A Lifetime of Color shines BRIGHT! November 16, 2008
Posted by anne marie in art.Tags: art
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For all K-8 Art Teachers I came across a very nice site, A Lifetime of Color, that offers 4 comprehensive areas to explore and use- lessons plans, activities, study, play, teacher’s lounge. I really appreciated the Artist link in the study section as it provides a brief overview of 35 artists- most giving examples of their artwork. Also in the same study section is a comprehensive glossary section that provides a wealth of information relating to art lingo. The play section offers some fun interactive games. All in all a great site- oh yeah and most of the features present well with the SMARTBoard. ENJOY!
Awesome Jeopardy Template November 15, 2008
Posted by anne marie in General, SMART Board, Websites.Tags: Jeopardy template
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Stumbled across the best Jeopardy template I have yet to come across. It was created by Lynne Bailey using Powerpoint. Lynne not only created this fabulous template complete with the Jeopardy theme music (including the Daily Double and Final Jeopardy), comments by Alex Trebek, but also included very user friendly, helpful tutorials to guide you through setting up your own game. This template is amazing to use on the SMARTBoard- you just need to remember to double click the questions to make it interactive. Wednesday I used the template to create a review on analogies for the 3rd grade teachers and the tmeplate was very easy to use. I think it took me 30 minutes from start to finish (of course I had all of my questions prepared). I was with a 7th grade math teacher yesterday who used this template to review fractions with her students (actually her students challlenged another classroom)and it was the best 48 minutes I had had in school in a long time!!! A teacher said to me- “This is like the Cadillac of Jeopardy templates” and I have to agree!! A great big THANK YOU to Lynne for making this available. ENJOY!
More Thanksgiving Sites November 12, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Fun, General, SMART Board, Websites.1 comment so far
Some teachers have been requesting some additional Thanksgiving sites (previously I mentioned The First Thanksgiving from Scholastic) that would work well with the SMARTBoard so here is a list of sites that I have found-
The guys over at TeqSMART have two great elementary Notebook lessons available with a Thanksgiving theme. The first was created by Lindsey Angelo teaching parts of speechand the second was created by Emily Peterson and it is Translating Word Problems into Algebraic Equations. I also hear rumblings that a Mayflower Math lesson will be available soon???????
Caleb Johnson’s MayflowerHistory.com offers extensive resources about the Mayflower/Pilgrims. There is a page dedicated to helping teachers navigate the site. The site is geared for older students, but there is information that would be helpful to elementary teachers. This would be a great link for a webquest since it has a plethera of historical information. Mr. Johnson even includes the Mayflower passenger list, complete with biographical information about each of the passengers. All information would present well in the SMARTBoard.
The History Channel offers 5 videos with a Thanksgiving theme. I particulary like the History of Thanksgiving since it is a little over 3 minutes long and gives a nice overview of the origins of Thanksgiving. It presents well on the SMARTBoard and is a great short video to embed into a Notebook lesson on Thanksgiving.
Turkeys Anagram game- students unscramble letters to discover a phrase about turkeys. Students would simply drag the letters on the SMARTBoard to the correct position. A fun game!
BillyBear4Kids has a fun animated turkey puzzle. Students would move the puzzle pieces on the SMARTBoard to create the puzzle. When a piece is placed in the correct position the connection flashes in white.The fact that the puzzle is animated just adds to the fun!!
Plimoth Plantation’s You are the Historian is a great resource, filled with some very good interactive activities as students discover clues about what really happened in 1621 at the “First Thanksgiving”. It works and presents well using the SMARTBoard. The site does indicate that during the Thanksgiving season you might experience a slow response so they do give you the option of downloading the file to your hard drive.
The folks over at Lookybook.com have some very nice Thanksgiving books available on their website. Typically the book present well on the SMARTboard, but just preview before using any book with your class.
National Geographic offers a great ativity for practicing part of speech with a Thanksgiving twist called “Wild & Wacky”.It is a fill in the blank activity for students to generate their own Thanksgiving story. Using the SMARTBoard the teacher could demonstrate/explain the activity and then students could use the lab to create their own stories. It does give you the option of printing the story so that students can read their stories to the class and/or take them home.
The Cartoon Factory (also from National Geographic) offers a Thanksgiving themed cartoon for students to narrate. They present well on the SMARTBoards- students love to see their work bigger than life on the SMARTBoard! Last year a 5th grade teacher used this activity with her students and when each student had completed their cartoon she “published” it so they all had a Thanksgiving comic book. It was a great way for the students to share their creativity!
Pete’s Powerpoint Station has a plethera of premade Thanksgiving themed powerpoint lessons.
Hope these additional resources help- ENJOY!
