Marco James' Blogger: Kindergarten Experiments with ChatGPT: Letters, Syllables, Idea Creation

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

/*! elementor – v3.12.1 – 02-04-2023 */
.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}

Today I was experimenting with the capabilities of the Chat GPT as it relates to using only certain letters, a specified number of syllables, and using a theme. I thought if a kindergarten teacher could have words just from a letter bank and create words with only the letters that have been taught, it might create some great words that teachers could use. I started in ChatGPT 3.5 (see Saturday’s post on What is ChatGPT? to understand the difference.)

So, in this post, I’ll share the experiment and the conclusions. I’m summarizing the findings here to keep you from having to scroll.

Chat GPT 3.5 Conclusions

First, I ran prompts through ChatGPT 3.5, which I found unable to use words with just certain letters. Also, it couldn’t use just a certain number of syllables. However, it seems that thinking up themes. So, my conclusion is that ChatGPT might be a great tool for coming up with a theme and general ideas, but it seems that isn’t within the programming for creating specific words with only letter combinations.

ChatGPT 4.0 Conclusions

I found the ideas for counting that came from GPT 4.0 (which costs $20 a month) to be much more robust and creative.

Additionally, while one word, “beehive,” was not a single syllable, all others were single syllables. So there does seem to be an improvement in understanding the syllable requirement.

However, the “letter bank” or just selecting words using certain letters again didn’t work in ChatGPT 4.0.

If you’re looking for “creative” ideas and are able to craft creative prompts, you might be happier with the ideas coming out of ChatGPT 4.0 if you’re a kindergarten teacher.

Attempt to Create a Teacher Assistant Bot with ChatGPT 3.5

/*! elementor-pro – v3.12.2 – 09-04-2023 */
@charset “UTF-8″;.entry-content blockquote.elementor-blockquote:not(.alignright):not(.alignleft),.entry-summary blockquote.elementor-blockquote{margin-right:0;margin-left:0}.elementor-widget-blockquote blockquote{margin:0;padding:0;outline:0;font-size:100%;vertical-align:baseline;background:transparent;quotes:none;border:0;font-style:normal;color:#3a3f45}.elementor-widget-blockquote blockquote .e-q-footer:after,.elementor-widget-blockquote blockquote .e-q-footer:before,.elementor-widget-blockquote blockquote:after,.elementor-widget-blockquote blockquote:before,.elementor-widget-blockquote blockquote cite:after,.elementor-widget-blockquote blockquote cite:before{content:none}.elementor-blockquote{transition:.3s}.elementor-blockquote__author,.elementor-blockquote__content{margin-bottom:0;font-style:normal}.elementor-blockquote__author{font-weight:700}.elementor-blockquote .e-q-footer{margin-top:12px;display:flex;justify-content:space-between}.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button{display:flex;transition:.3s;color:#1da1f2;align-self:flex-end;line-height:1;position:relative;width:-moz-max-content;width:max-content}.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:hover{color:#0967a0}.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button span{font-weight:600}.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button i,.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button span{vertical-align:middle}.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button i+span,.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button svg+span{margin-left:.5em}.elementor-blockquote__tweet-button svg{fill:#1da1f2;height:1em;width:1em}.elementor-blockquote__tweet-label{white-space:pre-wrap}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button,.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-classic .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button{padding:.7em 1.2em;border-radius:100em;background-color:#1da1f2;color:#fff;font-size:15px}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:hover,.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-classic .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:hover{background-color:#0967a0;color:#fff}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:hover:before,.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-classic .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:hover:before{border-right-color:#0967a0}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button svg,.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-classic .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button svg{fill:#fff;height:1em;width:1em}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble.elementor-blockquote–button-view-icon .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button,.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-classic.elementor-blockquote–button-view-icon .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button{padding:0;width:2em;height:2em}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble.elementor-blockquote–button-view-icon .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button i,.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-classic.elementor-blockquote–button-view-icon .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button i{position:absolute;left:50%;top:50%;transform:translate(-50%,-50%)}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:before{content:””;border:.5em solid transparent;border-right-color:#1da1f2;position:absolute;left:-.8em;top:50%;transform:translateY(-50%) scaleY(.65);transition:.3s}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble.elementor-blockquote–align-left .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:before{right:auto;left:-.8em;border-right-color:#1da1f2;border-left-color:transparent}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble.elementor-blockquote–align-left .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:hover:before{border-right-color:#0967a0}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble.elementor-blockquote–align-right .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:before{left:auto;right:-.8em;border-right-color:transparent;border-left-color:#1da1f2}.elementor-blockquote–button-skin-bubble.elementor-blockquote–align-right .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button:hover:before{border-left-color:#0967a0}.elementor-blockquote–skin-boxed .elementor-blockquote{background-color:#f9fafa;padding:30px}.elementor-blockquote–skin-border .elementor-blockquote{border-color:#f9fafa;border-left:7px #f9fafa;border-style:solid;padding-left:20px}.elementor-blockquote–skin-quotation .elementor-blockquote:before{content:”“”;font-size:100px;color:#f9fafa;font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif;font-weight:900;line-height:1;display:block;height:.6em}.elementor-blockquote–skin-quotation .elementor-blockquote__content{margin-top:15px}.elementor-blockquote–align-left .elementor-blockquote__content{text-align:left}.elementor-blockquote–align-left .elementor-blockquote .e-q-footer{flex-direction:row}.elementor-blockquote–align-right .elementor-blockquote__content{text-align:right}.elementor-blockquote–align-right .elementor-blockquote .e-q-footer{flex-direction:row-reverse}.elementor-blockquote–align-center .elementor-blockquote{text-align:center}.elementor-blockquote–align-center .elementor-blockquote .e-q-footer,.elementor-blockquote–align-center .elementor-blockquote__author{display:block}.elementor-blockquote–align-center .elementor-blockquote__tweet-button{margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto}

