Nasa Interactive Timeline

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What it is: Nasa has hundreds of great online tools for the classroom, their Interactive Timeline is the one of the most impressive.  The multimedia timeline begins in 500BC and follows the search for extrasolar planets to modern discoveries.  Students can “autoplay” the timeline for a journey through the history of space discovery or explore at their own pace.  Students can search the timeline by key milestones, technology, discoveries, or by thought and culture.


How to integrate Nasa Interactive Timeline into the classroom: The Nasa Interactive Timeline is a great way to teach students about the history of space discovery and thought.  Students can gain an understanding about historical figures, key events, and key discoveries.  At any point, the timeline can be paused for discussion.  Nasa’s Interactive Timeline would be well used as an introduction or anticipatory set for further exploration.  View the timeline on autoplay as a class using a projector or interactive whiteboard, or allow students to explore the timeline on their own during center time on classroom computers or individually during lab time.  Assign students a key historical figure or time period to learn more about.  Students can present their findings to the class when their time period or figure comes up on the timeline.


Tips: The Interactive Timeline gives basic information. Encourage your students to find additional resources and information about each event, historical figure, or time period.


Leave a comment and share how you are using Nasa Interactive Timeline in your classroom.

Math Snacks


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What it is: Math Snacks is my new favorite teaching resource for math!  Math Snacks are animated videos and games that help students understand math concepts.  Each “snack” offers a math concept that students can learn, review, and practice.  The snacks are available online or can be accessed for free on a mobile device like the iPhone or iPod.  The snacks focus on math concepts that are appropriate for 5th-8th grade.  Print materials are available that can be used to help students in applying their conceptual understanding to math problems.  Concepts on Math Snacks include ratios, proportions, scale, number line properties, equality and order on the number line, tables, graphs, measurement, and equations.


How to integrate Math Snacks into the classroom: Math Snacks is a fun way for students to visualize difficult to understand math concepts.  There are short humorous videos that demonstrate the math concept in action.  These videos can be viewed as an introduction to a new concept or as practice and review of learning.  The videos can be paused for class discussion about the concept and for solving of problems.  All videos are available for viewing online and can be downloaded to an iPod.  Some of the iPod downloads also include subtitles.  Each video also comes with a learner and teacher guide.  Print these guides to direct you in discussion throughout the video and activities.


Tips: A huge THANK YOU to @summersj who introduced me to Math Snacks via Twitter!


Leave a comment and share how you are using Math Snacks in your classroom.

Safe Share TV

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What it is: Safe Share TV is a fantastic way to share You Tube videos with your students. Safe Share TV removes all distracting and offensive elements that surround a video on You Tube and allows you to share the video with a unique link.  Safe Share TV also gives you the option to crop videos before sharing them.


How to integrate Safe Share TV into the classroom: I love the way that Safe Share TV eliminates all of the related videos, comments, links to other videos, etc. from a You Tube video and makes it available with a unique link.  You Tube has some excellent videos to use in the classroom on demand. The problem? You Tube can share too much with your students.  Related videos may be inappropriate for the classroom, or comments left by others may be offensive.  Just today I was searching for a School House Rock video for one of our first grade teachers.  I found the video on You Tube but shared it via Safe Share TV so that the distracting content would be excluded.  This is the perfect way to share You Tube videos with students on a projector, interactive whiteboard, or as part of a center activity on classroom computers.


Tips: Safe Share TV includes cropping capability for You Tube videos, it is simple to crop videos down to the exact clip that you want to use with students.


Leave a comment and share how you are using Safe Share TV in your classroom.

Animated Atlas: The Growth of a Nation

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What it is: Animated Atlas: The Growth of a Nation is an animated video that teaches students about American expansion.  The video allows for interaction as it plays.  Students can click on any state to learn more about when and how it became a state.  There is also a great interactive timeline at the bottom of the animation that students can explore more in depth.  I really like the look of this website, it makes me nostalgic remembering the computer activities I used as a kid.  I can’t guarantee that our students will get such a kick out of the graphics. 🙂  The ten minute presentation takes students from the original 13 states and shows them the gradual expansion.  At any point students can click on a territory or state for more information.  The timeline pointer moves along with the presentation but students can click on a date for more information.  The interactive timeline goes from 1790 to 2000.


How to integrate Animated Atlas into the classroom: This interactive is a good one for helping students to visualize the expansion of the United States from the original 13 colonies.  The site is packed full of information with the ability to learn more about a time period, state, or territory.  Use this site as an overview of the growth of America.  If students aren’t loving the graphics, have them gather information and create a 2009 (almost 2010!) version of the site.  This site could be used whole class with an interactive whiteboard but I think it would allow for more exploration as a center activity or individual computers.


