4th of July Puzzle June 28, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Fun, Games, SMART Board.Tags: Flash Game, SMARTBoard
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WIth the 4th of July right around the corner I thought I’d share a fun Flash Game, American Jigsaw Puzzle, that works well with the SMARTBoard. You simply press play and move/drag the puzzle pieces to put it back to together! Great for eye/hand coordination- ENJOY!
Our Poetry Reading June 13, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, Notebook 10, Our Classroom.Tags: Notebook 10, Poetry, SMARTBoard
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We had our poetry reading this afternoon and it was WONDERFUL! I was so proud of each and every student. Many parents were in attendance, as were administrators and fellow teachers. It is a true honor to be the teacher of these very talented, dedicated students. As we presented and read their poems, I was reminded of the positive attitude, love of learning and determinationn each of these students possess everyday they enter the classroom. It is heart warming and refreshing. Naturally pictures were taken, so I have created a short video of the event, using Rock You. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us, thanks to Ms. Dee and Ms. Ruth for always giving 110% to make our classroom the best it can be and a special thanks to each of my students who make my heart smile every day!
Poetry Splatter June 12, 2008
Posted by anne marie in ELA, SMART Board, Websites.Tags: Interactive, Poetry, SMARTBoard
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I have been getting ready for our big Poetry Reading Event tomorrow (very exciting!!)and realized I neglected to post a fun poetry website called Poetry Splatter. Have some fun creating silly poems! Just choose a poem title from the list- categorized by age group (limited to 2 to 4 poems in each of the 4 sections). You fill in the blanks with words that are splattered onto the screen. It is interactive and works well with the SMARTBoard. The words are color coded to indicate verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs and correspond to the color coded blank spaces in the poem sentences. This is a great feature for non-readers since they can still independently participate by following directions using color identification.-YEAH! When the sentences are completed a poem has been created which you can then print! You need to have the Flash plug-in installed on your computer to view this site. So get out your color palette and brushes and have some colorful poetry fun!
BasketMath Interactive June 3, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Math, SMART Board, Websites.Tags: interactive math game, SMARTBoard
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In honor of the Boston Celtics making it to the NBA Finals- the first time in 21 years- I want to share a fun math site for every “wanna-be” pro basketall player!
BasketMath Interactive is a fun site to review/practice a variety of math skills. We use it with the SMARTBoard, using the Notebook calculator and keyboard to review addition and subtraction math problems. There are several options listed in the table of contents ranging from writing numbers to exponents. When the answer is correct the player shoots and sinks a basket! An added plus is that it gives the option to play the game in Spanish.
ENJOY- and here’s to hoping the Celtics go all the way this year!!!!
Penlight to Help Support Independence May 21, 2008
Posted by anne marie in General, SMART Board, Special Education.Tags: Penlight, SMARTBoard, Special Education
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Often when I am teaching a lesson with the SMARTBoard my students may require some extra support to complete an activity or follow a verbal request. Initially whenever a student was encountering difficulty I found myself gravitating to the SMARTBoard to assist and perhaps, in some instances, giving more assistance than might be required. So in comes the penlight to the rescue! The penlight allows me to highlight specific words, pictures, (perfect for counting activities), etc. on the SMARTBoard to give enough support for students to successfully complete a request without me being with them at the SMARTBoard. This technique helps to eliminate my temptation to give too much support–YEAH! It has definitely increased the indepedent interaction on the SMARTBoard for my students. When reading passages on the SMARTBoard I am now regularly using the penlight to highlight the words we are reading– just another support that has been beneficial.
Penlights are relatively inexpensive (starting at $15) and, in my opinion, well worth the investment! Just remember that the less expensive penlights may not be as powerful and may limit the distance you can be from the SMARTBoard to be seen. So as my students say “Follow the red light”!
Adapted Books May 15, 2008
Posted by anne marie in SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Adapted books, Boardmaker, PowerPoint, SMARTBoard, Writing with Symbols
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I’m always creating and using adapted books with my students, so needless to say when I came across the NYCDOE website that offers several pre-made adapted books in several formats, including PP, which works great on the SMARTBoard, I started to do the teacher happy dance!!
