0 Literactive is an interactive reading tool
for students in grades PreK-1st. Literactive uses a variety of practices to build a students reading skills level by level. This site is free to use and includes a numerous lessons that can be downloaded. This is a FREE program, you just have to register. The interactive stories and games help student to learn how to read. Students will enjoy the nursery rhymes which can be read aloud and include other activities such as alphabet awareness, letter sounds, short vowels, CVC word blending, initial blends, long vowels and many more phonic activities. Try out the new sections for guided reading in kindergarten, Spanish for guided reading, e-book stories and e-poetry. Don't forget to download the activities and worksheets for your students.
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GRAMMAR NINJA 0 Grammar Ninja is a fun game
for students to play as they develop a working knowledge of the parts of speech. Grammar Ninja has three levels for students to work through. Answer questions correctly, and the game continues , give the wrong answer and the words explode. 0 Use as a review after teaching a language arts lesson.
SPELLING CITY 0 Here is a great website for
helping your students with spelling. Just create a word list and students can practice at school or home. The program pronounces the word and says it in a sentence for the student. Play games with the word list or even download a handwriting worksheet. Students can also access the link from home. Here is the link to the site. It's FREE, just register and start creating your spelling list today!
STORYBIRD 0 Story Bird is a creative writing site for
students. Illustrations are provided. Professional illustrators have uploaded a number of gorgeous images in widely varying styles which will help writers become inspired. It seems that the site makes money when users choose to order hard cover prints of their creations, which in turn earns the illustrators some dough. It also serves as a nice showcase for illustrators who would want their work to be seen by larger audiences. I personally have no problem with either concept! It's worth a look, because in the case of reluctant writers the images might provide some incentive to write. The finished results are quite impressive as well.
WORDLE
Wordle is an online app for generating "word clouds" from any text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text (in other words, they make 'em bigger). The resulting images can be tweaked with varying colors, fonts, and layouts, and then used as you like. Some additional tips: Cluster your words in a Word document first so that you can easily spell check and save them. The site did not save them. Some additional notes: The more times you repeat a word, the larger it will appear. Words you would like to stay linked must be connected with a tilde (that shift character that appears to the far left on the number row and looks like this ~). So "role model" would need to be "role~model." The tilde will disappear in the final project. Once your project appears, using the Randomize button lets you see many possibilities you may not have considered. If you want a certain word (say your largest) to use a specific color from the palette that you're using, go to the Color tab and choose Recolor. That will switch which words use each color, without changing the palette, font, shape, etc.
Possible uses?
To save, you must print as a PDF, or easier, click on FNand PrtScrn. This saves the whole screen as a screen shot which can be pasted and cropped to be used elsewhere. (Click Cfnthen Prt Scrn. Nothing will appear to have happened, but when you right click in a Word doc or Power Point slide, you'll be able to paste the entire screen shot there. Then use the Crop feature from your Picture tools to trim to size).
creating title slides and program covers brainstorming ideas designing "me" poems (based upon interests) summarizing thoughts from a collaborative session turning random ideas into art crafting "found poetry" using original words or text selections (for example, several paragraphs from a novel can be entered, insignificant words can be marked for deletion, and the remaining key words will be formed into a word cloud) I recently used the app to create custom Valentines for my students. The site offers a gallery of completed projects which might to spark your imagination.
STORYLINE 0 StoryLine Online 0 Read Aloud Experiences for the 21st Century 0 This popular site features members of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation reading picture books aloud. In my opinion, there's nothing better than a live reading with a real book, but this is the next best thing! Really talented folks like James Earl Jones, Elijah Wood, CCH Pounder, Robert Guillame, Amanda Bynes, and Melissa Gilbert share some of the greatest picture books of recent years, such as Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, The Night I Followed the Dog, My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, A Bad Case of the Stripes, and Enemy Pie. Check out StoryLine Online for yourself!
