Search Results for “childrens university of manchester”

The Children’s University of Manchester

April 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1974 views

What it is: The Children’s University of Manchester is a site created by the University of Manchester that has some excellent mini-lessons and interactive lessons for students on a variety of science, history, literacy, and art topics. Topics include the body and medicines, energy and the environment, ancient Egypt, the earth and beyond, teeth and eating, micro organisms, the brain and senses, talking textiles, and words. Each lesson is like an interactive text book where students are engaged in and discover learning. Each lesson includes an interactive lesson, downloadable resources, educational games, and videos. The level of interaction is outstanding for helping students to learn about each topic.

How to integrate The Children’s University of Manchester into the classroom: The interactive lessons on this site are perfect for instructing whole class using an interactive whiteboard. During the interactive lesson, students can be called on to interact with the material. Most lessons will have enough opportunities to involve the whole class. The site is also ideal for individual instruction in the computer lab setting. Introduce students to a new topic with these mini lessons, videos, and educational games that can be expanded on as part of a larger unit. These mini-lessons begin with a bio of a scientist, historian, etc. in the field of the topic. Read these bio’s together as a class and discuss these real-world applications to the topic being studied.

Tips: Computers will need Flash installed to display The Children’s University of Manchester lessons, games, and interactive activities.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Children’s University of Manchester in your classroom.

The Adjective Detective

April 16, 2010Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4499 views

What it is: The Adjective Detective is a fun way for your students to learn more about adjectives, superlative adjectives, and comparative adjectives. This interactive learning module, game, and quiz comes from the Children’s University of Manchester site (I have written about it before here). Last week I was searching high and low for some good adjective interactives for my students and was pleasantly surprised to rediscover this one. I knew if the activity had fallen off of my radar, chances were that others had forgotten it, too. The Adjective Detecive offers students a in-depth, interactive mini lesson on adjectives, superlative adjectives, and comparative adjectives. After students work their way through the lessons, they can play an adjective game as a detective. They must hunt down adjectives in the sentence by clicking on it with their magnifying glass. Students recieve immediate feedback on their answer. When they are finished playing the game, students can answer multiple choice questions about adjectives in an online quiz.

How to integrate Adjective Detective into the classroom: Use the Adjective Detective mini-lessons to teach your whole class about adjectives. Put the site up on your interactive whiteboard or projector and discuss the different kinds of adjectives with your students. The site could also be used for self guided learning (I am personally a big advocate of this!) as a computer center in the classroom or individually in the lab setting. After students complete the mini lessons, encourage them to play the adjective detective game. In my classroom I want students to enter the spirit of play and have a few detective hats, magnifying glasses, and mini notebooks. Students can play “detective”, hunting down adjectives in sentences. On the interactive whiteboard, the student at the board can find an adjective that the rest of the class writes down as an adjective clue in their notebooks. Then we pass the detective job onto the next student, until all of the adjectives in the game have been discovered. You could alternatively send students to the classroom computers as a grammar center where the students become “detectives” and jot down their adjective clues while they are at the center. The multiple choice quiz lends itself nicely to assessing understanding with clickers (student response systems). The quiz can also be taken individually on the classroom computers. I like learning sites, like this, that allow students to work through learning at their own pace and offer immediate feedback so that students can monitor their own understanding.

Tips: Check out the rest of the Children’s University of Manchester website for other good interative lessons.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Adjective Detective in your classroom.