Fun & Games – Page 24 – iLearn Technology

FontStruct

January 30, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1957 views

What it is: FontStruct is a free website that lets students build, share, and download fonts that they create in a simple font editor. First students name their font, then they use the font editor to draw each character of the alphabet using font bricks and a grid system. After each character has been created, the font can be downloaded and added to the fonts folder to be used in any word processing program or desktop presentation program.

How to integrate FontStruct into the classroom: It would be fun to come up with a class font where each student is responsible for a letter in the font. The font could be used for typing practice, or as a header for newsletters that go home each week. FontStruct is a motivating environment for students to practice forming their letters. They love knowing that they created a font of their very own. The fonts can be used for anything, I have found that my students love creating a font and using it for typing practice or as titles for projects or slide shows. If you are creating a class font, this can be done on an interactive whiteboard or on a classroom computer. If each student will be creating their own font, individual computers are needed.

Tips: FontStruct does require registration with an email address. In my class, I created a school username and password so that each student didn’t have to register for an account individually.

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

Animal Games

January 27, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4907 views

What it is: Animal Games is part of the Sheppard Software’s Kids corner. The site has games about animals that help them learn animal classification, the difference between herbivores and carnivores, the food chain, endangered animals, producers and consumers, animal diet, and animal characteristics. The games are fun and easy to play and teach some important animal science concepts.

How to integrate Animal Games into the classroom: These games are perfect for the kindergarten through second grade classroom. They teach the basics of the food chain, animal kingdom, and animal classification through an interactive game environment. These games would be appropriate for the one or two computer classroom as a science center, with a projector and whole class instruction, or in the computer lab setting.

Tips: This site does have some advertisements, use this opportunity to discuss ads with your students and help them spot the ads on each page (some advertisements look like a game).

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

Rebus Puzzles

January 27, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3505 views

What it is: Rebus puzzles (also known as word puzzles or frame puzzles) is a NIEHS kids site that hosts a collection of Rebus brain teasers. The brain teasers each have a drop down menu that reveals the answer to the puzzle. These puzzles are a fun way to get students thinking creatively and ‘outside the box’.

How to integrate Rebus Puzzles into the classroom: Start your day off with a little brain bending using these Rebus puzzles. Print out the puzzle or share on a projector at the beginning of the day. Give students 2-5 min to solve the brain puzzle of the day. This is a great way to get those creative muscles a work out and jump start the brain for a day of learning.

Tips: There is more than one page of puzzles so keep exploring!

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

Splat Square

January 26, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment13492 views

What it is: Splat Square is one of those very simple websites that you will end up using weekly in your math classroom. Splat Square is a 100 grid that starts out blank. There are different ‘splat’ colors on the right side of the screen. Choose a color and then click on the square, ‘splat’, the number is revealed with a splatter of colored paint. The interactive grid is wonderful for several applications in the math classroom.

How to integrate Splat Square into the classroom: Splat Square is perfect for use with an interactive whiteboard. Teach students to count by 2, 5, 10, etc. by ‘splatting’ those spaces as you count aloud as a class. Teach students the difference between odd and even numbers by color coding the 100 grid, prime numbers, skip counting, and ordinal counting can also be practiced with Splat Square. This is a great grid to use with the whole class with the students interacting with the grid on an interactive whiteboard. It can be used as a interactive math help center or individually in a lab setting. I like using the grid for whole class math games, I call out what rule I want the teams to follow and they can take turns at the board.

Tips: Share this one with parents, it can be a big help for your visual learners during math homework.

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

Inauguration Speech Generator

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3065 views

What it is: With President Obama’s Inauguration speech looming on the horizon, this site is worth a look. Inauguration Speech Generator is like a mad lib, fill in the blank that generates a speech for President Obama to say. 🙂 Students enter words in the blanks according to the part of speech that is requested and then read the speech they have written for our soon to be president.

How to integrate Inauguration Speech Generator into the classroom: This is a great lead in to teach students about the Inauguration of President Obama. It is also a fun way to practice those parts of speech! Students can fill in the blanks individually and share with a partner, or a speech can be generated as a whole class. This would be a fun thing to do right before the inauguration. Save the students version of the speech. They can compare and contrast their speech with the actual inauguration speech after viewing it.

Tips: The inauguration is supposed to be live on CNN, it would be fun to watch live but I suspect that Internet may be slow that day! Those of you with cable in the classroom take advantage!!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Inauguration Speech Generator in your classroom.

Science Museum: Launch Ball

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3790 views

What it is: Here is another one I found thanks to @kjarrett. Science Museum features a game called Launch ball. Students are given a series of challenges to get a ball from one point to another through an obstacle course. The trick is they have to build the obstacle course so that the ball naturally flows to the goal after dropping into the play zone.