“These are adapted books and materials created with Boardmaker picture symbols, Writing with Symbols, and MS PowerPoint software. You must have Boardmaker and/or Writing with Symbols software installed on your computer to view or open those files.Many books have been converted to Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format as well. “
Click on the “complete catalog” link to see an alphabetized listing of the available books or the “catalog by level” link to view the books according to reading level. Explore and enjoy this great resource!
BrainPop discount May 15, 2008
Posted by anne marie in General, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Brainpop, SMARTBoard, Videos
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A colleague informed me that as part of a Teacher Appreciation promotion, Brainpop is offering a 25% discount on all classroom subscriptionsuntil May 30th.
“We’re pleased to offer a 25 percent discount on all Classroom Subscriptions(formerly called Teacher Subscriptions) to BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr. and BrainPOP Español purchased between now and May 31, 2008.
You’re eligible for the discount whether you want to renew an existing Classroom Subscription or subscribe for the first time. Please note that this offer can’t be combined with any others and is only valid on Classroom Subscriptions.”
So if you are thinking of purchasing a subscription or need to renew one, this may be the time to do it!
Color In Motion May 14, 2008
Posted by anne marie in SMART Board, Websites, art.Tags: art, colors, SMARTBoard
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Wanted to share this wonderfully colorful website called Color In Motion.
“An Animated and Interactive Experience of Color Communication and Color Symbolism.”
My students love this site, especially the movies and the kaleidoscope activity in the lab. It’s a fun, out of the box kind of site, I use to review colors. It’s very engaging visually, with cool sound affects/music and is awesome to watch on the SMARTBoard, which all adds up to an A!!
Animoto: Education April 28, 2008
Posted by anne marie in SMART Board, Websites.Tags: Animoto, SMARTBoard, video
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Fun, creative, motivating, exciting…. all words that help describe Animoto: Education. I learned about Animoto Friday (Chris shared an Animoto video on his Blog that he created of his trip to the zoo with his daughter) so I ventured to the Animoto site to check it out and learned about Animoto: Education. I immediately emailed Rebecca Brookes at Animoto: Education to receive a FREE All Access Code for my classroom (which arrived that same day) and voila… today at school we were having FUN making an Animoto video on parallel and intersecting lines (students ventured around the school with the digital camera to take pix). It was a great collaborative project that was overflowing with LEARNING!! Exactly what makes a teacher smile! I should also note that students’ Animoto videos can be downloaded to your desktop which is a huge plus since then you’re not dependent on an internet connection and will not experience blocking issues that some school districts encounter. I noticed that Jim Hollis also spoke about Animoto: Education today in his Blog– great minds think alike!! Guess that truly means Animoto: Education gets two thumbs up!! And as Jim mentioned the SMARTBoard is the perfect tool to both display and create the videos.
Symbol World April 24, 2008
Posted by anne marie in Autism, SMART Board, Special Education, Websites.Tags: Autism, SMARTBoard, Special Education, Symbol World
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“SymbolWorld is a website created by Widgit Software, dedicated to people who use symbols. It has material for all ages and includes personal contributions, stories and learning materials.” Symbol World has 4 main sections- My World, Stories, Learning and eLive.
“eLive is an on-line magazine within SymbolWorld especially for older readers.”
Symbol World is speech enabled with Browsealoud- you download Browsealoud and then hover over the symbols to have the words read. How cool!!
I have been a huge fan of this website and use in my classroom quite often for two very important reasons: 1. it saves me LOTS of time in preparing lessons that incorporate symbols (they do the work for me, for which I am very grateful!) and 2. the site is very user friendly and it is ALL FREE!! It also is great to use with the SMART Board. I would mention that because the site does not originate in the US some of the words that are coupled with the symbols are spelt differently. It definitely is worth a visit to this amazing site!
