Category: Interactive book
Gullah Net
What it is: Gullah Net is a site that was designed to introduce students to the Gullah culture and language.”Located on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia are communities of people who are the descendants of enslaved Africans. They have a unique culture that is directly linked to West Africa. In South Carolina, this group of African-Americans and the language they speak are referred to as Gullah (Gul-luh). In Georgia, they are called Geechee (Gee-chee). Native Islanders is another term that refers to the Gullah and Geechee people. Many historians believe that the word “Gullah” comes from Angola, a West African country from which many of the slaves came. Another idea is that “Gullah” is from the Gola, a tribe found near the border of Liberia and Sierra Leone, West Africa. Although the exact origin of the word is not known, most historians agree that the Gullah people and their language have African roots.”
In addition to a history of Gullah, students can listen to and read along folktale stories read by Auntie Pearlie Sue. These are fun little stories with a great message. Gullah music introduces students to the evolution of African music in America. The site is set to have a Gullah cooking section soon.
How to integrate Gullah Net into the classroom: Gullah Net is an excellent place for students to learn about other cultures within the United States. The read along folktales are excellent and would be a good place for students to practice reading skills. Gullah music would be a nice tie in for Black History month (in fact the entire site would be great for this). Gullah Net has some great teacher resources and lessons to use in your classroom. My favorite section on Gullah Net is Gullah Tales, these are colorful, fun stories that will keep your students engaged in reading!
Tips: Gullah Net has field trip resources for those of you in South Carolina.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Gullah Net in your classroom.
Book Wink
What it is: Book Wink is an absolutely incredible site to motivate students in 3rd through 8th grade to read. Through podcasts and web video Book Wink introduces students to books that will help get students excited about reading. Video book talks are about 3 minutes in length and introduce students to a topic, and the additional read-alikes that can be found on the Book Wink website. Books can be searched by grade, subject, author, or title. Subscribe to the video podcats to automatically receive the newest book talks. This months book talk introduces students to the heist. Check it out, it is fantastic!
How to integrate Book Wink into the classroom: Book Wink is an outstanding way to excite and motivate students to read. Use Book Wink with a projector and introduce your whole class to a book talk. The book talks are engaging and will have your students wanting to check out books on the subject for silent reading time. Each book talk gives a related list of books along with their age appropriateness. This makes it simple for your students to find a book that will capture their attention and help them gain a love of reading. Check out the Book Wink archives to find a genre or topic that fits with your current curriculum. Topics include: heists, World War II, Sharks, 19th Centrury, Love, Mythology, Volcanos, Mermaids, Museum Mysteries, Sea Adventures, Parallel Universes, Popularity, South America, and Endangered Animals. A new book talk is added each month, this should have your students excited about reading year round! Book Wink would be a great site to have bookmarked or set as a homepage in the school library. After your students have become familiar with the book talk format on Book Wink, encourage them to host and record their own book talks.
Tips: Book Wink is free to use. You can support Book Wink through purchases from their online store or through a donation.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Book Wink in your classroom.
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!
What it is: This week (May 4-8) is teacher appreciation week. To show their appreciation, Learning A-Z is holding an open house to their fantastic collection of learning resources. This means that for one week you can access all online resources for free from Raz-Kids, Reading a-z, Science a-z, Writing a-z, Vocabulary a-z, and Reading Tutors. Raz Kids is a student centered website where students can listen to and read books online independently. Reading a-z is filled with thousands of printable and projectable resources including books, activity sheets, and assessments. Science a-z includes multilevel books, activity sheets, process activities and more. All are categorized by grade and topic. Writing a-z is a collection of resources to help teach basic writing skills. Vocabulary a-z is a website with a word bank of more than 8,000 words. The words are categorized by content area, functional, and resource. With this site teachers can build vocabulary lessons with activities for multiple exposures to words that leads to word mastery. Reading Tutors provides online resource packets for those tutoring kids in reading. It covers key reading areas from phonics to comprehension.
How to integrate Learning a-z into the classroom: The collection of resources accessible in Learning a-z is incredible. Take advantage of this teacher appreciation week freebie and start using Learning a-z materials in your classroom.
Tips: Sign up for a free pass during this open house week. Enjoy!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Learning a-z in your classroom.
The Children’s University of Manchester
What it is: The Children’s University of Manchester is a site created by the University of Manchester that has some excellent mini-lessons and interactive lessons for students on a variety of science, history, literacy, and art topics. Topics include the body and medicines, energy and the environment, ancient Egypt, the earth and beyond, teeth and eating, micro organisms, the brain and senses, talking textiles, and words. Each lesson is like an interactive text book where students are engaged in and discover learning. Each lesson includes an interactive lesson, downloadable resources, educational games, and videos. The level of interaction is outstanding for helping students to learn about each topic.
