Category: Language Arts

Mrs. P’s Magic Library

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Mrs. P’s Magic Library3588 views

 

What it is: I heard about this wonderful website from Larry Ferlazzo on his blog last week and have been exploring it ever since.  Mrs. P’s Magic Library is a free website for kids that celebrates reading and books.  Mrs. P is the librarian at the Magic Library, she brings story time to life with video stories and read-alongs.  Her library also features fun animated games and lots of crazy characters that students will love.   When students enter this virtual library they will have access to Mrs. P reading them a story, fun interactive games, and videos (lots more to explore!!).  The whole idea behind the library is to introduce students to great literature read to them in classic story-time style (not just listening to an audio book).  This virtual library is about as close as you can get to the real thing!  Your students will love Mrs. P.

 

How to integrate Mrs. P’s Magic Library into the classroom:    Mrs. P’s Magic Library is an outstanding addition to any classroom.  Use Mrs. P.com as a place to begin silent reading one day a week.  Use a projector and speakers so that Mrs. P can read to your class before they begin their silent reading time.  Mrs. P’s excellent storytelling abilities will have even your reluctant readers eager to read.  Tell parents about Mrs. P so that students can enjoy the virtual library from school or home.  Mrs. P’s Magic Library makes a great reading/ listening center and the options to read along or listen make it ideal for any students ability level.

 

Tips:   Mrs. P’s Magic Library requires high speed Internet access because of all the video and interactive games on the site.  This one may eat up some serious bandwidth in a computer lab setting!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Mrs. P’s Magic Library in your classroom.

Watch Know

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Watch Know1765 views

 

 

What it is:   Watch Know is a new educational video collection site.  The site has not been officially launched and is still in beta version but already has a number of outstanding educational videos all offered for free!  Watch Know brings together the best educational videos online into one convenient-to-search, safe site.  Teachers, parents, and kids come together to find the videos, the videos are then approved for appropriateness by a media review panel made up mostly by school teachers and librarians.  The site is very easy to search by category, topic, or keywords.  Every video that I viewed was outstanding!

 

How to integrate Watch Know into the classroom:   Watch Know is a great place to find educational videos to introduce any topic to students.  The videos are wonderful to use as the anticipatory portion of a lesson to capture students interest in new topics, themes, or subjects.  The videos are also well used as discussion starters for classroom debates/discussions.  Because the videos are collected from all around the Internet but hosted on the Watch Know website, you can bring educational You Tube videos into the classroom even if your school blocks You Tube.  Encourage students to interact and think critically about the video by rating the videos and leaving comments.

 

Tips:   Videos are collected from all over the Internet from sites like SlideBoom to sites like You Tube.  Some videos are interactive.  I particularly liked the Logic puzzle interactive video where a logic puzzle is presented, kids can work out the puzzle and then click the video for the correct answer.  

 

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

Canvastic dot NET

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Canvastic dot NET15362 views

 

What it is:   Canvastic dot NET is the online beta version of a drawing software program I have written a post about in the past.  Canvastic is basically a Kid Pix type program without all the “toys” it lets students draw and write without being distracted by the ability to “blow things up” or “flush” their picture.  Canvastic dot NET is the FREE online version of the program.  The online version doesn’t have all the bells and whistle that the software version does but it is an excellent online drawing program that lets students save their work to a flash drive or computer and print out their work.  It also has a great replay button that lets them replay and watch the picture they just drew.  

 

How to integrate Canvastic dot NET into the classroom:   The online version of Canvastic is wonderful for those students who use software at school and wish they had it for home projects.  Canvastic can be used for all kinds of amazing classroom projects, some of the ideas included on the Canvastic website are:

abstract art
animations
bitmap art
books
brochures
cards
cartoons
characters
charts
conversations
covers
decorations
designs
diagrams
doodles
drawings
explanations
flow charts
flyers
graphs
illustrations
interviews
landscapes
letters
lists
logos
maps
math art
notes
pages
paragraphs
pictures
plans
plays
poems
portraits
posters
presentations
questions
quotes
reports
scenes
science reports
sentences
slide shows
stories
vector art
write-ups

The Canvastic replay button allows students to watch the process of a drawing.  Students could use the replay feature for a plant cycle unit.  Have students start out by drawing the plant cycle in order, when they replay their mini movie, it shows the plant cycle in action….very cool!

 

Tips:   Check out Canvastic.com to get great lesson ideas and resources for using Canvastic in your classroom!

 

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

Kid Thing

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Kid Thing2449 views

 

What it is:   I could have sworn that I had written a post about Kid Thing in the past, but after running several searches on my posts, I came up empty.  Kid Thing is a secure digital media player for kids in grades k-4.  Kid Thing accesses the Internet but is not a web browser.  It is more like an iTunes type environment designed specifically for kids.  There are no advertisements on Kid Thing and because it is not a web browser, there is no place to type a web address where students could inadvertently stumble on inappropriate content.  The Kid Thing player is free to download and they often have free downloads of learning and interactive activities for students.  There is also a Kid Thing store where additional books, videos, games, and creative arts can be downloaded to the Kid Thing player.  Everything in the store is very reasonably priced.  Right now Kid Thing is offering a free download in addition to the player, a 25 day Countdown to Christmas.  Each day students will get to open a new kid thing Surprise with a game to play.  After the game has been opened, it will stay on the Kid Thing player to be played over and over again.  

