Category: Language Arts

Crick Web Literacy Resources

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Crick Web Literacy Resources2396 views

 

 

What it is:   Crick Web Literacy Resource is an excellent collection of interactive games for language development and practice in students.  The resources are excellent for individual student play, literacy group student play, or whole classroom play with an interactive white board.   Games include hangman, alphabetical order, collective nouns, compound words, sticky letters, matching pairs, street scene labels, seaside postcard, spelling checker, story sequencer, instruction sequencer, verb links, word dice, spelling word tester and word selector.  Yes, it is a treasure trove of literacy activities!

 

How to integrate Crick Web Literacy Resources into the classroom:  The Crick Web Resources can be easily integrated into your current literacy curriculum as an enrichment.  The activities fit right along side lessons you are already teaching but make them interactive for students.  I really like the Word Dice activity because students (or teacher) can add their own words to the dice to roll them.  The dice would be great for teaching nouns and adjectives (or any part of speech) on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector.  The dice are also outstanding for playing games unique to your classroom (maybe one that you created!)  The Sticky letters lets students create their own word wall or can be used with a projector for a class word wall.  I was also very impressed with the Spelling Rule Tester which helps students learn the rule for making singular nouns plural.  Students can input their own singular nouns and type what they think the plural is and then click on the tester to see if they are correct.  Take a look at the activities and see how they fit into your curriculum… my guess is that you will find at least one keeper in the group!

 

Tips:  If the Crick Web Literacy Resources look too difficult for your students, click on the Key Stage 1 tab at the top of the site for additional resources for younger students.

 

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Crick Web Literacy Resources in your classroom.

Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence2550 views

 

What it is:  Free Federal Resource for Educational Excellence (that is a mouthful, hence forth shall be known as FREE) is a excellent resource for finding teaching and learning resources from federal agencies.  Resources are broken down in to subjects arts and music, health and physical education, history and social studies, language arts, math, and science.  Subjects are further broken down in to sub categories making it simple to find exactly what you are looking for quickly.  There is also a great section called U.S. Time periods where you can search US history resources by time period.  New sites are added to FREE regularly, you can get the new resources delivered to you by subscribing to the FREE RSS feed.  The teaching and learning resources linked to from the FREE site are valuable to your classroom and will save you loads of time in searching for quality resources.  

 

How to integrate Free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence into the classroom:  Use FREE to find quality online resource for any subject that you are teaching.  Some of the linked websites are specifically for teachers and some are activities and sites for students.  Use this as a first stop when you are creating new lessons or enhancing the good old standby lessons.  The FREEresources will enhance your lessons with rich content for your students.  

 

Tips:  Sign up for the FREE RSS feed for new resources delivered to you several times a week.  

 

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using FREE in your classroom.

 

Smile Box

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Smile Box3387 views

 

What it is:  Smile Box is a free application that I love.  The scrapbooker in me loves Smile Box for all of the digital scrapbooking qualities.  The teacher in me loves all of the classroom applications that Smile Box could be used for.  Smile Box is a free software that lets students combine photos, videos, and music into one amazing multimedia presentation.  Smile Box used to only be available for PC’s but now have a Mac version that is outstanding.  The Mac version integrates seamlessly with iPhoto and iTunes without any additional plugins!  Students can choose from over 700 design templates to use as a base to combine media.  The final Smile Box project can be embedded in a blog, sent via email, or printed.  

 

How to integrate Smile Box into the classroom:  Smile Box has many classroom applications.  The software is a great place for students to do some digital storytelling combining pictures, podcasts, and video.  Students could create a weekly paper about the happenings in your classroom, a memory book for each student for the end of the year, etc.  Smile Box is also a great place for students to make Mothers/Fathers day cards, Christmas cards, Happy Thanksgiving greeting, etc.  Students can also use Smile Box to create rich content reports.  For example, instead of writing a paragraph about what they learned while studying about Russia, students could create a media rich postcard about Russia.  

