Safe Surfing with Dongle

What it is: There is no such thing as too much emphasis on Internet safety. Safe Surfing with Dongle is another game to help kids learn the rules of Internet safety. This fun site teaches kids Internet safety through an interactive movie/game. Students learn safety tips on emails, chatting, playing games, and having fun online.

How to integrate Safe Surfing with Dongle into the classroom: Safe Surfing with Dongle can be played individually in a computer lab setting, in partners in the one or two computer classroom, or as a whole class using a projector. If you are playing as a class you might split the class into teams and alternate which team gets to answer each question. This game would be great to use at the beginning of the year as an introduction to Internet safety and throughout the year for review of online safety rules.

Tips: Create a bookmark to this site for quick easy access.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Safe Surfing with Dongle in your classroom.

Starship Math

What it is: Starship Math is a BBC school site with fun math practice and games that teach skills such as basic geometry (3-d shape recognition), addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, weight measurement, measurement, and understanding of numbersquares.

How to integrate Starship Math into the classroom: Starship Math is a great site for reinforcing math concepts in a fun, interactive environment. The games and activities can be used on an interactive whiteboard or individually on computers. Starship Math could be used for practice of a concept or as an introduction to a new math concept. Your students will enjoy playing and learning on this site!

Tips: Check out the Teacher page for lesson plans, print outs, and suggestions for using each game on an interactive whiteboard or for individual computers.

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


Roy the Zebra

What it is: Roy the Zebra is a site for emerging readers complete with interactive stories, games, and lesson plans. The site can be used with interactive white boards or on computers. Emerging reader skills include capital letters, full stops, words that rhyme, high frequency words, alphabetical order, question marks, singular or plural, long vowel phonemes, words within words, and consonants. The Roy the Zebra story collection is online and includes literacy worksheets, before reading discussion sheets, and after reading discussion sheets.

How to integrate Roy the Zebra into the classroom: Roy the Zebra is an excellent literacy website. Use daily with your emerging and struggling readers to enhance your literacy time. Set up Roy the Zebra as a center during literacy time in the one computer classroom. Because of the sites interactivity, it is also an ideal site to use with an interactive white board. If you have access to a computer lab your students can practice the skills learned for the day all together.

Tips: There are advertisements on the site but be assured that all activities, books, lessons, and games are completely free to use. Roy the Zebra does accept donations.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Roy the Zebra in your classroom.

Science

What it is: Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science is the online student addition of the textbooks. Students is grades kindergarten through six can click on the book that matches their grade level. Here students can watch video clips, play vocabulary games, take animated summary quizzes, read e-journals, and more.

How to integrate Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science into the classroom: Even if your school does not use the Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science textbooks, this site is a wonderful supplement to any science curriculum. The fun interactive environment is sure to be a hit with students. The vocabulary review games would be fun to play as a whole class with the projector (split students into teams) or individually. You might also offer this site to students for homework help or for test review at home.

Tips: Click on the OSE button at the bottom of the screen for the Online Student edition of the text box. Below the OSE button are login names and passwords for various grade levels.

P lease leave a comment and share how you are using Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science in your classroom.

Class Tools

What it is: Class Tools is possibly the most impressive, easy to use tool that I have reviewed to date! This allows teachers (even those who aren’t incredibly tech savvy) to create interactive Flash diagrams and games for learning and revising material. It is FREE! All diagrams created can be saved as data files or web pages to host on your school website or intranet. Quiz creators allow you to input up to 25 questions and answers an then choose a game to test student knowledge. Games include Matching Pairs, Manic Miner, WordShoot, and Cannon Ball Fun. Learning templates that teach and support chronological awareness include Time Line and Living Graph. Categorization tools include Post it, and a Target diagram. Linkage tools include Venn diagrams, and The Learning Puzzle. Priortization tools include Diamond Nine and a Priority Chart. Sourcework Skills tools include Lights Out and Source Analyzer. Essay skills tools include Fishbone and Hamburger diagrams. WOW!!

How to integrate Class Tools into the classroom: Class Tools may be one of the most versatile tools you can use in the classroom. Teachers and students can create learning diagrams together and upload to the school website for later study. Teachers, you can create games for your students to play focused on any specific curriculum. The sky is the limit for Class Tools in the classroom.

