Dec
8
The Space Place “Live” – Web Review
December 8, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
Greetings-
Here is a site that I have been meaning to review for awhile now, but with the craziness that is a school year it has been put off until now. This “gem” of a site was located this summer while I was on the NASA website learning about the local meteor shower show we were to have in NW Ohio. While there I started searching around to see what sort of resources that NASA provided for students when I came upon The Space Place “Live” Web Show.
“The Space Place was started in February 1998 as an education and public outreach project of NASA’s New Millennium Program, which continues to be its primary supporter. Its target audience is elementary-school-age kids. We wanted to reach this young audience with the message that science and technology and learning about space are fun and within their grasp. We designed it with a kid-friendly “by kids, for kids” look and feel. It is modular, so visitors can pick and choose different standalone projects or activities that interest them at the moment.”
Within the Space Place home page (which is very thorough and fun in its own right) is the Animated Space Place Live Web Show which takes on a Talk Show “feel” with Kate (playing Ed McMahon) and Kyo (doing his best Johnny Carson) interviewing and chatting it up with multiple real NASA scientists and engineers and the work they do on cool Space and Earth Missions. (Click on the Screen Shots below to watch the episode.)
In the episode shown above and below for the following post, the hosts are interviewing Mr. Don Burnett, who is the principal investigator for the Genesis Misson. The Genesis Mission was a NASA directed mission that was able to collect Solar Wind from the Sun to help learn how our Solar System was formed.
Each episode is well scripted and has the option of being Closed Captioned as well to follow along with the discussion. There is an option even for the teacher to print out the complete transcript for their students if so needed.
The interview with Mr. Burnett is 1 of 9 great episodes that is housed here at the Space Place Live. I would not see these episodes as lessons by themselves, but rather a good extension for some 4-8 Science & Space lessons.
As with all of the posts that will be listed on this Blog, the site above is listed and categorized within the Moodle Companion Site. At the end of each post I will be listing exactly where to find this resource within the Moodle Companion Site.
{Box 15 – Teacher Resources} ~ {Kindergarten – 5th Grade Resources}
Space Place Live – Interview Animations from NASA
Please share your experiences with this resource in your own classroom with all of us in the comments section!
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
Dec
3
VectorKids Web Review
December 3, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
Greetings-
Taking a look at a site called VectorKids that was found on a hunt for online, interactive Flash Cards for my 1st graders to work on their addition facts. Although the flash cards are a huge plus for this site, the rest of the site is just as engaging and fun for kids of multiple ages.
On their About page it states, “Vectorkids believes in enhancing education through technology. Our content is designed for elementary and middle school students. However, it is fun for all ages.”
Here are a few highlights/games from the site that I found that were pretty entertaining.
Divisibility Rules practice for the older students is one item that I have heard from higher grade level teachers that are sometimes lost on the students. This is a way to hone in on these skills.
Below is a screen shot of the State Capitols game…
In this Interactive version of the game you click on a particular state and are given three choices as to what the capitals are. A good refresher for the older student.
Here is a Fractions Review below:
In this version, the students will look at a pie that is cut into different sections each time and will need to type in the numerator and denominator for each problem. I have even done this with my 1st graders at the end of our school year and they are sometimes ready to grasp hold of this concept.
Finally here is the screen shots of the Addition Flash Cards I used with my class in the computer lab for the 2nd part of their 1st grade year.
All you need to do is choose which operation and number set you want to work on for the children and then they will be timed for 60 seconds to see how many problems they can answer. There are also Multiplication and Division sets of these for the older grades as well.
Overall I am impressed with the feel and look of the activities on this site. Plus it passes the “keeping the students interested while they are learning” test as well. I am always on the search for the rare games that help the children and keep them from boredom at the same time.
As with all of the posts that will be listed on this Blog, the site above is listed and categorized within the Moodle Companion Site. At the end of each post I will be listing exactly where to find this resource within the Moodle Companion Site.
{Box 15 – Teacher Resources} ~ {Kindergarten – 5th Grade Resources}
VectorKids – Interactive Learning Site
Please share your experiences with this resource in your own classroom with all of us in the comments section!
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
Dec
2
Smart Board Tutorial #4 – Using SWF Files
December 2, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
Greetings-
Today I am posting the 4th tutorial involving the best practices and implementations of Smart Board usage in my 1st grade classroom. Today’s tutorial discusses the ability to effectively use the “whole” area of the Smart Board to preview and play Shockwave File games that may be on a website that has lots of distracting ads and other “bells & whistles” that may distract a student’s mind from the game.
If anyone reading this blog has an idea/”how to” question dealing with Notebook Software Lesson Development, please email me at blingle78@gmail.com.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
Nov
30
Everyday Mathematics – Unit 3 – Patterns
November 30, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
Greetings-
Just put the finishing touches on Unit 3 – Visual Patterns, Number Patterns and Counting and it is ready for downloading at my Shared Box.Net folder. I am finding out as I go along with these “All-in-One” Notebook File lessons for each unit, what works really well with the kids (i.e. Good internal linking for less downtime) and what does not work as well (daily visiting to Temp., Weather, Days in School becomes tedious). I would be really interested in any thoughts from those of you who have used the first two units with students and any successes or failures that you have had with these files.
Some key highlights for this unit include some of the following:
This unit I took the Math Journal pages from the ITLG (Interactive Teacher’s Lesson Guide) and instead of linking to each individual .pdf file for each Math Journal page, I took a screen shot of each page and linked within the Notebook File.