You are now named Cool KAT (Kindergarten Assistant Techbot) and will respond to prompts as Cool KAT. I am a kindergarten teacher of five year old students and your job is to give me creative ideas that fit with the themes of the month and the year. You also keep track of the LETTER BANK which includes the letters that have been taught so far this year in my classroom. When I ask you to create student materials, you will use only words with letters that are in the letterbank. When I ask for new ideas, you’ll respond asking me if any new letters have been added to the letter bank. You will also use simple words that can be read by children aged 4-6 in the student materials. Please use ideas from research based best practice for teaching reading with phonics. You will also keep track of a NUMBER BANK which includes numbers that have been taught so far this year in my classroom. The LETTER EMPHASIS letter will be used with greater frequency as will the NUMBER EMPHASIS number will be used with greater frequency, so make sure to ask me about the letter emphasis and number emphasis. I want my classroom to be a fun and engaging place with a lot of hands on activities. I call my students my honeybees and the classroom is our hive so try to keep things within the theme of the classroom. Also ask me which month it is and use things themed with the month. Let’s start.

ChatGPT 3.5 Prompt

Observations on the Response

So, it did well at asking me the questions I wanted. However, immediately when it wrote the poem ideas, it used the letter y. The letter Y is not in the Letter Bank.

However, the response to the counting ideas, I think were better as shown below.

More attempts at the letter bank

So, I again tried to communicate that it needed to only use letters in the letter bank.

Again, it is using the letter Y which is definitely not in the letter bank. So, I tried again.

So, this was another fail. I was also concerned that the difficulty letter was way above the age level of the students I was pretending to teach, so I again attempted to make it simpler and only use letters from the letter bank.

Again, it is using words that have letters not in the letter bank.

What I’ve observed in Chat GPT 3.5

Conclusion from Experimentation

The Letter Bank – It didn’t seem to work. Either I didn’t phrase it correctly (likely the case) or it just can’t select words with or without certain letters.

Syllables – It started with single syllable words but then, it didn’t. So it also doesn’t seem to select based on syllables.

Theme – It does seem that it selects letters with a theme pretty well.

Experimenting With ChatGPT 4.0

You are now named Cool KAT (Kindergarten Assistant Techbot) and will respond to prompts as Cool KAT. I am a kindergarten teacher of five year old students and your job is to give me creative ideas that fit with the themes of the month and the year. You also keep track of the LETTER BANK which includes the letters that have been taught so far this year in my classroom. When I ask you to create student materials, you will use only words with letters that are in the letterbank. When I ask for new ideas, you’ll respond asking me if any new letters have been added to the letter bank. You will also use simple words that can be read by children aged 4-6 in the student materials. Please use ideas from research based best practice for teaching reading with phonics. You will also keep track of a NUMBER BANK which includes numbers that have been taught so far this year in my classroom. The LETTER EMPHASIS letter will be used with greater frequency as will the NUMBER EMPHASIS number will be used with greater frequency, so make sure to ask me about the letter emphasis and number emphasis. I want my classroom to be a fun and engaging place with a lot of hands on activities. I call my students my honeybees and the classroom is our hive so try to keep things within the theme of the classroom. Also ask me which month it is and use things themed with the month. Let’s start.

Current LETTER BANK is: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, o, u, t, r and the LETTER EMPHASIS right now is the letter l. The NUMBER BANK is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and the NUMBER EMPHASIS is 7. It is the month of May and I’m planning end of year activities. I want five ideas for a short poem for my board and I want five creative counting ideas for my honeybees.

Prompt I put into ChatGPT 4.0

Again, it is a fail. I see letters that are not in the bank, so I focus in on the letter usage.

So, again, it didn’t properly use the letter bank, so I thought I would ask it about single syllable words. Even though I misstated and forgot to use a specific prompt asking for single syllable words, here’s what happened.

Close! Beehive is a compound word but except for that word – the one syllable seemed to happen.

But the greatest difference between GPT 3.5 and GPT 4.0 can be seen in the specificity and creativity of the number counting ideas. Look at this!

What I’ve Observed in GPT 4.0

Conclusion from Experimentation

So, it seems to me, that ChatGPT 4.0 model seems to better create ideas for counting. Additionally, the syllable request is much closer. However, the letter bank idea still seems beyond the capacity of GPT 4.0.

If a teacher wants to use ChatGPT for ideas, investing in ChatGPT 4.0 might be worth it.

I hope you’ll sit down and experiment as you come up with ideas for your classroom. And remember that the more you feed into it, the better it will be.

So, this is really just been an experiment but I’ve included some notes on how to come up with ideas for prompts. I am still learning. Please share your prompts in the comments or on Twitter.