Some Learning Games That Really Teach

I hope that most of you are taking advantage of some "relaxation" time this summer. But, if I know teachers as I think I do, many of you are starting to think of the new school year and taking a few hours each day to make some plans and to find some new activities. There certainly a lot of interactive activities here at e-Learning For Kids , a site that I discovered on one of my favorite blogs Free Technology For Teachers. This site refers to all of the activities as "courses" for students, however I think they are interactive websites that will help to develop a concept or idea within your curriculum. Each activity, in so many categories, provides both learning and practice. This website offers activities in math, language arts, science, computer skills, health and life skills, and ESL/EFL. Each one is listed with a brief description and a recommended age group. e-Learning for Kids is available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. I think you will want to take a quick look at this website now and come back to it when you are really in the "school mode"! Enjoy the rest of the summer. The weather is finally beautiful in Cleveland.

Playing For Change

Many of you are just embarking on some time to take things a little easier - of course, except for all of those things you saved to do this summer. I know for a fact that teachers never really leave their classrooms behind for the summer - just maybe just a little bit in the background. I thought I would share something inspirational with you this evening.

Playing for Change is an inspirational music project that celebrates diversity and culture that was born out of the idea that through music we can inspire each other to come together as a human race. The project started four years ago on the streets of Santa Monica, with the recording of a street musician playing Stand by Me. Make sure you first listen to the introduction.

This was shared today in a newsletter that arrives each week with one new website. It is called Worthwhile Websites and is sent by Sandra Gluth of Canada. Sign up so that you will start receiving her emails in the Fall. Thanks, Sandra - I really liked this.

I am doing a two day workshop tomorrow and the participants are receiving graduate credit. This means that we go from 8:30 AM to 4:00 each day. I hope I can keep "up"!

Whatever you are doing this summer - take some time for yourself. I will keep blogging as things look appealing.


NEW! Playing for Change
http://www.playingforchange.com
Playing for Change, an inspirational music project that celebrates diversity and culture, started four years ago on the streets of Santa Monica with the recording of a street musician playing Stand by Me. The project was born out of the idea that we can inspire each other to come together as a human race and that music is one way to achieve this. Playing for Change contains videos and musical recordings of artists that have been recorded over the years. Start with the Introduction. And for the Stand By Me video by itself, go here: http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

*This site is also listed under The Arts.

Sandra Gluth :-)

Phonics Practice

This is for the teachers of very young children. Having something that is interactive with audio and a pleasing visual will go a long way in helping with phonic sounds and how they blend into words. Such a site is Phonics Training Ground , a simple online interactive for teaching and learning letter sounds. I found this on Larry Ferlazzo's blog today. It is a very short game but one to add to your list of activities for teaching the sounds with interactivity and multi-media.

Internet Puzzle Makers

I know I have not blogged for a while, but I have always felt that until I was aware of something new that is really useful, I will not be writing just to write. If you are like me, with so many new tools appearing every day, I only want to know about those that will be very useful to me for my personal use or for you to use as a classroom teacher. Therefore one week I might blog 2 or 3 times, and then some times I will go for several weeks without anything worthwhile to share.
Tonight I was going through Larry Ferlazzo's lists of the Best Websites For.... He has quite a few lists. Tonight I found the one that listed Crossword Puzzle Makers and websites that allow you to make other word games. There were a few I especially liked. Even if you need to register, the registration is quite simple and Free. Here are the ones I liked:
Study Stack - Here you easily create flashcards, hangman games, word searches, and many more activities. (Easy registration needed).

Word Duck - This is an online hangman game for many user-created topics. Once you register for free you can create games using your own words.

APTE At this website you can create crosswords, as well as a number of other word games. One advantage is that they can then either be played online or printed out. Here, too, you have to register.

Just Crosswords - is an easy way to create an online crossword puzzle. No registration is required — just plug in the words and clues and the site hosts it for you.

Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo for not only finding these websites but explaining them in a concise manner.

Determining Vocabulary Within Content

An interesting tool was introduced to me by Larry Ferlazzo's blog today. It is designed to help a teacher create a vocabulary list for content that students will be reading. It is called VocabGrabber and is an add-on to the Visual Thesaurus.
Here is the way it is explained on the website:

VocabGrabber analyzes any text you're interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just copy text from a document and paste it into the box, and then click on the "Grab Vocabulary!" button. VocabGrabber will automatically create a list of vocabulary from your text, which you can then sort, filter, and save.

Select any word on the list and you'll see a snapshot of the Visual Thesaurus map and definitions for that word, along with examples of the word in your text. Click on the word map or the highlighted word in the example to see the Visual Thesaurus in action.

One more thing - I see that it has an icon that you can place on your toolbar, so that anytime you are on a website and you want the vocabulary, you can just click on the icon. I think this can prove to be a very useful tool.

This Is Way Too Cool For Words!

I was just reading a blog that is rather new to my Feeds, GO2WEB2.0 and it introduced me to the coolest tool. Well, at least I was really impressed. You find an article that you want to read on the Internet. It has lots of advertisements or distractions around it. Just click on the tool or marklet that you have placed on your toolbar from the TidyRead website and TidyRead takes away all those distractions. It makes any web page into an easy to read page that removes all of the clutter that can make reading on the internet so hard sometimes. How fabulous is this for students?
Give it a try. You will be happy that I just put down a really good book I was reading to dig through some unread blogs!

Learning About Plants and How They Reproduce - Pollen Park

This suggestion is taken directly from Sandra Gluth's wonderful newsletter to which I subscribe and would recommend for you. It is called Worthwhile Websites for Learning. All of her past websites from the newsletters are on this website. Go to Site of The Week Tab at the top to sign up to get the newsletter weekly. It is very worthwhile. Now on to this week's site that would fit into any unit on plants:

In Pollen Park, children join Bumbles the playful honey bee, on a pollen-collecting mission by completing activities and making amazing discoveries about plant reproduction. Students will learn the names of the different parts of the flower and understand the function of each in the reproduction process, the process of pollination and the varied methods of pollen transfer, the process of fertilization and how this differs from pollination, different methods of seed dispersal and why this needs to occur, and the process of seed germination and the necessary conditions for it to occur.