Grammaropolis: Personified Parts of Speech

What it is:  Grammaropolis is a site I have long been a fan of.  I’ve written about it in the past in these posts Grammaropolis recently got a significant upgrade with TONS of new, great features.  The site now includes character descriptions for nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections.  In addition to the great descriptions, each character includes a song, videos, book, games and, soon, quizzes.  Not all of this content is free, but there is enough free content to be useful in every classroom no matter the budget.  All of the content associated with the Noun character is free.  Every other character includes the character description and book for free.  The music, videos, quizzes and games are “extras” that are available by subscription.  You can get your classroom a Grammaropolis passport to access all of the content including the ability to follow and track your students progress within Grammaropolis.

How to integrate Grammaropolis into the classroom:  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Grammaropolis approach to the parts of speech is completely brilliant!  I love the way Grammaropolis gives the different parts of speech a “face” and an attitude.  For those of us who learn through story, Grammaropolis gives us a unique connection to the parts of speech.  The books and videos are fabulous.  They are extremely well done, and take the characters a step further by dropping them into a story.
The characters interact true to their characteristics.  For example, in the “Noun Places” video, Noun sits looking through a photo album of places.  As he flips the pages, he names the places.  “Antarctica,” he says.  Adjective, who is sitting next to Noun, exclaims, “beautiful!”  Verb agrees, “very.”  The videos and books are so well thought out and really demonstrate to students how the parts of speech are used.  So smart!
Grammaropolis can be used as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer.  Learn about, and explore, the different parts of speech as a class.  Choose a new part of speech character each week and encourage students to spot the part of speech character in their own writing with a colored pencil or marker that matches the character color.  Books can be read as a class on the big screen.  Each book begins with the cast of characters with a short description of each part of speech.  As you read together, discuss the way that the part of speech characteristics are revealed by their interactions with other characters.  The same can be done with the videos!
Students can play the games on classroom computers as a center, or on individual computers in a lab or 1:1 setting.  After your students familiarize themselves with the parts of speech characters, they can write their own creative stories featuring the characters.  This is great for older students!  Students will have to remember that the characters have to act in ways that are true to their nature.
Tips:  There are a few different options for a Grammaropolis subscription, the options are very reasonably priced.  Grammaropolis also has a brand new store that has some fun grammar shwag.  If you have an iDevice, check out the Grammaropolis app!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Grammaropolis in  your classroom!

BrainNook: Virtual Learning World for Elementary Students

What it is: BrainNook is a virtual world for kids where they can develop math and English skills while playing in the free online playground.  There are over a hundred education games packed into the BrainNook virtual world, all of them are based on foundational math, English, and grammar concepts.  The math games cover concepts from single digit addition to 3D spatial visualization.  English games cover everything from building simple sentences to counting syllables.  The games are all woven into a fun virtual world that students can explore and unlock.  BrainNook also strengthens students reading, reasoning, decision-making skills, analysis, and computer literacy.  Students choose a character (alien) and name, when they enter BrainNook for the first time, they are dropped onto Earth where their spaceship has crashed. They are greeted by an earthling named Bella who teaches them how to navigate the world, and earn stars by playing games. The stars that are earned can be used to buy back spaceship parts.   Students can travel to several locations within the virtual world that are based on real-life regions of the Earth  Students learn about each region through trivia, question popups, and local artifacts. In each world students can play math and English games with other players in the safe online environment. As they build up their skills, new worlds will be unlocked and they can buy items from the local market or work on assembling their spaceship by assembling puzzles.  The games in BrainNook are scaffolded so it adjusts to students ability level as they progress.  Games can be played individually or in head-to-head competition. Because this site is geared toward elementary students, no personal information or personal messages are included in the virtual world.

How to integrate BrainNook into the classroom: BrainNook is a brilliant virtual world for elementary students in first through fifth grade.  The virtual world allows students to learn and practice math and English skills at their own pace, and at their own unique level.  The games are great for building and reinforcing foundational learning skills.  Because the game progresses as students do, students could continue on in their virtual world throughout their elementary school experience.  BrainNook is ideal as a computer lab activity or in a 1 to 1 situation.  If you don’t have time to use BrainNook as a virtual world for each student, consider signing up for an account yourself that can be used as a class account.  Review the games that match up with skills students are learning in class and have the whole class play the games using an interactive whiteboard or on classroom computers as a center.  Make sure to tell parents about BrainNook, this is a fun way for students to get extra math and grammar practice at home.

