Fun & Games – Page 23 – iLearn Technology

Math Doodles

February 23, 2009Kelly Tenkely5 Comments2656 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

February 20, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments2482 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.

Pinky Dinky Doo

February 18, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2448 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

February 17, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3821 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.

Jeopardy Labs

February 10, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4069 views

What it is: Jeopardy Labs is an awesome website that lets you build a Jeopardy game board without the use of Power Point! All that you have to do to start is enter a password so that others can’t edit your game. Then it is as simple as titling it, typing in categories and then entering questions and answers. This is really SO easy to use! You can also search through Jeopardy games created by others. You won’t be able to edit these but you may find a ready made game that fits your needs perfectly. Jeopardy Labs was created by Matt Johnson, an undergraduate at WSUV. Impressive!

How to integrate Jeopardy Labs into the classroom: Jeopardy Labs is a great way to review and practice class material in a fun, engaging way. Use Jeopardy Labs to help your kids study for a test, to review a unit, or just as a fun learning activity on a Friday afternoon. In the computer lab, I have used Jeopardy as a way to teach students how to perform searches. Students can Google the questions and the first team to find the correct answer wins the points.

Tips: Before you reinvent the wheel, browse through other Jeopardy games…someone may have already done the work for you!

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

How Toons

February 9, 2009February 9, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2820 views

What it is: How Toons is like an Instructables site for kids. Kids learn through cartoons and videos how things work and how to make things. This is kind of a How It’s Made website for kids. Topics include science, space, nature, events, and a how to section. The cartoons illustrate a concept and accompanying videos expand on the concept.

How to integrate How Toons into the classroom: How Toons is an excellent site to excite your students about science. Share a How Toons with your students and then explore the science behind it together. Use a How Toons as inspiration, after viewing How Toons, students can create their own cartoon on any topic being studied in class. How Toons are great for teaching kids how to follow step by step instructions and would also be useful for teaching them how to create their own instructions.

Tips: How Toons would be a fun RSS feed to subscribe to as a class!

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

Audible Kids

February 5, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4718 views

What it is: Audible Kids was a really exciting find for me today because I am writing an article for the upcoming issue of iLearn magazine about iPods in education. Audible Kids is a website that engages kids in storytelling through audiobooks. Kids can download books, read and post reviews for each book, and share their favorites with others. Kids can discover books searching by keyword, age group, category, award winners, and more. Students can listen to samples of the stories before they download them with a handy in-browser play feature. While Audible Kids is not a totally free site, they do have some excellent audiobooks that are free to download. Roscoe Orman (of Sesame Street) is one of the cheif storytellers on Audible Kids. Enhanced Audible Kids audiobooks have pictures with the story, perfect for the iPod Touch or a computer center. For free downloads click here. Other books range in price from about $0.99 to $20.00.

How to integrate Audible Kids into the classroom: Because free products for the classroom excited me the most, I will focus on how you can use the free downloads in your classroom. Use Audible Kids downloads for an iPod listening center, or classroom computer listening center. Students can register for free Audible Kids accounts and discuss the stories in an online environment with their own classmates as well as children around the world. Use the stories as a place for students to discover rich storytelling. Encourage them to listen for voice, emphasis, tone, rhythm as the story is read to them. Students who learn to listen for these and are exposed to excellent storytellers, will become more expressive readers themselves. Students could listen to the audiobooks and use a computer drawing program (or just paper and crayon) to draw their own pictures to go along with the story. This is a great way for kids to learn visualization reading strategies. If you want to take it a step further, pictures could be gathered into iPhoto or a slideshow accompanied by the audio. Students will be the illustrator for the audiobooks!

Tips: If you are in a Mac environment, download Skitch. Your sudents can draw their pictures on the computer as they listen and they can easily be uploaded to the Skitch website or into iPhoto, Keynote, or Garage Band to create their own illustrated audiobook. So neat! Audible Kids has the option of giving the gift of audiobooks. If this is something you are serious about making a part of your classroom, consider asking parents to donate audiobooks to your classroom library.