How to integrate The Children’s University of Manchester into the classroom: The interactive lessons on this site are perfect for instructing whole class using an interactive whiteboard. During the interactive lesson, students can be called on to interact with the material. Most lessons will have enough opportunities to involve the whole class. The site is also ideal for individual instruction in the computer lab setting. Introduce students to a new topic with these mini lessons, videos, and educational games that can be expanded on as part of a larger unit. These mini-lessons begin with a bio of a scientist, historian, etc. in the field of the topic. Read these bio’s together as a class and discuss these real-world applications to the topic being studied.
Tips: Computers will need Flash installed to display The Children’s University of Manchester lessons, games, and interactive activities.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Children’s University of Manchester in your classroom.
Emerald Island
What it is: Emerald Island is a great place for kids to play and learn more about the earth and ways that they can help the earth, perfect for Earth Day! Emerald Island is a virtual world created specifically for kids (6-12). Students can pioneer, prevail over, and protect the Island. Emerald Island is more than just a game, it is a story that students take part in. The students job is to help Tamino (the hero) to save Emerald Island (a green island) from Pirats (pirate rats). Each player plants seeds and cultivates gardens to replenish Emerald Island. Emerald Island helps students to learn about and experience important contributions that are part of an interconnected world. It provides young students with a sense of community and a beginning understanding of a global society. Students begin to build knowledge, empathy, and appreciation for an environment that emulates earth. While playing, students are empowered to make a difference and become true eco-heroes as they take on challenges to save the world. Along the way students meet other citizens of Emerald Island, many of whom give students tips about how they can save energy and be more responsible citizens.
How to integrate Emerald Island into the classroom: Emerald Island is a great game for students to play throughout the month of April as they learn about Earth Day and how to become more earth-conscious citizens. I love how Emerald Island involves students in a story and a quest to save a planet. On the way they learn about how they can be better citizens of our planet with helpful tips from the Emerald Island citizens. The games and activities help students to develop problem solving, reasoning, social, and computer skills. Emerald Island can be played as a whole class exploring and reading clues together with an interactive whiteboard or individually in a computer lab setting. You can expand on what students are learning in Emerald Island by keeping a class notebook of green tips that students learn in Emerald Island.
Tips: Emerald Island provides an outstanding introduction to registering for a website, it is easy enough to use with young students and reinforces Internet safety rules before the game begins.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Emerald Island in your classroom.
Tar Heel Reader
What it is: Tar Heel Reader is an excellent website that is “a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (i.e. switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens, and dedicated AAC devices). The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format.” There are hundreds of books on a variety of topics. In addition to the ready-made books, you and your students can create your own Tar Heel Readers. Students can add pictures to their readers from Flickr or by uploading their own images. Each of the stories can be read silently, or read to students with a child, male, or female voice (computer).
How to integrate Tar Heel Reader into the classroom: Tar Heel Reader is a great place for beginning or struggling readers and English language learners. Each of the stories has the option to be read silently or read aloud. Use Tar Heel Reader to create custom stories to motivate your struggling readers. You can include pictures of people they know, subjects they love, and make them a character in the story. The stories can be read online or downloaded in multiple formats. Because the stories can be downloaded as PowerPoint presentations, they can be opened in Apple’s Keynote and put on an iPod (Nano, Classic, or Touch) for mobile reading. Students will love searching the Flickr collection and creating their own stories on Tar Heel Reader. Older students can create books for younger grades describing science concepts (think weather, food chain, plant cycle, etc.). This is also a great site for students to use during National Poetry month (April) to create poetry. Use Tar Heel Readers as a ‘big book’ that your class can read together using an interactive whiteboard or a projector. Set up a reading listening center during silent reading time with Tar Heel Reader on your classroom computers.
Tips: Create a favorites page for your students. Although the site has been created for beginning readers, some books may be inappropriate for your students. There is a section of books for teens that are beginning readers. Note: to create a book of your own you will need to register for free. You will need an invitation code. I requested a code in the comment section and got a response within 10 minutes of my comment. You can send me a request Tweet http://twitter.com/ktenkely and I will send you an invitation code.
I learned about this site from Larry Ferazzlo’s excellent blog. Thanks for highlighting this great site Larry!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Tar Heel Reader in your classroom.
