Making the Most of Osmo

In colorful letters adorning a slick white box, my Osmo arrived a few days ago.  Like thousands of other educators, I pre-ordered Osmo.  My intent was primarily curiosity, as I’m typically a fan of any new technology, and often chase rainbows in an attempt to revolutionize my classroom and jazz up my instruction. This time my 'rainbow' is red, orange, yellow and blue and is called:

Osmo’s mission, “to promote social intelligence and creative thinking” really appears to be accurate!  When my Osmo arrived, I opened it on my kitchen counter with my two teen-aged boys.  We fit it together within 30 seconds and downloaded the Tangram app.  In no time, the three of us were working together, rotating shapes and solving puzzles.  We were working collaboratively, creatively and solving problems.  It was terrific.

Next we opened the Newton app.  The novelty of the experience was the biggest hook.  Seeing our hands projected as scribbled images on the screen was fascinating.  We, admittedly, got a little silly with this one and tried many non-typical ways to encourage the dropping balls to hit the target.








The Words app is, “hands down” my favorite.  A great battle erupted between my son and I as we raced to slide the right letters across the countertop in an effort to decode the hidden words

Experimenting further with Words, I’ve discovered what I believe will be the absolute hook for teachers in the classroom, the ability to customize Word to include your own vocabulary for your curriculum.

Get this customizable template!!  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Osmo-Customizable-Spelling-Powerpoint-Template-1490490

Ideas for Osmos's Words

#1.   Spelling Lists.  Make your images incomplete spelling words using the Osmo tiles that were provided!  Leave out the letters that complete the word.  Students will have to spell the word correctly.  (Powerpoint document with Osmo(like) tiles for screen capturing spelling words)

#2.  Have students customize the images for vocabulary and create their own word sets….they can take pictures of themselves being melancholy, vivacious, cantankerous, etc.

#3.  Character traits word sets!!  Provide students with an image and/or a definition of their targeted character trait vocabulary words. to create an interactive practice station.

#4. Latitude/Longitude. Provide students with  this map of latitude and longitude.  On Osmo, provide the latitude and longitude coordinates of a specified location.  Students use map and slide tiles to identify the location.

#5. Create 'cloze' sentences

#6. Customize vocabulary for your units!!   Would work GREAT for foreign language classes!

#7. Create multiple choice questions and students respond with A, B, C, D letter tiles

Create your own Albums 

1.  Create a slide for each image.  I really like Powerpoint, the built in templates make for very attractive slides

This is a slide I formatted to challenge students with their spelling words.  (Template available here!)

These are slides I created for a landform challenge!!

Create math questions:

Provide vocabulary definitions:

2.  After you've created your slides, save them slides as  .jpg images.

3.  Open your my.playosmo  account.  Upload each picture, assign a difficulty and type in the corresponding word for each picture.

Here's a video tutorial!!

Osmo MyWords in action:

Customized curriculum, hands on with Osmo....and Your Smarticles!!