How to integrate Science Museum Launch Ball into the classroom: This is a great puzzle/game site to use with your students to get them to approach problems creatively and work through solutions with trial and error. The game is addicting and will have your students solving problems and thinking logically about how different objects interact with one another. I love using these mind benders with students, they are elated when they solve a puzzle! Each time students complete a level, they will learn fun science facts. After your students have all of the levels down, they can create their own obstacle courses for other students to solve.

Tips: This is a great game to introduce in science class. I also love using this site with students on indoor recess days!

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

Myths and Legends

January 16, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4223 views

What it is: Myths and Legends is an awesome, free, online digital story telling website. I heard about the website through @kjarrett. The story creator lets students combine pictures that they compose with clip art or images that they upload, sound, and words to create a digital story. The stories can be saved, printed, and shared. Students can record themselves reading the story aloud and even add video! The website is pretty comprehensive as far as online digital storytelling tools go, I am impressed!

How to integrate Myths and Legends into the classroom: Myths and Legends is a great way to get your students interested and eager to write. The digital story telling format gives students a unique opportunity to express themselves creatively. Many of your reluctant writers will jump at the chance to create a story in this manner because it doesn’t “feel” like writing. They don’t get stuck looking at that blank piece of paper and feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of them. I have found that students write more, and the quality of work is better when they create digital stories that are shared later with the whole class. In the one or two computer classroom you can set up a digital storytelling writing center that students can work at, in the lab setting whole classes can create at the same time, and as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard or projector, the entire class can create a story together.

Tips: Each student should sign up and register for a free account so that they can save their work. As a teacher you can also sign up for a school account where you can login and review all of your students work online.

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

Ology

January 9, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1851 views

What it is: Ology is an outstanding free website from the American Museum of Natural History where students can learn about archaeology, astronomy, biodiversity, earth, Einstein, genetics, marine biology, water, and paleontology. The site is user friendly for kids and has an attractive interface that students will enjoy. Each subject has polls, inside stories on the subject, experiments, book lists of related books, interactive games and activities, “make it” ideas, interviews, a snapshot of scientists at work, and more.

How to integrate Ology into the classroom: I like to uses sites like Ology for scavenger hunts. I give students a list of facts that I want them to find while exploring the website and have them take part in a virtual scavenger hunt following the clues. Activities like this build research skills. This is a great site for using in any science class. The online reading is wonderful and the suggestion for books related to the subject is a nice addition. Students can explore the site during science and share what they learn with the class. The experiments and make it ideas would be fun to learn about and create as a class. Ology is an excellent addition to any science class!

Tips: Does your school hold an annual science fair? Share this site with parents for suggestion of science experiments and as a launching point.

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

Picasa

January 7, 2009Kelly Tenkely6 Comments2392 views

What it is: Picasa is a free download from Google that helps you organize, edit, share, and create using photos. The edit feature allows you to fix red-eye, crop, and fix any blemishes or scratches. Picasa lets students create turning photos into movies, collages, and slideshows. Picasa also makes it easy to upload albums to the web to share. Picasa has been around for a while as a Google tool but the big news this week is the release of the beta version of Picasa for Macs. The neat thing about the Mac Picasa release is its integration with iPhoto. The features are pretty neat and definitely worth a look for either platform but with the announcement of iPhoto ’09 yesterday, they aren’t as impressive. HOWEVER, Picasa is completely free while iPhoto ’09 is not.

How to integrate Picasa into the classroom: Picasa is a great way to organize photos you are taking of your classroom in action. Create a web album, parents always like to see the great things their kids are learning. Students can use Picasa to organize images they find online or pictures they take on a field trip. These pictures can then be used to create a movie, collage, or slideshow directly in the Picasa software. Students could create a class story in pictures, create a movie out of it and share it with other grades. Students can also collect historical images, scientific images, etc and easily create a movie or slideshow displaying their knowledge.

Tips: Picasa is available for Macs in beta version and Windows and Linux based in alpha.

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

Share Tabs

January 5, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2502 views

What it is: Share Tabs is a simple, but very neat, website that allows you to share several links with one web address. Teachers can enter a list of websites they want students to visit into Share Tabs. After entering the links, you create one Share Tabs URL that will open all of the links as separate tabs in a web browser. So cool!

How to integrate Share Tabs into the classroom: Share Tabs is an awesome way to save time in the classroom when using multiple websites. Instead of waiting for kids to type in several URL’s to get to the days activities, they type in one URL and share tabs does all the work. I know in my classroom, I don’t want to spend 15 min typing in web addresses. I would rather that students have that time to spend on the web activities. Share Tabs is perfect in the computer lab setting or any time that you want students to visit multiple websites for a lesson. Use Share Tabs for virtual field trips through cyber space without spending time creating a webquest. Share Tabs also makes sharing sites with colleauges a snap. As you are finding resources for a lesson, put them into Share Tabs and send one link. Your colleagues will thank you!

Tips: Use Share Tabs on Twitter instead of updating 5 times with each separate URL you are exploring, update once with a Share Tabs link!

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