Xtra Normal is Xtra Special!!! November 11, 2008
Posted by anne marie in General, Websites.Tags: Text to Movie, Xtra Normal
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Ok, so I just learned about this really, really cool text-to movie application from L Parisi over at Twitter called– XtraNormal. If you can type you can create a movie- how motivating is this for students to be able to express their thoughts and knowledge in a creative way. I love it! As long as you can type you can create a movie.
“Xtranormal’s mission is to bring movie-making to the people. Everyone watches movies and we believe everyone can make movies. Our revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill—typing. You type something; we turn it into a movie. On the web and on the desktop.”
For students who struggle with speech and oral presentations this would be a wonderful alternative for them to express their ideas. It also would be beneficial for teachers to create movies to introduce a lesson or reinforce a concept– talk about catching and keeping the attention of students! And if you have a SMARTBoard the movies would present fantastic on one. It is currently in beta form and you must register to make a movie (must be 13 years old or older), but it’s free. ENJOY!
Animoto adds text November 11, 2008
Posted by anne marie in General, Websites.Tags: Animoto
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I just received an email from “the guys at Animoto” — GREAT NEWS– they have added a feature where you can now add text to your Animoto videos- YEAH!!! As they stated in the email,
“It’s true: you can now insert text into your Animoto videos. And we’re not talking about boring caption-like text–we’re talking about text the way it’s done in tv & film!”
This is something I have been looking forward to since I first discovered Animoto– did I say YEAH!!!! From an educational standpoint it will allow students to label and narrate their work- AWESOME! I haven’t investigated this feature yet– heading over their once I finish this post– but I’m sure that adding the text will be seamless. So head on over and check it out! ENJOY and oh yeah a big THANKS to “the guys at Animoto”.
Poisson Rouge— ooooo la la!!! November 10, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Math, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Poisson Rouge
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I just discovered this interesting site called Poisson Rouge. It contains lots of free, fun and educational games and activities for children (approx. 3-7 years old). The most interesting fact about this site is that there are no instructions, and I love the reason for this– “ When small children pick up objects, they invent new ways of holding and using them. Thus there is no right or wrong way of using anything on this site. It’s up to the children to find what they want and to grow their naturally exploring mind.” They have provided adults with a quick guide to all the games, activities and animations on the site. It is a site that elicits exploration and self direction while learning basic skills. As an added bonus, many of the games and activities work very well with the SMARTBoard ENJOY!
Counting change November 7, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Math, SMART Board.Tags: making change
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I discovered this really neat game to teach and reinforce making change called Cash Out. You’re the cashier at this crazy store and you need to give change to the customers who are buying items. There are several features that I like including the ability to set the level of assistance given and difficulty level. To give the change you click on the coins/bills and they move to the counter. When you mouse over the coins/bills it does give you text support telling you what the coin/bill is worth. If you want to give back change you simply click on the coins you no longer want and they are removed. When you think you have the correct answer you simply click on the “Give Change” icon. There is a 3 minute timer that begins at the start of the game so the object is to try and sell as many items as possible before the time runs out. This works well on the SMARTBoard– ENJOY!
Mathtrain TV November 5, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Math, Websites.Tags: Mathtrain TV
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Found a really cool math site last night while trying to stay awake for the election results called Mathtrain TV. This is a “free educational “kids teaching kids” project from Mr. Marcos and his students at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica CA.” How cool is that– I love it! How motivating for students to see what other students are creating and sharing. Congratulations to Mr. Marcos and his students for a job well done! You do need to register to give you the option of uploading these videos, but it is all free. The videos present well on the SMARTBoard. ENJOY!
Visualize Poetry November 4, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA.Tags: ELA, Poetry
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An ELA Teacher shared a very interesting and innovative poetry site that I want to share. It’s called Poetry Visualized- The Visual Poetry Network. It is a compilation of poetry that combines motion graphics (video or film), music and of course poems. Take a look at Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers”. What a creative way to present and introduce the art of poetry.
There are several selections, some original and others classics. And of course viewing these hopefully will inspire students to create their own “Poetry Visualized”. ENJOY!
Thanksgiving November 3, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, SMART Board, history/social studies.Tags: Thanksgiving
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Well it’s November 3rd and the election is tomorrow so that means it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving lessons– where does the time go?! I want to share a site from Scholastic called The First Thanksgiving for a several reasons– first this activity is very informative, entertaining, interactive, has the option to read (click on speakers) and presents very well on the SMARTBoard. It has a word wizard option on the screen where students can simply double click a word they don’t understand and and receive the dictionary definition. For each section there is a Pilgrim timeline at the bottom of the page as a great review. They offer a teacher’s guide with premade lessons and activities. They are sponsoring three live(at different times) Thanksgiving Chats on November 13th -students can submit questions prior to the chat. There are so many wonderful features to this site that if you are addressing Thanksgiving objectives take a look, you won’t be disappointed. ENJOY!
