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Explore Butterflies

What it is: Explore Butterflies is a neat interactive site where students can explore and learn about butterflies.  Students can test their butterfly smarts, build a butterfly habitat, observe butterflies in a virtual field observation, and learn about butterflies and climate change.  This collection of activities, quizzes, and games, is a fun way for students to learn all about butterflies. How to integrate Explore Butterflies into the classroom: If butterflies are part of your science curriculum, this site it a must see.  The site teaches all about butterflies and encourages student interaction.  This would make an excellent science center, or activity for students to complete in a computer lab setting.  Because of the way the site is set up, it would also be a great site to use with an interactive whiteboard and student response system (clickers). Tips: The reading on this site may be challenging for younger students.  This would be a good activity for younger students to complete with older buddies in a computer lab. Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Explore Butterflies in your classroom.

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Big Huge Thesaurus

Posted by admin | Posted in Language Arts, Middle/High School, Primary Elementary, Secondary Elementary, Teacher Resources, Websites, inspiration, web tools | Posted on 23-11-2009

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What it is: Big Huge Thesaurus is a must add to your classroom publishing center.  The tag line of Big Huge Thesaurus says it all: “synonyms, antonyms, and rhymes (oh my!)”.  Big Huge Thesaurus goes beyond other online thesauruses by giving students a wealth of synonyms (for each part of speech), words that sound like the original word, and rhyming words.  When students find a word that they are curious about, they can click the link and it will send that word through the Big Huge Thesaurus.


How to integrate Big Huge Thesaurus into the classroom: If you have classroom computers, set up a writing/publishing center where students have all the resources they need to write.  Big Huge Thesaurus should be one of those resources.  Students can visit the writing center to add richness and interest to their stories, poems, and other writing.  This Thesaurus does an excellent job of breaking down words.  Use Big Huge Thesaurus on an interactive whiteboard or projector when learning new vocabulary.  Type in the vocabulary word and have students construct its meaning using the synonyms that are generated. 


Tips: I learned about Big Huge Thesaurus on Twitter this morning from several of my PLN. If you aren’t on Twitter with other educators, I highly recommend joining and following the fine folks I follow!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Big Huge Thesaurus  in your classroom.

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