U.S. Thanksgiving Resources November 18, 2009
Posted by anne marie in Holidays, history/social studies.add a comment
With Thanksgiving shining bright on my radar screen I wanted to remind everyone of the resources on my Thanksgiving page. I would also recommend that you visit the Thanksgiving Resources posted by Jim Hollis over on Teachers Love SMARTBoards and Larry Ferlazzo’s Thanksgiving Resources on his blog, Larry Felazzo’s Websites of the Day. There may be duplicates, but all worth checking out-ENJOY!
Below are some additional sites that I gathered as sites of the month (November) for our elementary wiki. ENJOY!
Welcome to a Pilgrim Village- a Scholastic e-book with audio support for the text.
The First Thanksgiving- a wonderful interactive website from Scholastic that offers some great activities to help students understand the life of Pilgrims. This site also provides audio support.
What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving- an interactive site from Plymouth Plantation that allows students to be investigative historians. Very fun and very informative!
Fill in the Blanks- A Thanksgiving Story- listen to the Thanksgiving story and then complete the missing words in the paragraph by selecting the correct word from the drop down menu. Here is a linkto another similar activity. Again listen to the story and then complete the sentences from the drop down menu.
Match Thanksgiving words- click and drag the Thanksgiving words to match the picture.
Weekly Reader: The Story of Squanto- an interactive video story of Squanto complete with a quiz!
Weekly Reader: The Story of Johnny Appleseed-an interative video story of Johnny Appleseen complete with a quiz!
See if you can locate the differences between the Tom Turkeypictures, the Thanksgiving Postmanand the Mayflowers.
Thanksgiving Poems and Rhymes- click on the links to read the variety of poems and rhymes.
PBS The Colonial House- a wonderful site filled with several interactive activities to help you learn about life as a Pilgrim.
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Fractions November 17, 2009
Posted by anne marie in Math.4 comments
Fractions can be a difficult concept for some students to master and so I was asked by some teachers if I knew of any websites that were interactive and would help students reinforce and practice fraction skills. Below is the list I developed- ENJOY!
Elearning for Kids- this is a great slide show/video that explains and demonstrates fractions. This presents well on the SMARTBoard.
Kids and Cookies- a very fun site that helps students to visualize the concept of fractions. This site can also be downloaded and is available in Spanish. As an FYI- the online version does not have sound,but the downloaded version does!
MathisFun- this site gives you various lessons on fractions- introduction, equivalent, proper/improper, etc. The one feature that I really like is the Interactive Fractions since it allows you to designate and visually demonstrate fractions.
Gamequarium- this site has a plethora of games and activities to help reinforce fractions.
Fitting with Fractions- this is a fun game where the students have to move specific butterflies to a jar and then calculate what fraction of butterflies you caught.
Update 11/17: I was sent another great interactive fraction activity from Laura. She wrote, ”This fraction flash file is an excellent and quick way to make different size fraction pieces for interactive display on a Smart Board.” Thanks, Laura, for sharing! 
Update 11/25: Christine sent another great suggestion to add to the list. She wrote, “Don’t forget about http://www.mathplayground.com Colleen King has some fabulous videos and games that play and work beautifully on the SmartBoard.” Thanks for sharing, Christine!
EL Civics for ESL Students November 16, 2009
Posted by anne marie in Holidays, history/social studies.add a comment
During a Google search for Thanksgiving activities/lessons I came across this awesome website called EL Civics for ESL Students. It is filled with many mini lessons on civics, US Holidays, Famous Americans, Life Skills, US Geography, etc. The site also provides worksheets and activities to accompany the lessons. All of the lessons would present well on the SMARTBoard. There is a gold mine of information that is presented in easy to read format, complete with visual supports. I would highly recommend taking a look at this site- ENJOY!
ReadWriteThink Calendar November 14, 2009
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Websites, history/social studies.Tags: calendar skills, history, ReadWriteThink, Resource
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I came across the website, ReadWriteThink Calendar, and wanted to share. What I like about this resource is that it not only presents daily historical information using text and visual supports, but it also gives you links to lesson plans and other resources to give you ideas and to make lesson preparations easier. It also could be a springboard for students to research and report on specific events on the calendar. I envision it being a good resource to reinforce calendar skills, follow directions, cause/affect, etc. when incorporating it with the SMARTBoard. ENJOY!
I also wanted to mention is that some classrooms have incorporated the History Channel’s This Day in History Video into their daily morning activities with positive results. The site is linked to a picture on the SMART Notebook daily calendar and the students simply touch the picture to activate the video. Very direct, with immediate visual feedback– watching the video! ENJOY!