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

The Tale of Despereaux Adventure

February 4, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2853 views

What it is: I learned about this awesome interactive site from Larry Ferlazzo’s blog. It is just too good to pass up blogging about it! This interactive story book lets students create their own tale in the Kingdom of Dor. The students become a part of the story as they create a character version of themselves that takes part in the story adventure. Students can choose to have interactive games and puzzles included in their story. The story is a virtual pop-up book, it is read to students and they can read along with subtitles. Along the way, students have to help solve problems in the story by playing an interactive game.

How to integrate The Tale of Despereaux Adventure into the classroom: The Tale of Despereaux Adventure is a really impressive site. This would be a great introduction to the book by Kate DiCamillo. The site would act as a teaser for the book that would have students eager to read. Even if you aren’t reading The Tale of Despereaux, this is a fun way to get students interested in reading (most of them won’t even realize that they are reading!) Set up a Tale of Despereaux center on your classroom computer during reading time for a month. Each day two new students can visit the center and take part in their own adventure. This site could also be used with an interactive whiteboard or projector for the students to create a whole class story. If students choose to read the story with the interactive games, they will be stopped along the way to complete puzzle and logic games throughout the story. These type of games are great to get kids thinking creatively and outside of the box. The story can be viewed in different languages, this would be a fun site for foreign language classes to visit in the language they are studying!

Tips: One thing I don’t love about this site is that it asks students to enter their first and last name to be part of the story. I teach my students never to put their last name online. I ask my students to make up a last name when creating their story.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Tale of Despereaux Adventure in your classroom.

World Math Day 2009

February 2, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments3670 views

What it is: World Math Day is March 4, 2009! If you participated in World Math Day last year with the World Math Day website, you know how motivating and fun it was. If not, this is your year to join in the fun! Students play against other students in countries around the world in real time mental arithmetic games. Each game lasts for 60 seconds. Students can play as many games as they want to. When you sign up your class, you will choose the level of difficulty based on age and ability. World Math Day is best for students who are 5 to 18 years old (k-12!). There are even prizes awarded including student prizes, and school prizes for highest achievers. Registration for World Math Day is open (and free), your students can start practicing right now!

How to integrate World Math Day into the classroom: World Math Day was one of the highlights of math class last year. The students who participated had a great time competing against other students from around the world. I have never seen students so excited to practice math facts and many asked, “can we do this at home too?” How often do you get students asking for more math practice at home?! Get your students excited about competing on March 4 and start practicing now. If you have one or two computers in the classroom you can set up a training center. Reserve a computer lab during math class to practice as a class. You can also split your class into teams of 3 to complete the 60 second games using a projector or interactive whiteboard. You will not believe how motivating this site is for students!

Tips: This is an amazing development, World Math Day 2009 is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch!!! Woot, woot! Students can join in the fun of the practice period and work on their skills against other students before the big day.

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

Password Bird

January 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment15221 views

What it is: Password Bird is an extremelly simple website, but one that I love to use with my elementary students. Password Bird helps students create a password using a few easy to answer questions. Students enter a name that is special to them, a word that is special to them, and date that is special to them. Password Bird takes these and turns it into a randomly generated password. The ideas is that the password generated will be something easy for students to remember but hard for others to guess.

How to integrate Password Bird into the classroom: In my computer classroom I hear the words “I don’t know what my password should be” a lot. Password Bird is the perfect place to send these kids. It helps them create a password quickly that should be fairly easy for them to remember. Sometimes Password Bird generates great passwords, and sometimes the passwords are not as strong. I have used Password Bird to generate passwords that we then dissect and decide if it is a strong password or not.

Tips: Not every password generated on Password Bird will be a strong password, usually this is due to the words that the students chose that make it a weak password. Use the opportunity to discuss what makes it a particularly strong or weak password.

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