Classkick: A Review From A First Grade Teacher - Teaching Firsties (2024)

In this third part of a blog series on the best classroom apps, let’s look at the Classkick app. Classkick started in 2013, but really has come to the forefront this past year. My hope is after this, you’ll know if Classkick is right for you and your students.

What does Classkick for teachers look like?

Teachers can assign activities and upload worksheets directly to their account. These can be either resources that they have on-hand, or they can create new activities right on the Classkick app. They will give the students a Classkick code to log in. There is an assignment already pre-loaded into Classkick for the students to try. This “Getting Started” activity shows the kiddos how to write, move objects, and record their voices.

Assignments are made in the form of slides. If you have the free version, each slide needs it’s own code, but with a Classkick pro version, you can add as many slides as you need to one code. This is a pretty neat feature because students can log in once time, complete all the slides and be done. How many times have we had to double check across platforms to make sure that all the work has been completed.

See Also

Classkick Review for Teachers | Common Sense EducationUsing Classkick in elementary school

Once you have your Classkick code, it’s easy to add the link into your Google Classroom.

Classkick Grading

Another cool feature is that you can grade assignments directly on the app. You can also give feedback in the form of comments or stickers. The comments can either be typed in, or you can record your own voice. I really think the grading is the highlight of the whole Classkick app, especially if you have the pro version. (See below for what a Classkick Pro version looks like).

You can see completed work at a glance by assignment or by student. This is helpful to spot check who is missing an assignment or who needs to redo their work. I would also use this for a quick formative assessment to see who is ready to move on.

Teachers are comfort creatures, and I’m a Seesaw teacher at heart. I found two things lacking in Classkick that I use often in Seesaw. You cannot take videos or draw in Classkick. There is a pen to write or to draw a simple picture, but the drawing and video tools in Seesaw is far superior. Seesaw has more options for text boxes than Class kick. In Classkick, you can only change the size and the color of your text. You can’t center it, or add a border around it. This is a drawback if you would like to provide text for your kiddos to move around, as in a fill in the blank activity. You can get around this by taking a picture of a word and uploading it, but otherwise the text is locked down.

What does Classkick for students look like?

Students log into their account by entering their name and the code provided by them from their teacher. They will be able to use a drawing tool and their mouse to draw an answer, or they’ll be able to type an answer.

Your students can record their voice on the Classkick app, which they can use to read their work, or explain their answers.

There’s also a feature where students can click on a hand to ask you for help. They can either request help, or they can ask you to check their work.

To move slides, they do need to learn to click on the little arrows by the slide number. As long as they know to look for that, it’s easy to move slides. I like the simplicity of Classkick for students. You’ll find that the app isn’t complicated with extra things you won’t use.

What are the benefits of Classkick Pro?

Assignments are all together within one Classkick code. You don’t have to enter in a separate code for each slide. And you have an unlimited number of assignments that you can make and assign.

You also have some more fun things for the students, such as more pen colors or the use of highlighters.

As a teacher, you can categorize your assignments into folders, or add multiple choice questions (THAT GRADE AUTOMATICALLY… WHAAAT?) into your assignments. And any grade can export into a spreadsheet for you. The grading alone makes this worth every penny.

As your student, kids can use a portfolio and log into Classkick through Google, Clever, or use a password instead of needing to use a code to log in. They also can see all of their assignments at one time instead of one at a time.

Time to give it a try!

Here is a helpful video tutorial to help you get started.

I hope this has been helpful for you to decide if Classkick is right for you and your students.If you love this app, please leave me a comment! I’d love to hear if this was helpful for you!