Monday, October 26, 2009

Game Classroom


Looks like lots of games for grades K-6 here! Thanks to MrsDi for tweeting this on Twitter!

R.L. Stine's Webcast


Here's a great opportunity to watch a webcast with R.L. Stine. It's perfect timing...Goosebumps and Halloween. The webcast is scheduled for 1:00 on October 28. A teacher's edition is available right on the Scholastic site.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Math Apprentice


This is a great site for middle school students that explores the relationship of math to real world applications. Students learn the roles of math in various careers and actually play games that allow them to use math skills to complete an activity in a virtual business. You could use this in a whole group to explain how the math skill is used or students could explore independently.

Dr. Mike's Elementary Math Games


Don't be turned off by the word elementary. This site has resources for all grades!

Direct from the site...
"Elementary Math Games is an educational website focused on mathematics. We feature free math games online and printable math worksheets for students and teachers. Our elementary math resources cover first grade through eighth grade mathematics. The games and worksheets on this site are broken down by grade."

Mr. R's World of Math


This is a great site for elementary math. You'll find videos, stories, poems and songs to use! Find it on my portaportal also!

Weebly

Last week I participated in an on-line professional development for building my personal website using Weebly. It appears to be a simple program that allows teachers to build a classroom site, have 40 additional sites for students and host it on a Weebly domain...all for free! I will be working this weekend to build my site so you all can check it out AND I will refer you just in case you might be interested in your own classroom site. When I refer you, I will receive additional sites. That will be important when I work with middle school grades. So...if you receive an invite to Weebly, please check it out even if you do not think you will build a site! Hmmm...just a bit confusing...but I will continue to share info about this and perhaps do a PD after school one day. If you are interested in learning more, just let me know and we can work together to get you moving quickly!! Don't forget, you can go to the Weebly site by clicking on the title of this post.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A Lifetime of Color


Sanford has redesigned their website with the teacher in mind. They have lesson plans and activities to integrate art into the regular classroom curriculum. Here's what they say about the lesson plans...

"Our lesson plans will make all of your classroom subjects more colorful! Incorporate art, creativity and color into a variety of subjects like science, social studies, math and reading to help students grasp concepts. Complete with background information and downloadable visual resources, these lessons are also tied to National Visual Arts Standards."

You'll also find a link at the bottom of the page to sign up for educational promotions.

Parade of Games


Oh My...here's a great site from the University of Wisconsin. Here's what they say about this site...

" The Parade of Games web site was created to provide educators and trainers with easy-to- assemble educational games in a technology- enhanced environment to support key learning points. The site demonstrates the creative use of popular game shows and other familiar games to reinforce learning.

Educators and trainers can select and download those PowerPoint games that support your learning objectives and are compatible with the technology capabilities of your learning environment. We hope you enjoy the site and we welcome your feedback."

There are a number of great game templates and all you have to do is add your information. The games are in PowerPoint. If you need some help with this, just let me know. I'd love to try out some of these!

Friday, October 16, 2009

A Billion for a Billion

YouTube again! :( You'll need to watch this at home. This 60 second video focuses on world hunger.

Leveling Appalachia

Larry Ferlazzo tweeted this link today. The video is 20 minutes and well worth the time! This was done by Yale Environment 360. Just click on the title to go to the page with the video.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Word Safari

Here's another site for students to use to practice their spelling words. Students type in up to 7 of their words for practice. It took me awhile to figure it out and I finally had to actually read the directions! Students move the character with the directional keys to touch the letters that spell the word. If they touch an animal, a balloon pops. When all the balloons pop, the game is over. I didn't last very long with this game but I think kids would have no problems with moving the character! They would have a great time playing this at home.

The Big Green Rabbit

I had a great time this morning checking out a new site shared by Kevin Jarrett on his blog, Welcome to NCIS-Tech. The Big Green Rabbit targets young children and focuses on the environment. Children may play a game, watch a video, sing a song, or learn a dance. I watched a video and the story about the Tortoise and the Hare was shared. This is a great site for Pre-K-1st.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Reading Lady

This morning Skipz shared a great resource on Twitter. Reading Lady has many tools to use for language arts. When you click on a topic at the top, you will move to the section on the page. Notice the checks. Although they do not look like links, if you click on them, a document will open. I especially liked the writing section and found some great posters for the 6 traits of writing. Some of the documents are word and some are PDF. Do you know that if it is a PDF, you can not change it. Word allows for revisions. The powerpoints are for teacher use and provide some PD on reading strategies. Good stuff here! Take some time to explore this site!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

October Resources

H1N1
Help our students stay healthy this winter with these educational resources.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for these resources.


BrainPop has a free movie on the Swine Flu complete with a quiz at the end.

BrainPop, Jr has a free movie on washing hands.

Check out the lesson plans and associated resources from BrainPop. You may have to sign up for a free acount to get to this page!

Education World has some lesson resources on how students can lower their risk of catching the flu.

Center of the Cell is an interesting game for older students. They will learn about how flu spreads and take steps to stop the spread. In the first stage of the game I spread the flu to thousands of other people. I think I will start over again!!

Thanks to Richard Byrne for sharing these resources!

Global Handwahing Day is October 15th. Check out these resources for educating your students about washing hands.

Here's a great music video on washing hands. You may have to watch this at home since it is on YouTube. Grrr..still blocked here in WV.



H1N1
Kids Health has lots of great info for students. One section looks at Swine Flu. This is more of an information site and less of an activity site!

Don't forget to scroll down and check out other links. Scrub Club is listed and that relates to healthy behaviors for prevention of the flu!

Check back for more as I update this posting!

Fish Food

This a fun game to use when you are working on the food chain. It's eat or be eaten in the ocean. The more you eat the larger you grow. Watch out for the bigger fish!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Science Bob


I'm following a new person on Twitter and am so impressed with the resources she shares. Her twitter name is dianedell. She recently tweeted about Science Bob's fun Halloween experiments. Those ideas are great fun and follow along with our recent student assembly at TAEP. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to make some slime.

MAKE SOME HALLOWEEN SLIME
Slime and Halloween go together like, well, slime and Halloween. Here’s 2 ways to add a little slime to your October.
Do it yourself slime - If you’ve got a little glue and some powdered borax, you can easily mix up some slime by following the instructions right on the site!

Make sure you click on HOME and explore all of this site for experiments, videos and other ideas for the science classroom.

Thanks Dianedell and Science Bob!!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Scrub Club


Thanks to diandell's tweet for sharing this site. Students can use this interactive site to learn how to avoid the flu. There are songs, games, webisodes and information to learn about the villians which make us sick. It looks to be great fun and educational, too!