0 The Bugscope project provides free interactive access to a
scanning electron microscope (SEM) so that students anywhere in the world can explore the microscopic world of insects. This educational outreach program from the Beckman Institute's Imaging Technology Group at the University of Illinois supports K-16 classrooms worldwide. 0 Bugscope allows teachers everywhere to provide students with the opportunity to become microscopists themselves—the kids propose experiments, explore insect specimens at high-magnification, and discuss what they see with our scientists—all from a regular web browser over a standard broadband internet connection.
Edsitement 0 Edsitement is created and
maintained by the National Endowment for the Arts. This site contains links to an abundance of historical information and provides the teacher with lesson plans and internet resources to make history interesting.
A Maths Dictionary For Kids 0 amathsdictionaryforkids.com
by Jenny Eather is a great site. This interactive dictionary contains thousands of math terms. Click on a term and an explanation will be given that is easy to understand for all learners. Try out the multiplication area for multiplication practice. This would be a great site for students to use at home. Use this site on the interactive white board to help explain math concepts more clearly.
Math Live 0 Math Live is a wonderful
site that offers tons of videos based on various Math topics. Students of all age will love these videos. Teachers should use these videos to help student to master various math objectives.
Timez attack 0 Timez Attack is a great free software application which helps students to master their multiplication tables. This program is very similar to a video games that children play on a daily basis. The basic version of the program is free. Teachers or parents will need to download the software.
Students enter a secret cavern and they have to navigate their way through a maze which features locked doors and passageways. At each obstacle they encounter a times table, which must be answered. Once the answer is correct, the door opens and a monster appears with times tables that students must answer or they lose a life. The monster is not violent, so it is acceptable for kids.
0 I would recommend this program for student in grades 3-8 who need greater assistance and a fun way to learn multiplication tables. Try Timez Attack today.
0 Create timelines of related events and share them anywhere on the web for free. Hovering over events on the time line enlarges them. Create your own or browse many of the timelines already created on the site to use. Browse many great examples from such categories as Music, Science, Film, Politics,
Biography, and Art and Culture. 0 In the Classroom: 0 Skills required: If you only plan to VIEW timelines, no extra skills are needed at all! If you plan to comment or add a timeline, you must register. Easily create an account with a username, password, and email (students over 13 only.) Activation through email is required. Students must have individual accounts (email required). Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes.
0 You can easily create awards
for your students at Certificate Street. The awards download as .pdf files with text boxes for you to customize with your name, the name of the student and in some cases a place to embellish the content of the award. 0 When printed in color they are suitable for framing and the site frequently adds new templates. Certificate Street is easily navigated and totally free to use.
Kerpoof Kerpoof is an online multimedia content generator that is kidfriendly. Kids can create drawings, greeting cards and even movies. Kerpoof is great for starting stories, especially when discussing story elements such as setting. Be sure to check out the Kerpoof Teacher Guide, because it gives very clear directions about how to use the individual tools. It also gives lesson plan ideas and suggests great uses for the tool. Kerpoof is owned by Disney, but remains free and commercial free. There are paid for options which you can use to unlock certain features, but the free version is quite good.
Math Trainer
Get in some serious multiplication table training. Responds to your answers ... so it will train your weaknesses. Use 3 sessions of 5 minutes each per day for best results. Train yourself to REMEMBER, don't calculate. Features of the Math Trainer 0 Breaks the 10× table into 4 "chunks" (5×, 6×6 to
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9×9, etc) so that you can concentrate on getting good one chunk at a time. Designed for high speed so that you get lots of practice Remembers your performance (during the session, but not between sessions) so that it gives you more practice on your weaknesses. Shows you the correct answer if you get it wrong Timed Workout style just like an athlete would use
0 Worksheets, study sheets, exams, and quizzes
are basically collections of questions and answers, arranged in some particular order, and grouped by one or more categories. 0 Quizinator acts as a online resource library that organizes and manages these collections of questions, allowing you to group and categorize them in whatever way suits your needs. 0 When you want to create a new exam for example, select from your question library what you want, arrange the questions with drag and drop, and save. 0 Everything is conveniently centralized online. You can manage and print your documents and library components anytime, from any browser.