Tips: When you play Animated Atlas you have several options: play all the way through, 1789-1853, The Civil War, and Post Civil War.  This makes it easy to chunk the lesson or split students into groups.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Animated Atlas: The Growth of a Nation  in your classroom.

PBS Kids Video Player

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What it is: PBS Kids has a new video player.  This is the most kid friendly video player I have seen.  Students click on the PBS character that they want to watch video clips for.  Then, they can select the episode clip they would like to watch.  Students can watch clips of Curious George, Super Why, Dinosaur Train, Sid the Science Kid, Sesame Street, Martha Speaks, Clifford, Arthur, Mr. Rogers, Steve Songs, Word World, Between the Lions, Lomax, Dragon Tales, and more.  Each video grouping has an accompanying website that has fun learning activities and games for kids to complete.  Videos can also be browsed by their topic.  This makes it easy to find a video that relates with what students are learning in class.


How to integrate PBS Kids Video Player into the classroom: This collection of videos is appropriate for the primary classroom (prekindergarten to first grade).  Use these videos as an introduction to new units as an anticipatory set.  All of the PBS materials are high-quality and educational.  Super Why and Word World are especially great for literacy and language building.

Colorado is currently in deep freeze mode (it is cold!).  As a result, we have a lot of indoor recess days ahead of us.  These videos would be great to show during those recess times with the classroom computers set up with the matching games and activities.


Tips: Be sure to take a look at the website that accompanies each video group.  The websites are full of fun games and activities where students can practice reading, math, and science concepts.

Leave a comment and share how you are using PBS Kids Video Player  in your classroom.

BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving

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What it is: BrainPop is usually a paid service.  This week, BrainPop Jr. is offering their Thanksgiving with Annie and Mobi for free.  The video teaches students about the first Thanksgiving and includes plenty of facts about the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag, and the famous harvest feast.  The video includes several discussion and dig-deeper questions throughout.  The questions appear on a notebook next to the video.  You can pause the video when the questions appear for a class discussion or for independent reflection in a journal.  You can print out an accompanying notebook page that lists all of the questions from the video.  At the end of the video, you can choose to “learn more” about the first Thanksgiving with additional activities, crafts, games, suggested reading, drawing, writing, interactive word wall, and quizzes.


How to integrate BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving into the classroom: The BrainPop Jr. Thanksgiving video is a fun way to teach about the history of Thanksgiving to younger students.  The video is about 4 minutes long and includes multiple opportunities for discussion and check points for understanding.  There are also additional follow up activities.  Some of the activities are for print (a Thanksgiving “what I’m thankful for” turkey), and some are to be completed on the computer.  Watch the video as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector.  Set up your classroom computer with the “learn more” activities for students to complete as a center activity.  Alternatively, students could watch and complete the activities independently in the computer lab setting.  The interactive word wall is a great way for students to learn some of the vocabulary associated with Thanksgiving.


Tips: Print out the Thanksgiving Notebook for your students to fill out as they watch the video.  Thank you to @mrscoggin for sharing this freebie on Twitter!

Leave a comment and share how you are using BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving  in your classroom.

ZuiTube

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What it is: KidZui is a site I have written about in the past.  The KidZui network has added some sites to the network that I just learned about.  ZuiTube is a kid friendly You Tube portal.  It is the largest collection of kid friendly videos online.  New videos are added to ZuiTube daily.  All videos are approved by parents and teachers before being posted on ZuiTube.  Students can watch educational videos, funny videos, movies and movie clips, silly songs, and music.  There is also a special section on ZuiTube just for videos related to Thanksgiving.  The Thanksgiving collection includes everything from the Turkey Dance to videos about Native Americans and Pilgrims.

How to integrate ZuiTube into the classroom: ZuiTube videos can be used as an introduction to new teaching (on nearly any subject), to add some humor to the classroom, or to reinforce teaching.  Videos are a wonderful way for students to make connections to new learning.  I have found a video that correlates with nearly every part of our curriculum.  I even found a great Berenstein Bears video for character education…gotta love that!  With all the snow we get in Colorado, there are bound to be some indoor recess days for the kids.  ZuiTube is a safe place to find kid friendly videos that students will enjoy while they are staying dry and warm inside.

Tips: I often have parents asking me what they can do at home to keep their kids safe online.  KidZui is an excellent recommendation, the parent reports are a great way to keep parents involved in their children’s online activities.

Leave a comment and share how you are using ZuiTube in your classroom.