Learn about trees. November 11, 2009
Posted by anne marie in Science.Tags: Science, trees
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The fall always seems like the optimal time for lessons on trees and so once again as the leaves are changing colors and quickly falling to the ground in Massachusetts I’m thinking trees! There are two sites from the University of Illinois Extension that I find to be very good: Dr. Arbor Talks Trees (click on the index files at the top of the page to access lessons) and Exploring the Secret Life of Trees. I like both of these sites because they give very good visual and auditory support and present well on the SMARTBoard (the Secret Life of Trees can be viewed in English or Spanish). During each presentation there are opportunities for students to interact with the lesson being presented. The Teacher’s Guide in both programs are very informative and helpful.
Pete’s PowerPoint Station also is a very good resource forfree ready-made lessons about trees in PowerPoint format and it also offers various resources that can be incorporated into your lessons. Now I’m off to rake some of those falling leaves! ENJOY!
Alphabet November 9, 2009
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Games.Tags: Alphabet letters
3 comments
English Alphabet from NGfL, is a good activity for alphabet/letter review that works well with the SMARTBoard. The initial screen reviews the letters with visual and audio cues. You can then either touch each letter in the alphabet on the top of the screen or click on the arrow in the right bottom corner to advance letters. A new screen will appear with that letter on it. There is an icon box under each letter that, when clicked, will active different features: the pencil will trace the letter, the ear will sound out the letter phonetically, the speaker will say the letter and the 2 lines will stop a feature. Again- a good basic alphabet letter site that works well with the SMARTBoard- ENJOY! Oh yeah, I should perhaps mention that when speaking the letter “Z”- it is not pronounced in English.
Rhyming Words November 7, 2009
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Games, Holidays.Tags: ELA, Rhyming
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I have discovered some very cool, and new to me, sites that help assist with reinforcing and reviewing rhyming that I wanted to share. The first is by Golden Books called Cat at Bat. This activity simulates a baseball game- every correct answer scores a run and every wrong answer is an out. Players read the word that appears on the bulletin board and if the pitcher throws a word that rhymes with that word they would click on the word. This activity works well on the SMART Board.
The BBC Little Animals Activity Center also has a fun activity to reinforce rhyming. It offers three difficulty levels. Players must match the rhyming words that appear on the screen. If they pick the correct answer the ground hog will digdown to the word. This activity does have audio support and works well with the SMARTBoard.
PBS has a very cute, fun short rhyming video/activity starring Grover which presents well on the SMART Board. The younger children LOVE watching this one! ENJOY!
Tar Heel Reader November 6, 2009
Posted by anne marie in ELA.Tags: Accessible books, ELA
2 comments
Sharing an interesting site that has been talked about by several people called- Tar Heel Reader . I think I first learned of this site from the amazing Paul Hamilton over on his blog Free Resources from the NET for Every Learner. Tar Heal Reader offers a collection of free, easy to read and accessible books in several different topics. Each book can be speech enabled- the speech controls are on the left of the screen on the title page. These books can be downloaded in PowerPoint, Impress or Flash format. This site also gives you the option to write your own book (you need to register for a free account to access this feature). The books present well on the SMARTBoard and also work well for those students who require switch access. ENJOY!
BBC Games November 5, 2009
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Games, Math, SMART Board.Tags: literacy, Numeracy
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Want to share another great site from the BBC– KS1 Bitesize Games. This addresses two areas: Literacy and Numeracy. Both present with several subcategories including addition, multiplication, money skills under numeracy and spelling, alphabetical order, phonics under literacy. Each category has three skill level options, presents with some verbal feedback, is animated and fun! These games work well with the SMARTBoard. So if you’re searching for some fun, motivating games to reinforce literacy and numeracy skills look no more– just click on over to KS1 Bitesize Games. ENJOY!
Nuts About NumberNut.com! November 4, 2009
Posted by anne marie in Math.add a comment
I have been busy helping some of the math coaches in the district create resource wikis for their teachers and as I was searching for interactive sites I stumbled across Rader’s Number Nut.com. This is a very comprehensive site filled with a plethora of math information and activities for review and direct instruction (K-7th grade). The two main areas of the site are Basic Math that includes topics such as shapes, time, operations, etc. and Advanced Math that covers decimals, fractions, money, percentages, etc. On each of these pages you will see a Topic Section on the right, click on your desired topic to view a page with both information related tot he topic and activities to reinforce the skill. They also provide the CA Standards and a Glossary of math vocabulary. When you select an activity it does give you the option to “Magnify the Activity which make it larger on the screen. Many of the activities work and present well on the SMARTBoard, as does the information sections. There are many aspects to this site so be sue to take the time to explore and bookmark the pages that will work for you and your students. ENJOY!