0 Xp Math is a good place to
find math games, math videos, math worksheets, and math e-books. The games section of XP Math offers games for basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and probability. 0 Students can create an account on XP Math and you can keep track of your scores.
Create your own one to three panel comic strips or --even better- have your students create them using this simple online tool. The libraries include many cartoon figures, voice bubbles, and more. You can also upload your own photos using the Imaginr(or pieces from them) and create your own characters using the Traitr. For a longer story, make a TOONBOOK instead of a single TOONDOO strip. See a sample made by our techno-savvy editors in just a few minutes. The "published" products can be shared online with the world, shared with a limited audience (probably the safest for students), or kept completely private (visible only to you when logged in). In the Classroom: Skills needed: Register(free). Registration asks for an email address, but abc@123 works just fine. There is no email validation process. Log right in. Play with the "Create Your Own" tools to make a TOONDOO or TOONBOOK, including locating characters, resizing, re-ordering, entering text, etc. IF you are feeling adventurous, try upload an image to include. When you are ready, publish the product, publicly by sharing the URL or to opt for a limited audience. How can you use this in the classroom? Once you have laid the ground rules, have students create strips with characters explaining a science concept. Or show the steps in a process or procedure, such as the water cycle. Older students can create political satire cartoons. If you have students work from your account, you can provide the "raw materials" of some digital pictures for them to make cartoon explanations of lab safety procedures or nature species. Even little ones can write sentences. Have them work with a partner--and LIMIT their choices to 3 character options so they do not keep changing their minds!
My Story Maker is a tool that helps kids write their own stories. Add characters and objects to the storyboard, and click them to add actions. A basic story will be automatically written, and the students can then embellish the text with adjectives and other descriptive words. http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/mystory maker/ When the story is finished, you can print it or link to a PDF version of the book. You will find a variety of characters to add to your story, including a scientist, a mermaid, a ghost, a dragon, a dinosaur, a robot and many, many more. Settings include a desert, a sea, the moon, a forest, a room and more. My Story Maker was created by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. No registration or download is required to use My Story Maker - just click and start writing your story straight away! A fun and interactive way to improve children's writing skills!
Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun 0 0
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Vocabulary.co.il is a great vocabulary builder. This word game website is a fun way to build English vocabulary. Vocabulary is Fun is a leading vocabulary website worldwide with the best flash online word games. The vocabulary games include an online word search, an online crossword puzzle, and hangman online (our version is called HangMouse). Users choose the vocabulary list that the online word game will use in the word game. The vocabulary games are popular for use on smart boards for word games to build vocabulary skills in classrooms. Many people build their English vocabulary through a blend of methods -- by taking English classes, reading books, watching movies in English, and studying English with English language software. Playing word and vocabulary games is a valuable part of learning English. There are thousands of vocabulary words in our vocabulary lists. Vocabulary.co.il is a fun educational website dedicated to helping you build reading, phonics, or English language skills. We offer Free Online Word Games which are specifically designed to build vocabulary skills and to motivate people to learn through fun practice in spelling, phonics, and vocabulary. If you are applying to American universities, you will probably have to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL test. Most American colleges, as well as schools in England, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand require all non-native English speakers to take the TOEFL exam, and a high score can be critical to admission. Vocabulary.co.il can also help build vocabulary skills for other high-stakes, vocabulary-rich exams such as the GRE, the SAT, and PSAT.
Big IQ Kids How It Works BigIQkids.com turns your computer into an online learning academy by providing daily academic lessons for young learners in an interactive, easy to follow format. For the best results, children should log into BigIQkids.com daily and complete their lessons and quizzes. This “daily” strategy builds invaluable study habits, leads to better grades and greater self confidence.