Tips: Print out a copy of the Class Tools Flyer, having a description of the tools handy is a must!

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

Christmas Tree Puzzle

What it is: Christmas Tree Puzzle is a fun game where students have to light up a Christmas tree by connecting all of the wires to a power source. This requires critical thinking and problem solving but is a lot of fun!

How to integrate Christmas Tree Puzzle into the classroom: This is a wonderful Christmas math game for students. All ages will enjoy this puzzle game, younger students will play with trial and error while older students will use some math strategy and planning to light the tree. Have tree lighting contest where students race to light their tree first or with the fastest time. This is a great activity for the last week of school when students are wound up!

Tips: Set up Christmas Tree Puzzle as a center that students can visit throughout the day or as part of a Christmas party.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Christmas Tree Puzzle in your classroom.

Build a Snowman

What it is: Build a Snowman is a part of the Highlights for Kids website. This activity encourages kids to build their own snowman complete with funny hat, scarf, feet, and more.

How to integrate Build a Snowman into the classroom: Build a Snowman is a fun interactive sites. You will hear giggles coming from the computer for this activity. Build a Snowman is a fun site for kids to practice mouse manipulation. You can also use Build a Snowman as part of a writing center. First, students create and print out their snowman. Use this silly snowman as a story starter or writing prompt.

Tips: This site could be used in the one or two computer classroom OR in a lab setting.

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


Gingerbread House

What it is: Gingerbread House is a part of the Highlights for Kids website. This interactive site encourages students to create their own gingerbread house complete with icing, candy, food, as well as some less traditional items. The kids can’t get enough of this site that allows them to change the size, rotate, and flip the candy and other items to fit their wishes.

How to integrate Gingerbread House into the classroom: Gingerbread House is a lot of fun for kids to play with, they will ask to play and interact with this site year round. When creating a real gingerbread house is not practical in the classroom, this provides the perfect alternative. It is a great site to use in conjunction with Jan Brett’s Gingerbread Baby book. The site provides excellent practice for mouse manipulation and creativity. Set up as a holiday center or use the fun site for indoor recess fun.

Tips: The eyeballs in the “stuff” section follow your mouse wherever it goes. The blocks in the “stuff” section have arrows on them so that students can change the letter on the block.

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


Email Santa

What it is: Email Santa lets your students email Santa directly. The best part…Santa emails the students right back! This site is completely safe, it is all web based and does not require email at all. Students fill in a letter form to send Santa and he sends back an appropriate response. They are each a little different and unique.

How to integrate Email Santa into the classroom: This site is best used with students who are believers in Santa. The older kids are not so impressed! This is a nice activity for that last week of school before Christmas break. It requires students to read and follow directions. For struggling readers, pair with a strong “helper” who can assist. The students really love this! Students can even write letters to Rudolph from their pets.

Tips: Set up Email Santa as a center during the last day before break when the kids are wound up and ready for break. Students can also check the naughty or nice list for their name, get Santa’s autograph, vote for the reindeer who should lead the sleigh, watch the Rudolph cam, read elf jokes, and play some other fun Christmas games.

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

Kids Biology

What it is: Kids Biology is a website designed to be kid friendly and informative. Here, students can learn about an assortment of animals (broken down by classes, what they eat, and where they live). Each animal has an about the animal section and a picture of the animal. Kids Biology also features kid friendly information on the origin of life, what are living things, needs of living things, cells, tissues, organs, systems, classification, five kingdoms, viruses, genetics, and Earth’s biomes. Each topic contains easy to read and understand information about the topic. Kids Biology has games that help students study what they have learned about each topic through word searches, hangman, and biology memory.

How to integrate Kids Biology into the classroom: Kids Biology would offer a nice break from traditional textbooks and worksheets. Give students time to explore the site on their own to introduce or review a new science unit. Read the online textbook as a class followed by a game using a projector. Split your kids into teams to play the game as a class. Kids Biology is also a nice resource for students researching an animal because of the kid friendly reading and wealth of information.

Tips: Save Kids Biology the bookmark bar for easy access in the classroom.

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