Fun & Games – Page 15 – iLearn Technology

Pac Man Typing with Typing Master

September 15, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment17933 views

What it is: Typing Masters has a great typing game that your students can play for free to increase their typing skills. PacMan Typing gives students the familiar Pac Man game, instead of moving Pac Man with the arrow keys, students have to type letters to make him move. The faster students can type, the higher their score will be.

How to integrate Pac Man Typing into the classroom: Pac Man Typing is a great motivating typing game. Students will want to build up their touch typing skills to master this game. Hold a friendly competition in your class to see who can get high score in Pac Man Typing. This is another site that will build student typing skills through a fun game.

Tips: I learned about Pac Man Typing this morning on Twitter from @SheilaT, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…my PLN is the best!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Pac Man Typing in your classroom.

iPlay Math Games

September 12, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3327 views

What it is: iPlay Math Games is an outstanding collection of printable math games for grades k-12. Math games can be searched by grade level or skill. These math games are printable pdf files and can be played with common items (dice, cards, and other manipulatives). iPlay Math Games helps students build math skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percents, algebra, long division, measurement, graphing and exponents, problem solving, puzzles and games, geometry, probability, reasoning, logic, numeration, patterns, and counting.

How to integrate iPlay Math Games into the classroom: iPlay Math Games is an excellent collection of printable math games that can be downloaded and printed out for the classroom. Use these games as math center activities, and to reinforce math skills being learned. These games are a great way for students to practice math skills sans worksheet.

Tips: iPlay Math Games has not always been a free resource, take advantage of the new free status!

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

Free 1 year subscription to Smilebox (Teacher Box)

September 12, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2345 views

What it is: I first blogged about Smilebox September of 2008. Smilebox is offering a free 1 year subscription to educators! Smilebox is a fun, easy way to send photos, videos, and information to students and parents securely. Smilebox lets you create very impressive looking multimedia presentations quickly and easily. The free subscription (a $39.99 value) gives you unlimited access to more than 900 Smilebox designs and lets you choose from thousands of music options (or upload your own). Finished Smilebox creations can be emailed, blogged, printed, burned to a DVD, or saved as jpeg images.

How to integrate Smilebox (Teacher Box) into the classroom: Smilebox is a great way for you to communicate with parents. Smilebox is perfect for newsletters, overviews of teaching units, performance and field trip recaps, classroom activities, school memory books, and more. Smilebox will make you look like a superstar, the results are SO impressive!

Tips: Be sure to sign up for Smile Box (Teacher Box) today, space in this program is limited!

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

Keyboard Climber

September 10, 2009Kelly Tenkely7 Comments3897 views

What it is: Keyboarding is a necessary evil in the computer classroom. I say this because truly mastering touch typing takes practice, a lot of it. However, I don’t want to spend all my class time in the computer lab teaching kids to type. There is SO much more that our brand new iMacs can do. To use them as typewriters feels ridiculous. Combine that with my 35 minutes once a week with students and keyboarding really becomes a necessary evil. In my classroom, I focus on typing practice very little. I encourage my students to practice keyboarding at home with fun online typing games. Keyboard Climber is one of these games. It is a fun little game that helps students build those touch typing skills in or out of the classroom. In Keyboard Climber, the goal is to help a monkey climb up a tree and score bananas by typing letters. If the student types the incorrect letter, a coconut falls on the monkey’s head and he falls down to a lower level. There is fun music and sound effects that accompany the game, kids love it, I find it a bit too monotonous. The only other thing that I don’t love about the game is that all of the letters are displayed as capital letters. However, students never have to actually type a capital letter (with shift or caps lock).

How to integrate Keyboard Climber into the classroom: Keyboard Climber is a fun little game to help students practice typing. Use it in the computer classroom as a short warm up and see how many points students can accumulate in a set amount of time. Hopefully this number will increase throughout the year. Encourage students to play Keyboard Climber at home to practice typing. I have students take a screen shot of their highest level and points to post on one of my bulletin boards.

Tips: I learned about Keyboard Climber from @techfacil, thanks for the tip Julie!

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

Science Bob

September 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2636 views

What it is: Science Bob is a great resource library for the elementary science classroom. It is an excellent place for students to explore science concepts. Students can get some fun science fair ideas, experiments (that can be done offline), research helpers, science questions/answers, and science videos.

How to integrate Science Bob into the classroom: Science Bob is a great anticipatory site to use with students. Videos can be watched as a class to introduce a new science topic or just to build a little excitement in the science class. Let students explore the experiment section and choose an experiment to perform. Each student can choose a different experiment to test at home. Hold a class science day where students can share the experiment with the class. Let them be the science ‘expert’. As students conduct experiments, they can practice going through the scientific method. Science Bob is a great stop for parents and students looking for science fair projects. Start each science class with a fun science fact in the science question and answer section. This is a great site to get your students excited about science and ready to learn more.

Tips: The “research” section of Science Bob is packed full of other amazing science websites. They are organized by topic for simple searching.

I am often asked where I learn about all of these educational websites. I have a variety of sources (RSS feeds, searches, books) but my favorite source is my OUTSTANDING PLN on Twitter. If you aren’t on Twitter, I highly recommend it. I have created a page where you can see all of the wonderful people in my PLN on Twitter. This is a great place to start your own Twitter powerhouse.

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

Storybird

September 8, 2009Kelly Tenkely5 Comments20160 views

What it is: Storybird is a fun new collaborative storytelling website. Storybird makes it easy to create and tell stories digitally. Students and teachers can create stories together by combining imaginative artwork and text. The final product can be printed, watched on screen, played with like a toy, or shared in an online library with the world. “Storybird promotes imagination, literacy, and self-confidence.” Creating, sharing, and reading Storybird stories is free.