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Let math move YOU through different areas of math practice! Choose an animal character and customize the color of the collar, fur, and tail. Choose your grade range prior to play. Other options include saving your character to begin or registering to create a locker for extra benefits, including access to new characters and monitoring of your progress. . Use the arrows on the keyboard to move along to different math problems. Areas vary by age level, but examples include Music (Pythagorean Pavilion), Sports, Fashion and feature facts, quizzes, polls, flashcards, or a game that can be accessed for learning opportunities. Facts have links that allow students to connect to more knowledge. Tutorial help is available with the quizzes. Background music which is lively can also be turned off for better concentration. Enter Math Moves University for worksheet practice on many math topics downloaded as a pdf document. A math dictionary is also available. Clicking on the navigation along the top can also take you to various areas. Opportunities to register pop up during play but are not required at this site. If you choose to have your students register, please be aware of your district’s requirements and acceptable use policy for using student user names, passwords, and emails. This site requires Flash and adobe acrobat. Get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
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In the Classroom: Differentiate your math instruction easily! Use as assigned, independent study for students as needed. Use as a class resource on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work collaboratively in groups to achieve the answers. Assign areas as homework practice; if computers aren’t available at home, print off the worksheets for homework practice.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: You need a microphone in or on your computer for easiest recording. We recommend watching (and showing the entire class?) the introduction blab on the home page. It is a riot! To create blabs, you will need to be able to upload photographs or save then upload images from safe and legal sources. Once you know which pictures you are going to use, the rest is as easy as following the onscreen instructions. You will need to “allow” access to your computer’s microphone and/or a microphone you attach to the computer. Recording by phone also works. Browse a few examples first to get ideas on how to make a mouth on your photo to move and “talk.” Get started right away by choosing a photo and following prompts (arrows) below telling you what to do next. You have 30 seconds to narrate your photo. When you complete the blab, click SAVE. You will be prompted to create an account on the spot. You will also have the options to mark your blab “mature” or “private” (not shown on the “latest” pages and other public areas). Completed Blabs can be shared via email or embedded in another web page, blog, or wiki. See an embedded example below. Users unfamiliar with copy/pasting embed code can simple share by the URL of the blab's page. Possible uses: The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Blab the homework directions on your teacher web page. Ask your students to create blabs for all sorts of reasons. Use photos or digital drawings to “blab”! Have students draw in a paint program, save the file, and then make it “speak.” Spice up research projects about historic figures or important scientists. Have literary characters tell about themselves. Create entire conversation sequences of blabs between people in world language or ESL/ELL classes (with students speaking in the language, of course), then embed them in a wiki. Have speech/language students make blabs to practice articulation and document progress over time. Promote oral reading fluency with student-read blabs. Create book “commercials.” Have students blab what the author may have been thinking as he/she wrote a poem or literary selection or as an artist painted. Blab politicians’ major platform planks during campaigns for current events. Blab the steps to math problem solving. Even primary students can make an animal blab about his habitat if you set up the blab as a center. Make visual vocabulary/terminology sentences with an appropriate character using the term in context (a beaker explaining how it is different from a flask?) Students could also take pictures of themselves doing a lab and then blab the pictures to explain the concepts. This would be a great first day project (introducing yourself and breaking the ice). Share the class blabs on your class web page or wiki! Give directions to your class (for when a substitute is there). Use at back to school night to show your humorous side to the parents.
The Gaming Goo learning website presents educational activities where young children can find fun and exciting games that teach important skills they will need in school. http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html At a very early age, even as young as infancy, reading books is the most important aspect of developing strong early learning skills. However, as infants age into toddlerhood, the attention span and stimulation demands of that young mind starts to mature. Starting as young as three years old, young children consume information as quickly as a sponge absorbs water. Before the age of computers and the Internet, preschool teachers and parents relied on educational toys to foster and develop early learning skills. However, once the Internet became prevalent, the opportunity for even more effective learning games quickly developed into very valuable online learning resources like the Game Goo website.
Vector kids 0 Vector Kids has great math
activities that students will love! If students love arcade games they will love this site.
