With the start of school upon all of us and the need to stress the need for Internet safety on out “to do” lists I wanted to share a fun PBS site to teach, reinforce and review Internet safety for elementary students called Get Your Web License. Students take a “driving test” by answering specific questions regarding Internet safety and earn their “license” when they have correctly answered all of the questions and completed the “driving test”. If you are reviewing skills with students as a class this activity presents very well on the SMARTBoard. This activity would also be a great activity for parents to do with their children at home. ENJOY!
The Plurals Girls is a fun game on FunBrain.com that reinforces identifying plurals. “Twin sisters Pearl and Flora lost their friends in the bubble machine. Help them get their friends out by choosing the correct plural form of the given word.”With each correct answer a friend appears from the bubble machine. 8 correct answers ends the game. There are two difficulty levels for each game. The multiple choice options work well with the SMARTBoard since the game gives you two answers and you simply touch your answer. With the fill in the blank options you need to type/spell your answers. You could utilize the SMART On-Screen Keyboard to type the answers, as long as the cursor is in the answer box.
So if you need a game to reinforce/practice plurals head on over and introduce yourself to The Plural Girls, Pearl and Flora, they’re sure to make you smile- ENJOY!
I have been using PhotoPeach for some time now to create quick and easy slide shows to introduce or review/reinforce a concept. Today I received an email from the folks at PhotoPeach saying that they had added some new and improved features. As they explained:
1. New Peachy Editor to Help You Tell Better Stories Online!
- Choose where to show the caption on each photo (center or bottom)
- Explain your stories in more detail by inserting a blank slide with text only.
- One-Click Duplicate photos to make better explanations and transitions.
2. Fine-Grain Speed Control Options
3. Introducing the All-New Quiz Concept to the PhotoPeach service.
Adding a quiz to slide show- how coooooool is that. There are so many classroom applications! You simply type in the question and give a choice of 3 answers. Love it! The best thing is that all of the new features are very easy to use and as always the slideshows present great on the SMARTBoard and embed wonderfully in your blog or wiki.
Here’s a quick PhotoPeach I created of our gardens. ENJOY!
gardens on PhotoPeach
Happy Saturday everyone! I was looking for some interactive ELA websites to use with one of our Kindergraten classes and found one from Northumberland NGfl, with 18 interactive nursery rhymes called Readalong Nursery Rhymes. Each of the rhymes can be read or sung, each has a sequencing activity that works great on the SMARTBoard and in addition, each rhyme has an acompanying range of other resources including SMART Notebook lessons. ENJOY!
I came across this wonderful website, Mrs. Mitchell’s Virtual School, created and maintained by Kathi Mitchell, a teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. There are an amazing amount of resources in all subject areas- she even identifies sites by grade levels K-5 and Middle School (scroll down the page). One of the great aspects of this webiste is that once you click on the link you want to investiagte, say Women in History, you will discover Mrs. Mitchell has gathered and listed several sites for you to explore- it’s MARVELOUS and a huge timesaver. Thanks to Mrs. Mitchell for all of her hard work and most importantly for sharing– ENJOY!
I discovered this interactive body part identification website that works great with the SMARTBoard. It is a basic program for elemenatry students- identifying only 12 body parts, but is available in 6 languages. Students drag and drop the words to match the pictures. Clicking on the pictures or words will ellicit a verbal reinforcement. Works great on the SMARTBoard- ENJOY!
If you are looking for a primary interactive activity to teach/review rhyming words do I have the site for you! It’s found over at Scholastic and is called Reggie Loves to Rhyme! There are 12 different theme areas to enter that will give you a screen with the rhyming word and then 3 words to pick from. There is audio support, it is self-correcting and as an added plus it works wonderful using the SMARTBoard! ENJOY!
I came across this very fun site that works great when addressing cause/effect objectives using the SMARTBoard. It incorporates two motivating factors– animals and music– which adds up to success!! Singing Horses, is just plain fun! When students touch any of the 4 horses they begin to sing and continue to sing until touched again. So if you want to smile, saddle up and trot on over!! ENJOY!
Quite by accident I discovered this wonderful interactive game that reinforces sentence structure called Wall of Words. A very simple premise- click and drag the scrambled word bricks in the right order to create a sentence. Choose a puncuation mark and click “build it” to see if you are right. If you create the sentence correctly the builders present more scrambled word bricks, if you are not correct the bricks fall apart and you must start again. All sentences must have a punctuation or it will not be correct. This also works wonderful with the SMARTBoard. ENJOY!
Just a quick post to point you in the direction of Scholastic’s Computer Lab Favorites. When you arrive you will find “quick, compelling one-session activities you need to incorporate interactive learning and technology into your curriculum. Each activity requires no prep and can be completed in 15-30 minutes.” There are activities in ELA, science, math, social studies and Spanish. Here is a link to the site map listing all of the available activities. Many of these activities also work very well on the SMARTBoard- ENJOY!
