App Smashing QR Codes and ChatterPix for a K-2 Library Scavenger Hunt

I couldn't wait to start out my fist year in a K-2 library with a QR code scavenger hunt that taught the students where different types of resources are located in the library media center.

However, making a QR code scavenger hunt for a K-2 library posed some initial challenges.  I found some great resources online, and inspiration from blogs like Gwyneth Jones' The Daring Librarian, but most resources out were not suitable for K-2 students. 

This struggle led me on a journey to develop a QR code scavenger that would work for all of my students, including my beginner and pre-readers.  

My first decision was to app smash QR codes with ChatterPix.

ChatterPix adds an animated mouth to still photographs, and lets the user record their voice over the now animated photo for up to 30 seconds.  Channeling the talking paintings from Harry Potter, I wanted to make the books come alive and talk to the students about their section of the library. 

Here is an example of a video played from the picture books section of the library:

Here is another example from one of our books from section 398.2: 

Using videos meant that my beginner and pre-readers could gather information from the QR code scavenger hunt. However, I needed a way to assess the students' understanding.  This led me to creating a map with a corresponding number matching section.

With this document, students wrote the number from the map next to the type of book that they found there.  The images of book covers on this document matched the books that spoke to them through the videos.

We even included a QR for the checkout desk, that talked to the students about how they will check out their books later that week:

In the end, I decided to take my kindergarten and first grade students on a guided tour of the sections of the library that would be most relevant to them.  The second grade students were given free roam to explore through this activity, and they performed wonderfully. 

*Some final technical notes:
The QR Codes were generated through qrstuff.com.  To make the QR codes look cleaner and easier to scan, first shorten the hyperlink through a service like tinyurl, bitly, or google url shortener.  The videos that were created through Chatterpix were downloaded to the camera role on my iPad, and uploaded to Google Drive through the Drive app.  Before creating a QR code with the link to the stored video, make sure to set the share settings in Google Drive to "anyone with link can view." Post any questions in the comment section below!