Foto Flexer Foto Flexer is the most advance online image editor. You can enhance photos by adding text, shapes, frames, retouching, etc…
Big Huge Labs 0 What it is: Big Huge Labs: Magazine is
an online magazine cover creator. Students can create custom magazine covers from photos on Flickr or photos uploaded from the computer. 0 How to integrate Big Huge Labs: Magazine into the classroom: This would be a great tie-in to a persuasive writing unit. Discuss with students why magazine covers need to be persuasive. Students can create a custom cover for a multitude of projects. This might be a fun Mother’s day/Father’s day gift as well! 0 Tips: Set up a class Flickr account and link to Big Huge Labs for easy access for your students.
Easy Test Maker 0 EasyTestMaker is a FREE online test
generator to help you create your tests. With Easy Test Maker you can create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true and false questions all on the same test. You can also insert instructions and divide your test into multiple sections. 0 EasyTestMaker automatically generates alternate versions entirely randomized and master answer sheets with a single click! Just click the "Generate Alternate Versions" or "Print Answer Sheet" link when you are done creating your test. It's that easy!
I know that.com
0 MightyBook.com is a website
that helps children learn to read with stories, songs, jokes, games, and more. This site is very easy to navigate, and the bright colors and adorable characters make it appealing to small children. There are 50 free activities on the home page that can be accessed without registering. If you are interested in registering, a variety of subscription plans are offered which would give you access to over 500 stories and activities.
Sam's Interactive Reader and all of its content can be used for free in your school, classroom, or public library. To get started, you simply need to fill out our registration form. Once you are approved, download and install Sam's Interactive Reader to your school or public library machines, and you will be able to download all of our online store content for free— not just some of it, but all of it! It's really that simple. Read more about our School Program and get started using Sam's Interactive Reader in your classroom today!
Founded in 2007, Storybook Anytime is an interactive entertainment company focused on creating family-friendly casual and social games. We develop immersive experiences with educational nuances that are fun to play online with your friends and family. "Reef Life", is a fully immersive underwater world and social game. As you play, you make a life for yourself on the reef while working your way up to becoming a whale. You can customize your fish and decorate its fish bowl to show off your distinct personality. The experience can be shared with your friends as you help each other care for your fish and enjoy the hidden treasures of the reef. Our flagship product, "Sam's Interactive Reader," is an Adobe® Air™ application that introduces the fun of reading and learning to children ages 3-9. The product allows full access to our online library of originally written and illustrated children's stories as well as activities and games. As an added feature, you can find most of our stories in both English and Spanish.
The National Research Council's study "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children" states that children who are exposed to reading at an early age make the symbol/language connection and are more likely to be reading at the appropriate age level by the end of third grade. The Literacy Center aims to provide safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. It follows a modified Montessori approach to teaching reading. As a pre and early reading curriculum, it assumes that each online lesson will be supported by appropriate offline instruction, either at home or in school.
Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin is an extensive collection of clipart. All the clipart is free to use in the classroom, in newsletters or presentations. As long as the use is for nonprofit, it may be downloaded and used free of charge. Categories included in the site are Language Arts, Science, Social Sciences, Holidays, School, A to Z, and More. Each of the above categories has countless sub-categories within them. No registration is necessary and the site is extremely simple to navigate. Of course you will want to model and require ethical use of these resources by giving credit to the source of clips in a small note or text box on your projects. There are some unobtrusive advertisements at the site. 10652 In the Classroom: 0 This site is great if you need some clever clipart to jazz up student handouts, classroom bulletin boards or PowerPoint/Keynote presentations. There is also web clipart that you can use for your blog, class webpage, or wiki. Interested in learning more about wikis? Check out the Teacher’s First Wiki Walk-Through reviewed here. When using the clipart be sure to download to your computer first before inserting into an application. Copying it directly from the web site puts a black background behind your image. Have students use this site in science class (or other classes to explain concepts and create colorful projects. Have students create a Voicethread reviewed here to narrate a picture and describe what they have learned. 0
0 What student could resist matching sounds to
characters in a painting, searching for hidden animals in illustrations, matching shapes to a drawing or creating their own curious collections? Students will make personal connections to art as they work through unique interactive art activities: story time, match up, and play with art. The parent and educator resources include tips for looking at art together, engaging follow up activities, podcasts, video clips, and lesson plans. Don’t miss this site! 10299 0 In the Classroom: 0 This colorful website will appeal to lower elementary students immediately, but its activities are stimulating for older students as well. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard. Have pairs of students explore the site together and create multimedia presentations to share with the class. You could create a class wiki for students to share their thoughts on the podcasts, video clips, or artwork. Not comfortable with wikis? Have no wiki worries – check out the Teacher’s First Wiki WalkThrough reviewed here. Another idea, have students create online books demonstrating their new knowledge using a site such as Bookemon, reviewed here.