Above is the lesson page for Lesson 3.1 and below is the Internal Link to “Extending Pattern, Math Journal p. 28.” Notice the arrow in the top right-hand corner of the page, this is your internal link back to your Lesson 3.1 page again.
In Unit 3 you begin your discussion about the Frames-and-Arrows routine with the students, and I have noticed this year that the Smart Board is helping the children tremendously with their understanding of what they are being asked to do during this routine. Below is a couple of screen shots of some example sheets I created dealing with Frames-and-Arrows.
Good introductory page for the students to see is posted above. Below is a practice page for the students to see how Frames-and-Arrows work.
Also in Unit 3 you are introduced to a couple of new Everyday Mathematics Games that the students can play in groups or partnerships to help build their confidence in their growing math abilities.
Coin-Dice “Throwdown” is a simple game to practice the exchanging of coins for one another.
Dime-Nickel-Penny Grab is a game where the children are asked to start adding collections of coins together. Below is a screen shot of the lesson where you have students use dominoes to talk about two parts are needed to create a total number in an addition problem.
One last bonus to Unit 3 was I was able to utilize my BrainPop Jr. subscription when we got to Lesson 3.2 (Even and Odd Numbers). There is a nice little video talking to the students about the difference between these types of numbers.
If you have any questions as to how to work with this particular file, please feel free to contact me.
When I post lessons like this one and in the future I will be then posting the lessons onto my Box.net Share folder that is located at this Box.Net Link and is conveniently placed at the top right hand side of this blog.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
Nov
25
Professor Garfield Web Review
November 25, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
Greetings-
Looking at getting back into some reviews of sites that I have found helpful with my curriculum in school years current and past. Today’s post is taking a look at a site that was discovered by pure accident three years ago while surfing the web for information about a Pearson Digital Learning product called Knowledge Box.
Professor Garfield’s website is a partnership between Paws, Inc., the world headquarters of Garfield the Cat, and Ball State University, one of the preeminent educators of classroom teachers in the world. The site’s About Page states, “The Professor Garfield Foundation learning portal is a fun interactive online environment where children can safely explore, learn and creatively express themselves. The Foundation (PGF) was formed in 2003 as a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization to provide children, parents, and teachers an opportunity to enhance and support classroom learning in new and innovative ways.”
Here is a screen shot of the Home Page below:
The home page is attractive to the eyes and has many places for children of all ages to visit. I am showing just a couple of areas that I have experienced first hand, but I am sure that the rest of the areas on the site are just as engaging as the ones I will preview.
The first area that I usually let the 1st graders experience on the first trip to the site is get to know the man behind the Garfield Comics, Jim Davis, in the Art Bot area. Within this area, Mr. Davis talks about his own journey into being a cartoonist and then gives the children pointers on becoming their own personal cartoonist through some video tutorial “How-To’s.”
Another section of the site that the students frequent quite often is the Toon Book Reader area. Inside here is a library of storybooks that have been uploaded and scanned into the site with narration voice-overs. The children like to have the stories read to them at the beginning of the school year, but I am amazed at the growth they make in the same year and they pull me over at the end of the year to read to me.
“Benny and Penny”
The last area that I am going to preview with you today is the hands down favorite of the last three year’s of students that I have had. “The Reading Ring” takes the fun of reading that we all naturally know exists, but brings in the fun of animated wrestling on top of that.
The premise of the “Reading Ring” challenge is that you take on the Evil Dr. Stripp “Scrambler Supreme”, who jobs is to take Garfield comic strips and scramble them up. You will need to read the strip and place it in the correct order in the area above the strip (see below).
After getting the strip in the correct order you will then be asked a series of comprehension questions pertaining to the Comic. Try to get as many correct as possible to win each round versus Dr. Stripp.
As I said above in the post, there are many, many more areas that are worth visiting and looking through for all aged students, that I have recommended the site to all of my K-5 colleagues.
As with all of the posts that will be listed on this Blog, the site above is listed and categorized within the Moodle Companion Site. At the end of each post I will be listing exactly where to find this resource within the Moodle Companion Site.
{Box 9 – Language Arts Resources} ~ {Kindergarten – 5th Grade Resources}
Professor Garfield – Reading Based Skills
Please share your experiences with this resource in your own classroom with all of us in the comments section!
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
Nov
21
Smart Board Tutorial #3 – Linking Within Notebook
November 21, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
Greetings-
Attaching my Jing Screencast to this post that will discuss the ways to attach/link within Notebook Files to make navigation easier on yourself as a teacher.
I found out the hard way when I first began making multi-page Notebook Files that it was in the best interest of the lesson to not continuously be manually clicking back and forth between your Notebook pages. This was especially crucial for me as a 1st Grade teacher, because down-time is the enemy of teachers of 6-7 year olds.
So when I started building my Everyday Mathematics Unit Lessons, I wanted a way to navigate through the lesson seamlessly and know exactly where I wanted to go within my daily lessons. That is where the concept of a Table of Contents page came to mind for each lesson in the unit. I could then link to each lesson through the text in the T.O.C.
So below is a short introduction on how to do this so you can begin to create a more smooth lesson with less down-time for your students.
If anyone reading this blog has an idea/”how to” question dealing with Notebook Software Lesson Development, please email me at blingle78@gmail.com.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