 

Tips:  Smile Box is simple to use and very intuitive.  Students will love creating with 

Smile Box!  

 

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Smile Box in your classroom.

Flowgram

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Flowgram3408 views

 

What it is: Flowgram is a website that makes it easier to teach your students online.  Flowgram has a simple platform that makes is easy for anyone to package and share anything on the web.  Flowgram can combine slideshows, documents, pictures, screencasts, websites, audio, video etc. with your voice narration.  This makes it simple to teach any concept using the web.  Flowgram requires no download, it runs directly from your Internet browser.  Recipients of the Flowgram can fully interact with anything that is on the Flowgram (webpage links, video, etc.).  Flowgrams can be sent via email, linked to, or embedded in a blog or website for viewing.   

 

How to integrate Flowgram into the classroom:  Flowgram is a wonderful way to create interactive tutorials for students learning any technology concept.  Beyond that, Flowgram makes it easy for you to take your students on virtual field trips on any subject.  What I love about Flowgram, is that it meets individual student needs.  Students can work at their own pace and interact with any part of the Flowgram as many times as they need.  It would also be a great place to create reviews for tests, and perfect for students who have missed school.  Teach your students to make Flowgrams and start your own library of student created tutorials on any subject.  Students teaching students is powerful!  Because you can narrate Flowgrams, they are wonderful to use with students who struggle with reading and navigating the Internet on their own…it is like having you sit right next to them, leading with your undivided attention.  

 

Tips:  I have started creating a weekly Flowgram for teachers at my school called Tenkely’s Tips.  I will be creating a new page with a collection of the weekly Flowgrams.  Feel free to check them out! :)

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Flowgram in your classroom.

 

 

The Great Plant Escape

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on The Great Plant Escape4192 views

 

What it is: The Great Plant Escape is a wonderful interactive website created by the University of Illinois Extension for fourth and fifth grade students.  Every school that I know of teaches a plants unit at some point in the curriculum.  This is a great way for your students to interact with their learning in science class.  Each lesson in The Great Plant Escape introduces students to plant science.  Activities engage students in math, science, language arts, social studies, music and even art.  The Great Plant Escapeincludes six mystery cases that students must help solve.  They do this in a variety of ways depending on the activity.  This site can be played in English or Spanish making it great for your ESL or ELL students as well as those kiddos learning Spanish as a second language!

 

How to integrate The Great Plant Escape into the classroom:  The Great Plant Escape offers a lot of flexibility depending on your classroom setup and student abilities.  Students can work individually in a lab setting or in groups as a center in the one or two computer classroom.  This site would also be appropriate for whole class instruction with a projector or interactive whiteboard.  Each activity has an accompanying teacher section that will familiarize you with the material covered in that “case”.  Be sure to check out the Links page for some excellent resources for additional lessons and websites dedicated to teaching kids about Plants and life cycles.  This site is sure to add a lot of interest to your plant unit in science.  My students have really enjoyed it!

 

Tips:  Visit the Teacher’s Guide for a free poster for The Great Plant Escape for your classroom.  

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using The Great Plant Escape in your classroom.

 

Free Rice…New and Improved!

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Free Rice…New and Improved!3821 views

 

What it is: Free Rice is an amazing website that I have posted about two or three times in the past.  It has been a site where students can play a vocabulary game and earn 20 grains of rice for each correct answer.  The grains of rice are distributed to hungry people all over the world through the UN World Food Program.  Two of my students came in this morning with a printout of how many grains of rice they had earned over the weekend on the Free Rice website (we have a contest going each year to see which class and grade can earn the most grains of rice).   They were unusually excited about this bunch of earned rice because they discovered some new features on Free Rice.  Free Rice is now much more than a vocabulary game!  Students can choose the subject they would like to play.  As they increase in all types of knowledge, there is the added bonus of helping people in need.  Free Rice subjects now include art (famous paintings), chemistry (chemical symbols), English grammar, geography (world capitals), language learning (French, German, Italian, Spanish), math (multiplication), and of course…vocabulary!  Free rice is an incredible place for students to practice facts for a wide range of subject areas.  Some additional new features: now students can click on a speaker next to a word to hear it read to them and can change the level of difficulty manually!  I am so impressed with the site and impressed with my students for finding and sharing these new treasures!