Selenia Science Comics
What it is: Selenia Science Comics is a fun way for students to learn about science concepts through investigations linked to comics. The comics and investigations focus on science inquiry and materials and their properties. Downloadable resources are provided with information on learning outcomes, background to support scientific inquiry, scientific principles behind the experiments, guidance on the investigation, and an equipment list. Each of the investigations is linked to a online comic that poses a problem which the student is invited to solve. There are six comics with investigations including investigating dissolving, cooling, glue, leaks, air resistance, and hardness. The site also features online games for students to play including wordsearches, quizzes, picture Sudoku, and spot the difference (like hidden pictures).
How to integrate Selenia Science Comics into the classroom: These Science Comics are an excellent way to get your students interested in science and thinking like a scientist. Through fun comics, investigations, and experiments students learn about key science concepts in a way that will grab their attention and make science exciting. Students can read the comics individually, in groups, or as a whole class with a projector or an interacitve whiteboard. Following the comics, discuss what the problem to be solved is, gather ideas for solving, and perform an investigation as a whole class or in groups to solve the problems. This solve the mystery approach to science is perfect for students inquisitive minds! Wordsearches and Quizzes on the Science Comics site are fun for students to complete in a computer lab setting or as a center on classroom computers. Students can play the picture Sudoku or Spot the Difference individually or broken into teams as a class with an interactive whiteboard. After students have seen the Selenia Science Comics and performed a few investigations, they can visit a site like Kerpoof or Animoto and create their own science comics about other concepts they are learning.
Tips: Be sure to visit the teacher page for great ideas and downloads of Investigations.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Selenia Science Concepts in your classroom.
iLearn ezine issue #1
iLearn is an ezine that I write all about Macs in education. Below is the first issue. The second issue is a work in progress and will hopefully be available next week.
Tikatok
What it is: Tikatok is a great website to excite your students about writing. With Tikatok each of your students can become a published author, create, share, and gain an authentic audience for their writing and illustrations, and receive writing support through the StorySparks system. StorySparks are a framework that gives students prompts at the bottom of their screen as they are writing their story. They are tips such as “the beginning of the story is where we define a setting, where does your story take place?” StorySparks come in different levels depending on your student ability. Using Tikatok, students can build literacy skills such as: writing, story structure, reading, comprehension, imagination, creativity, character development, story development, critical thinking, organization, drafting, and technology skills (typing, uploading pictures, saving, collaboration, and communication). Students have options when creating a story, they can choose a topic and idea to start a story or they can start from scratch with a blank story. The first option allows students to get help with the hardest part of story creation, thinking of an idea and beginning a story. Students fill in blanks about their story and get a basic story that they can embellish and add to. In the second option, students create a story from scratch. Teachers can register classes and keep track of the stories their students are creating. Teachers can also send students messages and comment on stories. There is also an option for students to work collaboratively on a story. Students can adjust their stories template, colors, text, and images. When students are finished, their story can be viewed online, printed out from a PDF file, or published and purchased for $15-20.
How to integrate Tikatok into the classroom: Tikatok is an excellent tool to bring into your writing classroom. It can be used as a publishing center for finished pieces of writing, as a collaborative writing project, or as a place to keep all written work. The ability for students to use story starters is outstanding for those kiddos who are forever saying “I don’t know what to write about”. They absolutely won’t be able to use that excuse here! Even if you don’t have the ability for all of your students to write stories on Tikatok because of limited computer access, use the story idea starters using a projector as students write in journals. I love the ability for teachers to keep track of all student writing in one place. Since Tikatok is online, students can work on their stories from any Internet connected computer making it especially useful for those students who are slow or those students who like to write novels. 🙂 When students are finished writing stories, have a reading day where students can read other student stories and leave comments and feedback. Only have access to one or two classroom computers? Have the whole class take part in a collaborative story. I love Tikatok for several reasons but the ability to view ‘published’ work online in book form is handy for the environment (it is green), for families who want to see their childs work, and the sense of authentic audience that it brings students. Student work is always higher quality when they know their audience base is larger than the teacher! I also love that the stories can be saved as PDF files and printed for classroom libraries or the school library. The ability to purchase bound books is motivating for many students and parents love to have their kids work officially published. In my classroom I will leave the stories online and send home a flier to parents about how to purchase a bound book if they would like to. So neat!
Tips: Tikatok has the ability to upload student illustrations, if you don’t have a scanner at your school, students artwork can be sent to Tikatok and will be uploaded within 24 hours. I like the idea of using a computer based drawing tool like Skitch for illustrations. Sign up for a teacher account today, it is so simple to get started!
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Tikatok in your classroom.