Tips: If students sign up for an individual account, they will need a parent’s email address validated before play.  BrainNook also has a school account option that you can learn about here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using BrainNook in your classroom.

I have/Who has Free Language Game Downloads

What it is: Lakeshore is an educational store here in the states.  Today they posted links to some free language game downloads for 1st-6th grade.  The downloads are for an I have/Who has card game. For grades 1-2 you will find a beginning sounds game, for 3-4 a fact and opinion game, and for 5-6 a parts of speech game.

How to integrate I have/ Who has into your curriculum: The I have/Who has card games are a fun way for students to practice a skill as a whole class.  Students sit or stand in a circle.  One student begins by reading the statement on their card.  For example, one student might read “I have: Candy tastes sweet.  Who has an opinion about birds.”  The student whose card has an opinion statement about birds answers “I have: Flamingos are the prettiest bird. Who has a fact about exercise?”  Play continues until all the cards have been matched.  I like the I have/Who has games because they require every student to be actively listening and involved in game play.  The game also gives opportunity for the class to discuss why an answer is correct or incorrect.

Tips: If you are looking for another I have/Who has card game, check out my Contractions game here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the I have/Who has Free Language Games in your classroom!

Grammaropolis

Picture 1

What it is: Grammaropolis is a fun find that helps students learn the parts of speech.  In Grammaropolis, all of the characters are a different part of speech.  Students will “meet” Adverb, Linking Verb, Pronoun, Adjective, Preposition, Slang, Noun, Conjunction, Interjection, and Action Verb.  Each character is personified with personalities inspired by their grammatical roles in a sentence.  The characters interact with each other the same way that parts of speech interact in a sentence, brilliant!  Each character has a character card that tells a story about them.  Students can watch short Grammaropolis videos starring the characters (parts of speech) that live there.  Students can take Grammaropolis quizzes, complete word sorts, and color the characters of Grammaropolis in an online coloring book in the games section.  Students will enjoy the fun Grammaropolis song featuring all of the characters of Grammaropolis.  Coming soon, students will be able to read a book series starring the Grammaropolis characters.  

How to integrate Grammaropolis into the classroom: Visual learners will absolutely love this site that personifies the parts of speech.  All learners will appreciate the stories about the parts of speech.  We learn best through story.  Story gives us a framework for our understanding of new concepts and helps us to use those new concepts.  Grammar is often a subject that is taught purely through memorization of rules and drill and skill exercises.  This makes it difficult for students to really understand grammar.  Grammaropolis is an excellent solution to this problem.  Use the Grammaropolis character cards to introduce students to new parts of speech.  Watch the videos and listen to the song as a class to delve deeper into the character traits that each part of speech has.  The books on Grammaropolis are coming soon, while students await these, why not encourage your students to write their own stories that include the characters of Grammaropolis?  Do you have older students that could use a parts of speech refresher? Have them create stories using the characters for younger students.   The characters have already been developed for them!  Print out the character cards and post them around the classroom.  This will help your visual learners, when you talk about “Pronoun” they will be able to associate it with a character and story.  Set up the Grammaropolis games on classroom computers as a literacy center that students can visit to practice their understanding of the parts of speech.

Tips: Grammaropolis is currently holding a contest.  Helping Verb is lost, students can draw what they think Helping Verb should look like.  Submissions will be accepted until March 31, 2010 (so start this contest with your students today!).  Five finalists will be posted on the Grammaropolis blog on April 7 with a winner announced April 22.  The winner will recieve a gift pack, there character drawn by a professional and added to the Grammaropolis team, and receive a 20″x30″ poster featuring their character singed by the Powerhouse animators that make the Grammaropolis videos.  The winning character will debut in Action Verb’s book in the book series.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Grammaropolis in your classroom.

Telescopic Text

 

What it is:   Telescopic Text is a very simple website that could be very handy in the language arts classroom.  The site starts off with a very simple sentence: I made tea.  Each time you click on a word, the sentence expands adding adjectives, adverbs, and makes the sentence more interesting.

How to integrate Telescopic Text into the classroom:  Use Telescopic Text to teach your students about creative, descriptive writing and how to improve writing with descriptive words.  Compare and contrast what students knew about the sentence “I made tea.” at the beginning and how each addition of words helped them understand more about the original statement.  This can be done as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or a computer with a projector.  Students can take turns clicking on words to expand the statement with discussion after each addition.  This is a great exercise to use before writing.  Have the students write their own simple sentence and expand it into a story with the addition of descriptive words.  

