Category: Resource type

Math Doodles

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Math Doodles2662 views

 

What it is:  Math Doodles is a set of math games created by Daren Carstens that help students learn the most important aspect of math…it can be fun!  Daren created Math Doodles as a place where students can “discover the joy, wonder, and fun of mathematics.”  I have to admit that I would not have classified math as a “fun” subject.  However, I think that math can and should be a fun time of exploration and learning for students.  Math Doodles provides this place.  Kids can interact with math by playing games like Connect the Sums, Number Jump, Polyomino Shift, Double Traits, Sums Stacker, Hydro Maze, Time Shuffle, and Angel Fish (coming soon).  These games encourage students to interact with math and learning….and they are a lot of fun too!

How to integrate Math Doodles into the classroom:   Math Doodles is a collection of amazing games for elementary school students.  Students will learn through play (the best way!)  Math Doodles would be an excellent math center in the one or two computer classroom.  Students could play the games in teams or individually.  In the lab setting students could work on skills specific to their individual learning needs in the math classroom.  Math Doodles could also be used with an interactive whiteboard for whole class participation.  Split your class into teams and take turns solving the games.  Math Doodles games would be a fun way to start math class as a pre-thinking activity.  

 

Tips:  Right now Math Doodles games are only available in Demo version (since this version is free to use that suits me well!), but it looks like eventually the full version of each game will be available for purchase. 

 

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

Lure of the Labyrinth

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Lure of the Labyrinth2483 views

What it is:   Lure of the Labyrinth is a interactive math game created by Fable Vision, MPT, and MIT.  In the game underground monsters come to life as students plunge into a shadowy factory on a mission to rescue a missing pet.  Students take on a monster persona and disguise themselves as monster insiders to maneuver through math problems.  As students work through the game, they will work with proportions, fractions, ratios, variables, equations, numbers, and operations. 

How to integrate Lure of the Labyrinth into the classroom:  Lure of the Labyrinth can be played individually or in team play.  This game is excellent for students who may not otherwise feel successful in math.  The game encourages critical thinking and problem solving and is aligned to math standards.  This would be a great way for students to work through problems and show what they know.

 

Tips:  Be sure to stop off in the educator section on Lure of the Labyrinth for an explanation of the game, lesson plans, standards, and the math behind each puzzle that needs to be solved.  With all of the resources and guidance, this is a fail proof game to introduce in your math class!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Lure of the Labryinth  in your classroom.

If You Give a Teacher a Mouse

Kelly Tenkely12 Comments on If You Give a Teacher a Mouse4006 views

Today I finally finished a project I have been working on with my students.  I borrowed this concept from a video that I saw on Teacher Tube and thought it would be a fun way to get our teachers, admin, and tech staff thinking about technology.  I had one of my first grade classes record the audio for me.  The kids were thrilled to see something they had a part in on You Tube 🙂

Pinky Dinky Doo

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Pinky Dinky Doo2451 views

What it is:   Pinky Dinky Doo is a site I was destined to review, I saw the show advertising the website while channel surfing one day, and on the very same day, Kevin Jarrett Tweeted about it.  Needless to say, I checked it out and was immediately hooked.  This is a great website for pre-k through first grade students.  The site is based on a PBS show of the same name.  The website has fun activities for kids to take part in including word games, story podcasts, videos, and a place for students to create their own story podcast.  Pinky Dinky Doo loves making up stories and teaches students that every story has a beginning, middle, and end.  The stories are often full of metaphores and similes and often have a great message for kids too.  Every story also has one giant fancy word like “collaborate” or “gracious” teaching students rich vocabulary as well.  I love the way that this site expands student vocabulary!

How to integrate Pinky Dinky Doo into the classroom:  Put your students listening skills to work, listen as a class to a podcast story and discuss parts of a story together afterward.  Every story has a distinct beginning, middle, and end.  Students can draw and visualize the story while they listen to it.  The podcast stories would also make an excellent listening center in the classroom.  Pinky Dinky Doo is a great way to teach students new vocabulary, each story has a ‘fancy word’ that will expand your student vocabulary.  It would be fun to use the ‘fancy word’ from the story as  the classroom word of the day.  See how many times your students can use the ‘fancy word’ correctly during the day.  I love the section where students can create their own story podcasts.  Set up a story station in the one or two computer classroom where partners can create a story and listen to a classmates story.  Students in a computer lab setting could create story podcasts of their own and play the word games independently.  The site is easy enough for students to work independently.  

 

Tips:  Check out the grownups section on Pinky Dinky Doo for some great offline activities.  They even have directions for creating a Fancy Word box of your own and directions for playing the circle story game. 

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Pinky Dinky Doo in your classroom.