How to integrate Storybird into the classroom: Storybird is an excellent way to get your students enthusiastically writing. The imaginative artwork will have your students creating stories in no time. Storybird stories are meant to be collaborative. Students can work together in teams to create stories. This type of learning through play reminds me of the “lets pretend” stories that students create on the playground. Students will feed off of each others ideas, creating more creative stories and learning together. Storybird is also a fantastic place to create a classroom story, each student can contribute pages to the story. The final product can be easily shared with families and friends in the online library. Storybird can be used by teachers to make ‘special’ stories for students. They can include students as characters, emphasize classroom themes or curriculum, and be created for specific reading levels. Encourage your students to create and share their stories on Storybird, open up your classroom computer during DEAR time for students to read stories their classmates have created.

Tips: Storybird is currently in an open Beta version. Right now all features on Storybird are free. Storybird plans to keep story creation, reading, and sharing as free features. Premium (pay-for) features will be added.

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

Math Mania Back to School Challenge

September 1, 2009September 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2201 views

What it is: Math Mania Back to School Challenge is a FREE 48 hour math competition hosted by Voyager. Voyager also holds the World Math Day competition each year, Math Mania is a similar competition. Students compete against other students in real time using the Vmath Live math program. This challenge is limited to 2nd through 8th grade students in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas who are registered by September 14th. Other Math Mania challenges will follow (different dates depending on US state) so if your school isn’t in a state listed above, check out the Math Mania website to find out when your challenge will take place. Although the official competition is September 15-16, students can begin practicing on VmathLive as soon as they are registered. Prizes include student and school trophies and plaques, on-site pizza parties, visits from Vbot, and a champion hall banner awarded to the top overall performing school. Awards will be given to the top 10 students overall, the top 5 classes, and the top 3 schools.

How to integrate Math Mania Back to School Challenge into the classroom: You have never seen students so excited to practice math facts! Students face off with other students from around the world practicing their math facts. The live competition with students from around the world is highly motivating and has students asking “can I play this at home?” When have you ever had students ask to practice their math facts?! Reserve a computer lab for September 15th and 16th so that your students can take part in the competition. In the mean time, students can be practicing for the competition by playing on VmathLive in a computer lab setting or as a center activity on classroom computers.

Tips: If your state is not listed above, be sure to visit the VmathLive site to find out when your Math Mania challenge will be held. Print out the fliers from the VmathLive and post around your school to raise interest and excitement about the competition.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Math Mania Back to School Challenge in your classroom.

Make 5

August 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1750 views

What it is: Make 5 is a fun interactive tic-tac-toe type game (it actually reminds me of Connect 4) that I learned about this morning on Twitter from @annemarie80. This game is a great way for students to practice math facts and to recognize relationships between numbers. Students are given a target number, they choose an equation on the grid that equals the target number. The goal of the game is to get 5 squares on the grid in a row in the least number of tries. The game has several play options; students can play the game with one or two players, set up the game to get 5 or 3 in a row, and can play to practice addition, subtraction, or multiplication.

How to integrate Make 5 into the classroom: Make 5 is an excellent little game that students can play to practice math facts. Use Make 5 as a math center on the classroom computers. Students can visit the center in groups of two and play the game together. In the computer lab setting, students can play Make 5 individually. Make 5 would be a fun whole class game using an interactive whiteboard. Split the math class into two teams. Students take turns coming to the board as representatives of their team. Give teams 30 seconds to plan their move before sending up their representative. Make sure that every student has the opportunity to be at the board (you may have to play more than once).

Tips: Send this site home to parents, this is a great way for students to practice their math facts at home, too!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Make 5 in your classroom.

Kideos

August 23, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1552 views

What it is: Kideos is a collection of kid friendly videos. Each video featured on Kideos has been carefully screened by the Kideos Video Advisory Council (made up of a select group of parents and educators). The videos are categorized by age range (from 2 to 10) and by category. Categories include Baby Einstein, Barney, Book Characters, Cartoon Characters, Cute Animals, Disney Channel Programs, Disney Movies, Dr. Seuss, Educational Videos, Fairy Tales, Kids, Mickey Mouse and Friends, Muppets, Nursery Rhymes, Sesame Street, Songs, Teletubbies, Trains and Machines, and Wiggles. If you register with Kideos, you can set it up to only view your own selection of ages and characters. The videos are streamed from You Tube and placed inside a Kideo player .

How to integrate Kideo into the classroom: Kideo is a great elementary alternative to YouTube. While Kideo streams YouTube videos, you can be rest assured that your students will not be exposed to inappropriate content. Because Kideos can be set up for a specific age group and category, it would be simple to create a Kideos channel specifically for your class. You may choose your students age range and limit videos to educational and book characters only. Many of the videos would be appropriate in the classroom as an introduction to learning or part of a center activity.

Tips: I am continually amazed when my first grade students come in telling me about a YouTube video they watched (on YouTube). Suggest Kideos to parents as an alternative to YouTube for their little ones. Kids will be able to find all of the content they are looking for without any of the inappropriate comments and suggested videos.

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

Classroom Pictures 2009-2010 School Year

August 20, 2009August 20, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2234 views

In my last post I requested pictures of everyone’s classroom for the 2009-2010 school year. I’ll be honest, so far only three of you have participated. I know the beginning of the school year is busy so I am going to be patient and wait a few more days. If you want to submit your classroom picture, send it to me via Twitter @ktenkely. To get the ball rolling, here are pictures of my classroom this year: