character Trait Word Clouds for each other.

Step 1:  Create a Google Form with a separate "question" for each student in your class.  For example, #1 Amy, #2 Bill, #3 Carl, etc...  The answer choices for each student are the same.  List about ten positive character traits.  I used the "check box" choice so that students could pick three character traits for each classmate.  I've tried having them type in responses and that just took way too long, and some of the spelling was way off!

Step 2:  Give the kids some time to use the Google Form you created.

Step 3:  Go to the Google Form and look at your responses.  Use the "Create a New Spreadsheet" function.

Step 4:  Copy and paste the spread sheet contents for each student, one at a time into a Word Cloud generator.  I tired a few and I really like the one offered by abcya.com.  I was very fortunate to have a helper in my room who took on this task for me.  As she created each Word Cloud, she printed them and slid them in a plastic sleeve for safe keeping.

That's it.  I had them out on Open House night (bonus points!!!) for the kids to take home.  It was fun to see them hunt around the room for their very own Word Cloud and then read the responses.

 It's very hard to tell, but you can see them all spread out on our round tables for Open House night.


 What the Teacher Learned...Verbalizing positives is a step toward harmony!