0 Learning Today
We developed these free resources to provide teachers with high-quality resources online, so you can spend less time searching and more time doing what you do best -- helping your students! Let us know what else you would like to see here.
i-board player 0 iBoard Player - Grades 0 - 2 - permalink 0 IBoard Player is a resource for highly visual and interactive materials to use on interactive whiteboard in the early primary grades. Subjects included are math, literacy, science, history and geography. Specific topics include matching, an abacus, addition, sequencing, sentence structure, phonics, nutrition, circuits, the human body, and countless others. Resources can be used independently by students or in the classroom by the teacher. Suggestions for classroom use are included with each of the activities. Be aware that the site is British, so spelling and word choices may not be what American students are familiar with! 10903 0 In the Classroom: 0 Share iBoard Player on your interactive whiteboard. Create learning centers for your students at computer clusters. These sites work well for individual enrichment and investigation. List this site on your class website for students to explore both in and out of the classroom.
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Story Jumper helps you write and illustrate stories in just seven steps-- then share them online. Begin by selecting a story format and accompanying graphic. Manipulate the text and add other items to the picture that forms with each addition to the story. You also change the background and upload photos. Add original drawings, as well. When finished with a particular scene, go on to the next page by clicking the arrow. In order to save and share stories online, writers must complete a free registration. Although there is an option to buy the finished story in print format, this is not necessary to use the site. 10885 In the Classroom: Although the sentences and graphics available appear juvenile, the fact that writers can delete the text and add their own original text, photos, and drawings makes this site flexible enough to use with older students, as well. This activity would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. Ask your students to visit the site and create an online book with their original writings, drawings, and photos. ESL and ELL students will be able to use the site easily, and will learn appropriate sentence structure and add to their vocabulary by selecting new items to put into the graphic. Older students can also create “little buddy” books for younger students to read and share. For similar resources, click the appropriate keyword: online story writing | smrbest |
This animation tool will help create a slide show with pizzazz. Add personal sounds, videos, and other media to create the next level of slide show for you classes. This tool is great for PC-based schools without access to other free video or multimedia creation software. The limitation of this site is the free portion limits enhanced slide shows to be only thirty seconds in length. However, a typical thirty second video requires twelve images which is a reasonable number for projects with middle and high school level students. The education version has some advantages: Use Animoto with all students simultaneously in class. Download created videos and share among other students in the class.
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Sign up and request an educator account. Wait a few days for your verification email to arrive. Create a new account and enter the classroom code from the email in the promo/referral code box in the sign up form. Provide the classroom code to your students (13 and over) as they register for an account, as well. Do this to allow all your students access to Animoto at the same time. Redeem the class code for 6 months of educator access. Time run out? Simply renew for a new educator account.
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This site offers a variety of children's stories that children can listen to while they watch scenes or graphics corresponding to the story. Besides the stories, there are both listening and reading comprehension sections for each story. Both the audio and the text are available. As the story is being read, the words are highlighted on the page. Also available is the full screen option for the story. The reading comprehension questions use both aural and text format and also use an interesting illustration to capture the reader/listener's attention. Stories and all activities are also available in Spanish, Catalan, French, and other languages. There are some advertisements on the side. Select the full screen option to avoid them. In the Classroom: Have students try out this site on individual computers, with head phones, or let them listen in pairs. Before they go to the questions, ask them to list the questions the site might ask them after they have seen the model of one story. Share this link on your class web page, wiki, and/or in a parent newsletter. Share the site with special language teachers at the elementary level.