The National Archives Experience: Digital Vaults

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on The National Archives Experience: Digital Vaults3826 views

What it is:   Digital Vaults reminds me of Museum Box that I wrote about a few weeks ago.  The National Archives has put together an amazing site where students can create digital content with primary resources.  Students can search photographs, documents, and other records and collect them.  Students can use collected items to create their own digital poster or to make a movie.  Students can also create a Pathway Challenge.  In a challenge, students create a series of clues that show relationships between photographs, documents and other records.  Others can take part in these Pathways Challenges.  There are also ready made challenges that students can take part in, I just took the Lincoln challenge.  Clues are given and students have to find a record that matches the clue.  Very cool!

How to integrate Digital Vaults into the classroom:  This is a truly incredible way for students to interact with history.    While the site may be too hard for primary elementary students to use on their own, the Lincoln Pathway Challenge could be used with an interactive whiteboard with the teacher guiding the challenge.  Teachers could also create a unique challenge that directly matches your curriculum for students to complete.  The poster, movie, and create your own Pathway Challenge are an engaging way for students to learn about history in a hands on approach.  Give students a direction to go and then give them time to collect resources, and create their digital history vault.  This is not history as I remember it…in fact, I’m sure I would know much, much more about history if I were involved in my learning this way!  This is so much better than learning history from an outdated text book, the Pathway Challenges are like virtual field trips through history.

 

Tips:  I learned about this awesome website from Free Technology for Teachers, a great blog!

 

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

Wizlite

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Wizlite2411 views

What it is:  Wizlite is a handy little web tool that lets you highlight text (just like you would on paper) on any page on the Internet and then share it with others.  Wizlite uses a a Firefox extension or a bookmarklet to show and store selections.  It is free and easy to use!

How to integrate Wizlite into the classroom:  Wizlite is a handy tool for directing your students to specific information while they are learning on the web.  Use Wizlite to teach your students to find the main idea on a webpage.  Students can create groups on Wizlite and share pages with their highlights with other students.  Wizlite is also very useful for sharing portions of webpages with  your colleagues quickly and easily.  

 

Tips:  Wizlite does require you to install an extension.  This is easy to do and the Wizlite site walks you through the steps. 

 

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

Bestest PE Teacher

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Bestest PE Teacher1496 views

 What it is:  Our PE teacher just started a blog of her own!  The blog is called Bestest PE Teacher, her hope is that it will be a place to start a conversation with teachers, students, and parents about physical education in schools, reminisce about PE memories, and advice for parents and students. 

How to integrate Bestest PE into the classroom:   This blog will be a great place to converse about physical education in schools.  Pass this blog on to the PE teacher at your school and join in the conversation to encourage this new edublogger!  

 

Tips:  If you are wondering where the name Bestest PE came from, the kids call our PE teacher “Bestest PE Teacher in the Whole Wide World”… I tend to agree she is the bestest!  

Do you follow any other PE blogs?  Share them here so I can pass them along!

Awesome Stories

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Awesome Stories3602 views

What it is:   Awesome Stories is a neat website that looks to me like it could be the future of text books.  Awesome Stories has great primary source materials separated by categories such as biographies, disasters, trials, flicks, history, inspiration, religion and sports.  Throughout the text there are hyperlinks to additional content.  The links are separated by color so you know that when you see a certain color it will open a primary source  image, video, narration, slide shows, artifact, manuscript, document, etc.  You can become a member of Awesome Stories for free, when you do you will gain access to additional features like an extensive image data base, narrated stories, lesson plans, and a free newsletter from Awesome Stories.  This is essentially an interactive textbook.  I love that the site hits different learning styles in its presentation of information.

How to integrate Awesome Stories into the classroom:    Awesome Stories would be a great supplement to traditional text books.  It makes finding primary source materials easy!  With the audio clips, narration, video, and slide shows linked right within the reading material, students are going to get a much richer understanding of a topic or material being studied.  I love that struggling readers can have all the text narrated to read along with.  Many of the videos, audio, and slide shows would be excellent to share with the whole class using a projector or interactive whiteboard.  

 

Tips:  Sign up for free to see the full scope of Awesome Stories, you will be amazed at the amount of content here!  The lesson plans to use with the site are wonderful!

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

Learning 2.0 a Colorado Conversation

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Learning 2.0 a Colorado Conversation2058 views

What it is:   If you live in Colorado or will be passing through on February 21st, you should definitely be taking part in Learning 2.0 a Colorado Conversation!  This is a free one day conference (yes I really said free!) that also includes a free lunch.  All that you need to do is register and be ready to talk education.  “The future of education does not exist in the isolated world of theory and abstract conference sessions. Instead, it exists in conversations. It exists in creating a robust learning network that is ever-expanding and just-in-time. Learning 2.0 is not the beginning of this conversation. It is merely a stopping point, a time to talk about the visible difference that we all seek. We read. We reflect. We write. We share. We learn. Come join us for a day of conversation about learning and technology.”  The conference is being held at Heritage High School from 9am to 3pm.  To learn more visit the wiki and register!  http://colearning.wikispaces.com/Home+2009

Leave a comment and let us know if you are going and what you thought of it!