 

Tips:  The highlighted words are those that can be expanded by clicking.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Telescopic Text in your classroom.

Shahi

 

What it is:  Shahi is a mashup of Wiktionary (a Wikipedia type dictionary) and Flickr.  This visual dictionary is a great way for students to look up definitions and get a visual representation of the word.  Students can choose for the images to come from Flickr, Google, or Yahoo.  I find the most reliable image results come from Flickr.

How to integrate Shahi into the classroom: Shahi is a neat mashup of two tools.  Having a visual dictionary is great for every student but especially useful for your visual learners.  Beyond using Shahi as a dictionary, this is a perfect site for teaching your students the parts of speech.  Because pictures acompany the definitions, students can “see” that a verb is an action word.  Use Shahi as the base for a part of speech game with the whole class and a projector.  Choose a word from reading, spelling, etc. and have students ‘guess’ the part of speech based on the pictures.  This is a great way for students to learn the parts of speech through inquiry and problem solving.  Shahi would also be a useful tool for ESL or ELL students.  Bookmark Shahi on your classroom computers as a resource during reading/writing time.  Look up a spelling word on Shahi and have students journal about one of the accompanying pictures.  This site could be very useful for writing prompts.  Shahi would also be wonderful in the science classroom, students can look up difficult words or concepts and immediately have a good visual representation to aid in understanding.  In the geography classroom, students could search places and get a  collection of images that will provide them with additional insight into the place.  Cool!

 

Tips:  I learned about this site from activeducator  on Twitter.  If you haven’t yet, sign up for Twitter today, it is a great way to network and learn about education (or anything you are interested in).  Don’t forget to add me as a friend, ktenkely!  A word of warning with this site: sometimes images will be inappropriate on this site because of the tags people put on their pictures in Flickr.  For example “berry” brings pictures of fruit berries but also scantily dressed women named “Berry”.  For elementary students, pre-search words you will be using with the class for appropriateness. 

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Shahi  in your classroom.

Crick Web Literacy Resources

 

 

What it is:   Crick Web Literacy Resource is an excellent collection of interactive games for language development and practice in students.  The resources are excellent for individual student play, literacy group student play, or whole classroom play with an interactive white board.   Games include hangman, alphabetical order, collective nouns, compound words, sticky letters, matching pairs, street scene labels, seaside postcard, spelling checker, story sequencer, instruction sequencer, verb links, word dice, spelling word tester and word selector.  Yes, it is a treasure trove of literacy activities!

 

How to integrate Crick Web Literacy Resources into the classroom:  The Crick Web Resources can be easily integrated into your current literacy curriculum as an enrichment.  The activities fit right along side lessons you are already teaching but make them interactive for students.  I really like the Word Dice activity because students (or teacher) can add their own words to the dice to roll them.  The dice would be great for teaching nouns and adjectives (or any part of speech) on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector.  The dice are also outstanding for playing games unique to your classroom (maybe one that you created!)  The Sticky letters lets students create their own word wall or can be used with a projector for a class word wall.  I was also very impressed with the Spelling Rule Tester which helps students learn the rule for making singular nouns plural.  Students can input their own singular nouns and type what they think the plural is and then click on the tester to see if they are correct.  Take a look at the activities and see how they fit into your curriculum… my guess is that you will find at least one keeper in the group!

 

Tips:  If the Crick Web Literacy Resources look too difficult for your students, click on the Key Stage 1 tab at the top of the site for additional resources for younger students.

 

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Crick Web Literacy Resources in your classroom.

Wacky Web Tales

 

What it is: Wacky Web Tales are online mad libs for third grade and up.

How to integrate Wacky Web Tales into your classroom: As you are teaching parts of speech, use the Wacky Web Tales website as a place for students to practice and play with different parts of speech. Students can each create a Wacky Web Tale and share with other students. Students can also visit the Parts of Speech help for definitions and examples of each part of speech. This would be a great learning activity- students could use the Parts of Speech help to learn the definitions of different parts of speech. It is also a great practice website. Complete Wacky Web Tales individually or as a whole class using a projector.

Tips: Check the Wacky Web Tales website monthly for new tales.