 

How to integrate Kid Thing into the classroom:   The Kid Thing player would make an excellent reading center, or learning center for phonics, language arts, and math.  The player is very user friendly for students.  Start each morning with the free Countdown for Christmas, let each student have a turn to be the one to open the Countdown for Christmas surprise.  Throughout the day, let students visit the Kid Thing center to complete the new activity for the day.  Kid Thing is great for the one or two classroom computers, a computer lab, a projector or interactive whiteboard, and for home use.  Encourage parents to download Kid Thing at home and add books and games that are appropriate for their child.

 

Tips:   At the moment Kid Thing only runs on PC’s running Window’s XP and Vista.  There is a Mac version in the works (hooray!!) and if you visit the download page you can sign up to be the first to know when the Mac version is available.  

 

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

Picturing America Bookshelf

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Picturing America Bookshelf2292 views

 

What it is:  I have written a few posts about Picturing America but I have to do another one!  Picturing America is now offering a free Bookshelf to k-12 libraries.  The Picturing America Bookshelf is a set of classic books for readers in kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Applications for the Picturing America Bookshelf are being accepted online now through Jan. 30, 2009.  All that is required of your school is that you would encourage young readers to explore the Picturing America books.  The great literature included in the Bookshelf can provide students with a window into our nation’s character, ideals, and goals.  The books will give students the chance to experience some of the most iconic times, people, places, and stories in American history.  The Bookshelf comes with the following titles:

 

Kindergarten to Grade 3: Walt Whitman: Words for America by Barbara Kerley; Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull; Cosechando esperenza: La historia de César Chávaz by Kathleen Krull (translated by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy); The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Sweet Music in Harlem by Debbie Taylor.

Grades 4 to 6: The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich; American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne; On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck; Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriette Gillem Robinet; The Captain’s Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe by Roland Smith.

Grades 7 to 8: The Life and Death of Crazy Horse by Russell Freedman; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving; La leyanda de Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (translated by Manual Broncano); Across America on an Emigrant Train by Jim Murphy; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Grades 9 to 12: Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis; Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge; Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck; Viajes Con Charley – En Busca de América by John Steinbeck (translated by José Manuel Alvarez Flórez); Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.
Bonus: Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out by The National Children’s Book and Literary Alliance; 1776: The Illustrated Edition by David McCullough.

 

These books would be excellent companions to the Picturing America art and curriculum!  Be sure to apply today, if the Picturing America art is any indication of the quality of the bookshelf, it will be amazing!

 


 

Tips:   Be sure to visit National Endowment for the Humanities site EDSITEment for sample lesson plans and resources to enhance the use of the  Bookshelf in your classroom or library.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Picturing America Bookshelf in your school.

Group Table

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Group Table10789 views

 

What it is: “GroupTable is a web-based software and success network developed specifically to help student groups improve document management, project planning and communication.”  Group Table helps students stay organized with all of their group projects and study groups in one place.  Students can see all of their groups in one place including any file uploads, posts, tasks, upcoming events and more.  Each student and group has their own binder on Group Table that allows them to organize, store and share word documents, presentations, and spreadsheets in one easy-to-use location.  Group Table has the ability to create to do lists and assign tasks or remind others about upcoming events.  Each group gets a dedicated chat room and discussion board with Group Table making collaboration and communication simple and efficient.  This site was created by college students for students.  Although the target audience is high school and college age students, Group Table could be effectively used in the secondary elementary classroom and the middle school classroom.

 

How to integrate Group Table into the classroom:   For high school and college students, Group Table is a great site to introduce students to for their own group creation.  Secondary elementary and middle school students would benefit from a teacher led group on Group Table.  This is a great way to introduce your students to effective collaboration, communication, and 21st century literacy skills.  It is essential that students learn how to collaborate on projects using web 2.0 technologies and Group Table provides the perfect space to practice.

 

Tips:   Teachers, create a study group for your classroom that your students can join.

 

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

Education Diigo

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Education Diigo2176 views

 

What it is:  Education Diigo offers k-12 and higher ed educators premium Diigo accounts!  The premium accounts provide the ability to create student accounts for whole classes, students of the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can easily share bookmarks, annotations, and group forums, privacy settings so that only classmates and teachers can communicate with students, and any advertisments on Education Diigo are education related.  If you aren’t familiar with Diigo, it is a social bookmarking website where students can collaborate on the web.  Diigo works in to a project based learning environment nicely and allows for exploratory learning and collaboration.  

