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iboard: How Far Away do You Live?

What it is: iboard’s How Far Away Do You Live? is an excellent interactive activity for the interactive whiteboard or for use with a projector.  Students create labels with their names and pin them on a graphic chart to depict how close they live to the school.  Students can also add places to the graphic such as restaurants and stores.  This is a great way to begin discussions about distance and introduce some new math language.  When students have finished placing themselves on the graphic, they can compare the results on a block graph. How to integrate iboard: How Far Away Do You Live? into the classroom: How Far Away Do You Live? is a neat interactive to teach students math language about distance, how to read a graph, and how to describe objects in relation to each other.  Begin by defining what it means to live close to the school.  What does it mean to be “very close” is that one block away, around the corner, less than a mile, a 5 minute walk, closer than the shop on the corner?  Define what each distance will mean on your chart.  Then, invite students to the board to add a sticky note where they think their house falls on the chart.  After everyone has been added to the chart ask questions such as: “Who lives closest to the school?” and “Who is the furthest away?”  Finish by looking at the block graph and discussing how many students fall into each category.  This is a great way to teach your students to create and read informational charts and graphs. Tips: iboard has a variety of activities for the interactive whiteboard that can be purchased. How Far Away Do You Live? is one of their freebie samples. Leave a comment and share how you are using iboard: How Far Away Do You Live? in your classroom.

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School House Rock

Posted by admin | Posted in Fun & Games, History, Interactive Whiteboard, Language Arts, Math, Primary Elementary, Science, Secondary Elementary, Teacher Resources, Websites | Posted on 27-05-2008

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What it is: Remember how outstanding School House Rock was? I know as soon as you read the title of this post Conjunction Junction popped into your head and all those great grammar rules came flooding back. Well now your kids can benefit from the School House Rock videos and lyrics. Sqool Tools has gathered links to all of the School House Rock videos on America, grammar, science, money, and multiplication in one place and posted the lyrics to accompany each video. How sweet is that?!

How to integrate School House Rock into the classroom: School House Rock is such a classic. My fifth grade students had a blast going through and watching these videos…I can still hear them singing them in the halls! These videos are a great way to introduce or reinforce a concept. You can also encourage students to create their own School House Rock type songs and videos. They will come up with some really great jingles to teach math and science concepts.

Tips: Now for the downside…these School House Rock videos are hosted on You Tube which is blocked by most schools. But, not to worry, I have a solution for you (it may require slightly more planning on your part): Check out Tech Crunch. Here you can type in a You Tube video URL and Tech Crunch will download it to your computer. Save to a flash drive or CD at home and use the video in class the next day.

Leave a comment and share how School House Rock is rocking your classroom.

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