Thursday, October 22, 2009

Purpose Games - Drill and Practice With A Purpose!

I loved these games that I learned about this morning on Free Technology For Teachers. They are called Purpose Games and consist of games that teachers have created so that students can practice things like the states, the skeletal parts of the body, the thirteen colonies. Teachers can create their own game, based on the curriculum that is for their students, they can share games with others, or have their students create games as a review.
There are two types of games. One is a simple multiple choice and the other is more complex (easy to create) one like the map of the states.
This is a wonderful Teacher-Tool website for creating your own games or using games that others have created. I liked this alot! Purpose Games

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Planning a Virtual Trip With The Kids?

This is a quick one today. If you are planning to "pretend" that the kids will be traveling to another place, here is a great website to make and be able to print out an actual airline ticket replica. One hint is to put the full name where it says Surname or only the last name will show. It is called Music Airport and it is just one of those sites you may want to bookmark for the future.

Monday, October 19, 2009

For Those That Teach About Angles -Geometry

This website, called Protractor, is specific to using a protractor for the study of angles within your geometry curriculum. It is simple enough and visually appropriate for even showing right angles to kindergartners or first-graders. It is so complete and is shown full screen without any distractions, that I was extremely impressed with it. This would be perfect to be shown on an Interactive White Board.
I found it on Teacher First, an excellent newsletter that is in my in-box every Sunday morning, just like the New York Times (but that arrives in my mailbox!) Sign up HERE to get Teachers First sent to you.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Time For The Pumpkin Seed Count Project - Yeah Jen Wagner!

We are so fortunate that Jen Wagner continues to provide teachers all over the world with opportunities for participating in an online project. They are timely, there is much to be learned by the students, and there is very little effort needed by the teacher. This project is only for the K-3rd. grade set, but I am sure 4th. and 5th. grade students may enjoy doing some of the activities on their own. This project also only goes from October 28th. to October 30th. The project website can be found HERE. This is a great place to introduce a spreadsheet when all of the results are in. You will also be able to make a simple graph/chart with the results. Once the graph/chart is made, students can answer questions like, "Where was the class from that had the most/least seeds in their pumpkin?" "Where is the class whose pumpkin had just about as many seeds as ours had?" Reading graphs like this makes this skill using real life-real time data easily developed even in young children.
Registration is now open for this great project. Much gratitude to Jen!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Revisiting Online Safety

It is always good to revisit online safety several times during a school year. Kelly Tenkely's blog ILearn Technology reminded me today of a website full of lessons that will engage students with online safety lessons. This website is iKeepSafe and as I reread a blog post that she wrote in the past, I remembered how "rich" this website is in great resources for kids, parents, and teachers. Quoting from this post, Kelly states: There are videos, downloadable and printable books, and games for kids. All are centered on teaching kids to be safe online. There are free guided discussion sheets for you to go through with your students, quizzes, coloring pages, etc. This program is the perfect way to introduce Internet safety in your elementary classroom without worrying that the content is too mature for your audience.
Today, her blog invited us to visit the newest video and downloadable book that is featured on iKeepSafe. It is called Fauz Paw and the Dangerous Download. Faux Paw is a Techno Cat who learns the hard way that downloading a file or music may lead to trouble. Much is learned about the legality of downoading and file sharing, but within the appropriate level for elementary students. Very well done!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Time For A New Project From Jen Wagner

Those of you who have heard me present know how passionate I am about the online collaborative projects where your students can engage in a project with students from other places in the world. A simple one-day project and it goes along with the coming Halloween celebration. It is the Pumpkin Seed Count 2009 Project. This project is for preK-third grade and the project registration begins on October 19th. In the meantime, you can plan for this project by looking at the Project Website HERE. Reinforcing math and estimation skills, eaxch class will be counting the pumpkin seeds in a specified size pumpkin. There will be many chances for collaboration and extension activities for the project. Additional information about this project can be found HERE. The possibilities for providing lots of math activities for your students are great, but not time or energy consuming for the classroom teacher. Take a look and note to register on October 19th.