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http://www.childtopia.com/index.php?module=home& func=coce&myidioma=eng&idphpx=listen-readingcomprehension
Telescopic Text 0 What it is: Telescopic Text is a very simple
website that could be very handy in the language arts classroom. The site starts off with a very simple sentence: I made tea. Each time you click on a word, the sentence expands adding adjectives, adverbs, and makes the sentence more interesting. 0 How to integrate Telescopic Text into the classroom: Use Telescopic Text to teach your students about creative, descriptive writing and how to improve writing with descriptive words. Compare and contrast what students knew about the sentence “I made tea.” at the beginning and how each addition of words helped them understand more about the original statement. This can be done as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or a computer with a projector. Students can take turns clicking on words to expand the statement with discussion after each addition. This is a great exercise to use before writing. Have the students write their own simple sentence and expand it into a story with the addition of descriptive words. 0 0 Tips: The highlighted words are those that can be expanded by clicking.
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Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate. Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections. It's a dictionary! It's a thesaurus! Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists. The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection. No membership required. Visuwords™ uses Princeton University’s WordNet, an opensource database built by University students and language researchers. Combined with a visualization tool and user interface built from a combination of modern web technologies, Visuwords™ is available as a free resource to all patrons of the web.
TOY THEATER 0 Toytheater.com is an interactive website for kids
with lots of activites. For example, you will find the Animation Station, where children can draw their own animated drawings, and the Composer, where kids compose and play their own music.
0 http://www.toytheater.com 0 There are four different fun music games where
you can create your own masterpiece: Composer, Piano Puppet, Drum Beats and Music Maker.
0 The most interesting activity in the Art section is perhaps the Animation Station, where children can doodle up to 22 different frames and play them as a short animation. There is also an art activity,
"Matisse's Pieces" where you can create your own Matisse style painting.
0 The Math section includes a math quiz, math flashcards, and a game to learn to tell time using both digital and analog clocks. There are also some fun games for kids just beginning to learn math, for
example More Less Monster and a pretty How Many game where you grow flowers.
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What it is: Pic Lits is a really neat creative writing site that provides pictures and a word bank for students to create a enriched sentence or sentences about the picture. “The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.” Students can choose to only drag words from the word bank to create their sentence or compose a sentence freestyle. How to integrate Pic Lits into the classroom: Pic Lits is a great way to get students to think creatively and critically about writing. Students can choose any picture and then use the word list to create a sentence. Pic Lits is complete with punctuation and any word can be capatalized. Students can use Pic Lits individually on computers, as a whole class with a projector, or as a creative writing center in the one or two computer classroom. When using Pic Lits as a class, choose a picture for the day and have students write their sentences on paper using words from the word bank. Take turns sharing to hear the combination of words and the different meanings that students gathered from the picture. This is a great writing exercise to use in your classroom every day! Here in Colorado, we often have indoor recesses for bad weather. Use Pic Lits with an interactive whiteboard and invite your cooped up students to choose pictures and create sentences. Tips: Students can sign up for a free account and save each Pic Lit they create. At the end of the year, each student can create a book of their Pic Lits to take home for creative inspiration.
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What it is: Myths and Legends is an awesome, free, online digital story telling website. I heard about the website through @kjarrett. The story creator lets students combine pictures that they compose with clip art or images that they upload, sound, and words to create a digital story. The stories can be saved, printed, and shared. Students can record themselves reading the story aloud and even add video! The website is pretty comprehensive as far as online digital storytelling tools go, I am impressed!