 

How to integrate Education Diigo into the classroom:   Education Diigo is an outstanding place for students to solve problems together.  Provide students with a problem and send them on a web scavenger hunt to find the answer, students can post their findings and notes about their findings on Diigo.  Students can collaborate online to solve the problem.  Education Diigo is also a great place for “teachers to highlight critical information within text and images and write comments directly on the web pages, to collect and organize series of web pages and web sites into coherent and thematic sets, and to facilitate online conversations within the context of the materials themselves.”  This feature makes Education Diigo a great place to create webquest type lessons and virtual field trips around the web.    Diigo also allows teachers to collaborate and share resources among themselve. Education Diigo is a must for students who are learning to complete web-based research!

 

Tips:   Your Education Diigo account must be approved so sign up today!

 

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

Build Your Wild Self

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Build Your Wild Self3104 views

 

What it is:  Build Your Wild Self is a website I heard about on A Geeky Momma’s blog (which I thoroughly enjoy!).  The site fits perfectly into my classroom this week as our Book Fair theme this year is “Safari”.   The site, created by the New York Zoos and Aquarium, lets students create a character called their “Wild Self”.  Students can choose a character and then add crazy hair, arms, legs, etc. to make them wild. There are even fun sound effects for the different backgrounds they add! 

 

How to integrate Build Your Wild Self into the classroom:   This would be a great site to use with students after reading a book like “Where the Wild Things Are”.  Students could create their own Wild Things and write themselves a Wild Things story featuring themselves.  This is also a great site to use with kindergarten and first grade students who are learning about different animals.  As they build their Wild Self they can name what animal the crazy part belongs to.  Older elementary students also enjoy working on this website, my students created a wild self for their safari passports for our book fair this week and really enjoyed it from kindergarten through fifth grade.

 

Tips:   The Wild Self can be printed out, sent to a friend, or saved as a desktop.  

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Build Your Wild Self in your classroom.

Middle Spot

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Middle Spot3131 views

 

What it is:   Middle Spot is a spectacular new search engine for teachers, librarians, and students performing research.  Middle Spot lets you see your results, you can pan and zoom individual website results.  Workpads allow you to save and annotate results and sort by collections.  Workpads can also be shared with others (colleagues, students, or professional learning communities).  What I love about Middle Spot is the blending of the traditional search results (listed along the left side of the screen) with the snapshot results where you can see the results.  When your cursor scrolls over a screen shot, the related traditional result and information is highlighted on the left making it very quick and easy to find exactly the results you are looking for.  Middle Spot allows you to search the web or search images, very handy!

 

How to integrate Middle Spot into the classroom:   Middle Spot is a great place for students to do research because of the ability to organize their finds and ideas right in the search engine with workpads.  If students are working on group projects, they can share their findings and workpads with others in their group.  Middle Spot is also ideal for teachers, collect your search results in one place based on topic or curriculum objectives and share with colleagues.  Create your own “webquest” with Middle Spot by creating and sharing a workspace with your students.  Make workpads for whole class lessons with an interactive whiteboard or projector to save yourself from typing in each url for the activity individually.

 

Tips:   Middle Spot is truly my new favorite search engine.  Your students will love the ability to take notes about websites and cite their sources as they go in the workpads.  It really is well designed for the classroom setting!

 

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

Daft Doggy

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Daft Doggy2723 views

 

What it is:   I found Daft Doggy several months ago and put it in my “explore more” folder.  The Daft Doggy site is in beta version and it isn’t obvious upon first visit what exactly it does.  Today I had a little bit of time to go and explore the site more and I am glad I did!  Daft Doggy is a free service that lets you record web browsing sessions, play them back, and share recorded sessions with others.  It is very simple to use (only 2 clicks to start recording!)  You type in the starting point URL and Daft Doggy keeps track of all subsequent URL’s along the way.  Daft Doggy doesn’t record everything you do, it only remembers each separate URL you visit in a sequence, it does this both within the site or a separate external site.  When students or teachers view the session, a blue bar at the top of the page shows the URL along with reverse and next navigation.  Each recorded session is assigned a unique link making it easy to share with students or other staff.  After you have recorded the sequence of sites, you have the option of labeling each site and even adding a voice recording that will play when that site is being viewed.  

 

How to integrate Daft Doggy into the classroom:   Daft Doggy is a great way to lead students through a series of activities on the web.  Younger students especially who would have trouble keeping track of and typing mulitiple URL’s would benefit from a lesson recorded with Daft Doggy.  Daft Doggy is also perfect for whole class instruction with a projector when mulitiple sites will be visited.  The recorded session will keep you on track and keep you from having to type in multiple URL’s while teaching.  As a computer teacher and technology integration specialist, I like Daft Doggy for the ability to make quick guides for students and teachers as well as tutorials.  The Daft Doggy recordings are quick and easy to create making them ideal for quickly answering web questions or leading colleagues/students through websites.  Make your own online virtual field trips or webquests for students using Daft Doggy.  Student projects can also be enhanced with Daft Doggy.  Students can create web presentations with site to share with peers.  This would also be a great site to use as students are researching.  Instead of trying to remember the exact search words and links they used to find a site, they can record their research so that they can re-trace their steps at a later time if needed.  So cool!

 

Tips:   This beta site definitely doesn’t have any frills, it is very basic but it gets the job done easily and quickly.  To get started just create a login and you are ready to go! 

 

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