 

How to integrate Free Rice into the classroom:  With all of the new subjects on Free Rice, it is the perfect place to send your students for fact practice.  Whether they are learning a new language, or need some practice with their multiplication facts Free Rice is a great place to practice.  What I love about Free Rice is the added bonus of character education.  Free Rice teaches students compassion and empathy.  My students truly play the game not for the learning taking place, but because it makes them feel good to do something for others.  Kids often feel like there is nothing they can personally do to help a cause…Free Rice gives them a voice and the ability to make a change.  It empowers them.  


Tips:  Set up Free Rice on your classroom computers as a place for students to go when they are finished early and need a little something extra.  Free Rice is also excellent in a computer lab setting and for home play.  

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Free Rice in your classroom.

 

Studio4Learning

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Studio4Learning10132 views

 

What it is: Studio4Learning is a great site for students in fifth through twelfth grades.  It provides students and teachers with free, high-quality videos that can be watched online.  There are ten categories of videos to choose from Math, Sciences, English, Languages, Social Sciences, Business, Arts, Test Prep, Find a Job, and Tutor Corps.  Each category is broken down into several sub categories.  Videos are engaging and teach key skills and concepts in a fun way.  Students can also use the sites search feature to search for a specific topic.

How to integrate Studio4Learning into the classroom:  Students can use Studio4Learning as a place to stop for homework help and to learn or review concepts learned in class.  Teachers can use Studio4Learning as a center, with a projector, or on individual student computers to illustrate new teaching or as a place where students can review information.  Studio4Learning is free to use, if students register (also free) they can bookmark videos.  Teachers can upload class topic videos to Studio4Learning, again free. (Are you seeing a theme here? It is all free!)  As an added bonus, if you have a class website or blog, you can embed videos directly into your site for students to watch on any subject you are studying in class.  


Tips:  Browse through a couple of videos on the site, I know you will be hooked!

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Studio4Learning in your classroom.

Picturing America Part 2

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Picturing America Part 21690 views

  

What it is: I have posted about Picturing America before (March 18th) but I just received my Picturing America kit yesterday and had to post again and make sure everyone was taking advantage of this amazing resource.  I knew that the kit was going to be good but I truly had no idea how AMAZED I would be.  The quality of materials is amazing (there really isn’t another word for it!)  I’ll post pictures of my actual kit so you can get an idea for just what you get in this kit.  Did I mention it was FREE?!  The Picturing America program is completely free for schools and libraries and provides them with 40 high-quality masterpieces, a teacher resources book, and the program website.  The National Endowment for the Humanities gives a grant making this all possible.  As the recipient your only task is to write up a one page report about your experience.  They give almost a calendar year for you to do this.  

 

How to integrate Picturing America into your curriculum: What better way to teach your students American history than actually bringing history into the classroom and providing students with real ties to the past? I wish that I had the opportunity to learn history this way!Picturing America is going to bring authentic conversation into your classroom about American history. It would be the perfect use of web 2.0 collaborative tools where students can discuss the history and the art in Picturing America. Picturing America masterpieces would also be easily integrated into the art classroom or in literacy as writing inspiration. The teacher resource book is going to provide you with wonderful tie ins to your current curriculum. This is an amazing program, I encourage you to take part in it!  These masterpieces will beautify your walls and provide teaching opportunities year round regardless of the age of students you teach.  

 

Tips: Apply for the Picturing America program today. I can’t tell you how completely blown away I am by this program!!!

 

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Picturing America in your classroom.