How to integrate Myths and Legends into the classroom: Myths and Legends is a great way to get your students interested and eager to write. The digital story telling format gives students a unique opportunity to express themselves creatively. Many of your reluctant writers will jump at the chance to create a story in this manner because it doesn’t “feel” like writing. They don’t get stuck looking at that blank piece of paper and feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of them. I have found that students write more, and the quality of work is better when they create digital stories that are shared later with the whole class. In the one or two computer classroom you can set up a digital storytelling writing center that students can work at, in the lab setting whole classes can create at the same time, and as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard or projector, the entire class can create a story together. Tips: Each student should sign up and register for a free account so that they can save their work. As a teacher you can also sign up for a school account where you can login and review all of your students work online.
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What it is: Ology is an outstanding free website from the American Museum of Natural History where students can learn about archaeology, astronomy, biodiversity, earth, Einstein, genetics, marine biology, water, and paleontology. The site is user friendly for kids and has an attractive interface that students will enjoy. Each subject has polls, inside stories on the subject, experiments, book lists of related books, interactive games and activities, “make it” ideas, interviews, a snapshot of scientists at work, and more. How to integrate Ology into the classroom: I like to uses sites like Ology for scavenger hunts. I give students a list of facts that I want them to find while exploring the website and have them take part in a virtual scavenger hunt following the clues. Activities like this build research skills. This is a great site for using in any science class. The online reading is wonderful and the suggestion for books related to the subject is a nice addition. Students can explore the site during science and share what they learn with the class. The experiments and make it ideas would be fun to learn about and create as a class. Ology is an excellent addition to any science class! Tips: Does your school hold an annual science fair? Share this site with parents for suggestion of science experiments and as a launching point.
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What it is: Museum Box is a website that I heard about through a tweet on Twitter a few weeks ago that is really impressing me today (that is saying a lot since today is MacWorld and they are announcing big things!). Museum Box is based on the work of Thomas Clarkson who collected items in a box to help him in his argument for the abolition of slavery. He collected items in a box to demonstrate to others the fine craftsmanship and abilities of the African culture. He used his box as a sort of travelling museum to aid him in his debate. The Museum Box website provides a place for students to collect information and arguments in a virtual museum box of their own. They can collect items to provide a description or add to an argument of a historical event, place, or time period. Students can add images, text, sounds, video, external links, etc. to each compartment of the box helping them form their own virtual museum. The Museum Box can be shared as a presentation, saved, or printed. After a box has been created, students can view one anothers boxes and leave comments about the box. You really have to check this one out! So neat for history and literature classes!
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How to integrate Museum Box into the classroom: Use Museum Box as a medium for students to learn about and collect information about a historical event, person, or time period. Because students can upload their own content to Museum Box, you might also have them create a box all about them. This would be a great way for students to get to know each other at the beginning of the year. Museum box is a neat way to share information about geography, students can make a box all about a place including items in their box that are unique to that place. The ability to incorporate text, sounds, images, video, and uploaded items makes Museum Box especially impressive! After students have created boxes, spend time viewing other’s boxes and leaving comments about the box. This is kind of like a science fair atmosphere for history, geography, and literature. Yet another tool I wish I had in school!
0 For those of you that haven’t discovered
Learning Clip, the site comprehensively covers the new Primary Framework for Mathematics Year 3 and has just started to also cover Year 4, via online activities, known as ‘clips’. 0 Each of the clips are introduced by Triangle Man (which the kids love!) so they have an idea of what they will be covering, plus, there is also a plenary video to summarize the activity. 0 Having previously written a feature on Learning Clip for Promethean Planet, I personally love the clips - they’re bright, very engaging, and pedagogically sound. Even though they are aimed at the UK curriculum, I know from US teachers’ comments in the forum that they have still found the clips useful. After all, math is math! 0 If you have an Activote set - then you will also find that the online activities can be made to respond to the responses from your class! 0
-promethean planet blog.
Story Cove is a highly-acclaimed, awardwinning multimedia publisher of folktales from the world’s oral traditions. Children love Story Cove because the stories are entertaining and fun to read. Educators love Story Cove because the products are easy to use and the programs support Response to Intervention (RTI). Librarians love Story Cove because the stories are authentic and richly illustrated. Parents love Story Cove because the stories model positive character traits and good decision making.
0 Copyright-free music