Scholastic Listen & Read

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Scholastic Listen & Read3294 views

 

What it is: The Scholastic website is full of truly amazing resources.  Today I ran across one that I hadn’t used before called Scholastic Listen & Read, I heard about it on Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day.  Scholastics Listen and Read is for students in first and second grade.   The site does exactly what it’s name implies, it lets students listen to non-fiction stories and read along.  There are 11 non-fiction stories for first grade social studies including The Path of the President, What Does the President Do, and a Celebration of Earth Day.  There are 15 non-fiction stories focused on animals and food for first grade students.  Second grade students have access to 10 non-fiction stories focused on social studies including Constitution Day and Welcome to a Pilgrim Village.  There are also 11 short non-fiction stories for second grade students focused on animals and food.  Social Studies is a hard subject to teach first and second grade students from a text book because the vocabulary and reading can be especially challenging.  Scholastic Listen and Read solves this problem wonderfully with short, easy to read non-fiction stories that are read aloud to your students.  As an added bonus, each story includes the Scholastic Word Wizard.  This tool floats right on top of the web page.  At any point, students can click on a word in the story and the Scholastic Word Wizard will give them an easy to read definition of the word.  Students can also type a word into the Word Wizard to look it up.  

 

How to integrate Scholastic Listen & Read into the classroom:  Scholastic Listen & Read is ideal for any classroom or computer setting.  The non-fiction stories could be read together as a class with a projector and speaker setup, individually in a computer lab setting, or in small groups as a center in the one or two computer classroom.  The stories are easy to understand and the ability to look up words right from the story makes it a great place for students to learn key social studies and animals and food concepts.  

 

Tips:  Scholastic Listen & Read is a great place for ESL and ELL kids to go for English practice and vocabulary!

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Scholastic Listen & Read in your classroom.

 

Book Punch

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Book Punch2217 views

 

What it is: Book Punch is a new site dedicated to helping students in grades 3-9 become stronger readers.  The site takes the most popular books read by schools in grades 3 through 9 and provides guided reading prompts about the reading improving overall reading comprehension.  Book Punch encourages critical thinking skills and teaches students how to be in control of their own learning (this to me is the purpose of education).  Students are led through the writing and thinking process as they read books with Book Punch.  Interactive prompts help students to focus their thinking about a particular book.  There are hundreds of built in tips and support that help students to gather ideas, organize thoughts, revise, edit, etc. in response to the literature they are reading.  The site walks them in a very concise manner through the reading/thinking process.  Students each get a login to the Book Punch site and can work at their own pace, making it easy for you to differentiate instruction in your classroom.  As a teacher, you can assign a book to your whole class or to individual students making it easy to meet every student at their current reading level.   The site offers teachers lesson plans, activities, classroom management ideas, tips and strategies, and classroom aids.  Book Punch is not a free service, but they offer a free demo writing activity for every book as well as a free pilot program to use with students for 30 days (any two books of your choice.)  Even if you can’t fit it into the budget for this year, Book Punch is definitely worth the visit if you teaching reading and writing for 3rd-9th grade.  The free demos are wonderful and will give you a great jumping off point for your reading curriculum.  

How to integrate Book Punch into the classroom:  I LOVE sites that teach students how to think critically.  For me, that is what education is all about.  If I know how to gather information, how to follow directions, how to write, and how to think critically about what I find…I am going to do just fine in the real world!  Book Punch leads students through the reading/thinking process.  It meets students where they are at and the helps meet individual needs.  The site gives you the opportunity to find out where gaps are occurring in student reading and comprehension so that you can work with students more effectively.  Book Punch is intended to be an individual student program that would be best in a computer lab or mobile lab setting.  However, depending on how your time is set up, I think that Book Punch could be used effectively in the one or two computer classroom as a center that students visit during reading time.  The demo questions would be perfect for use with a projector and whole class discussion or writing.  Book Punch works right into your current curriculum and literature, making it simple to implement.  The ability for students to login to Book Punch at school or from home makes it an even sweeter deal!


Tips:  Try out Book Punch for free and be sure to get it on the budget for next year if you can’t fit it in this year, it is very reasonably priced and well worth it! 

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Book Punch in your classroom.