Category: Interactive Whiteboard

Computer Lab Favorites

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Computer Lab Favorites2210 views

What it is: Computer Lab Favorites is a collection of 50 one stop learning activities created
by Scholastic. The activities are self contained and interactive.
Students can play Dude the Dog, Scientific Labeling, Human Body Math
Hunt, Around the World, Mapman challenge, Puzzled States, Classify
This, Moon Olympics, Pick the Perfect Word, Choose a Word, and many
more. Students can spin a virtual game wheel to play a game. The site
is broken down by subject and also by grade levels k-2 and 3-5.

How to integrate Computer Lab Favorites into the classroom:
As the school year winds down, allow your students to review all they
have learned over the course of the year by playing these great
interactive activities. Students can spin the game spinner and have a
game selected for them or choose a specific subject or topic of play.
Save this site for next year, it is the perfect way to introduce a
topic or put some life back into reviews! The games are content rich
and a lot of fun to play!

Tips: This would be a good site to set as the home page on your classroom
computers. It has enough games and content to keep you coming back all
year long!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Computer Lab Favorites in your classroom.

Phun

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Phun2118 views

What it is: As promised today I am reviewing the Mac version of Crayon Physics…it isn’t exactly the same, but has very similar principles and applications. Phun is a ‘playground’ where students can be creative while learning about physics principles such as resistance, friction, energy, gravity, force, etc. Phun isn’t a game with a goal like Crayon Physics, instead it is an area where students can create their own shapes and rules and see how they interact when different principles such as gravity and force are applied. Phun is a free program and available for both Mac and PC.


How to integrate Phun into the classroom: Like Crayon Physics, students can use Phun to learn about principles of gravity, energy, force, velocity, etc. Students will enjoy having an environment to test out physics concepts and conceptualize experiments. Phun may have even more application for the physics classroom because it isn’t a puzzle to figure out, but a creative environment to explore and test.

Tips: Because Phun is a free download, students can use this software at school and at home. Cool!

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

Crayon Physics

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Crayon Physics2544 views

What it is: Crayon Physics is a freeware puzzle game. The object of the game is to guide a ball to a star. Students do not have direct control of the ball, but interact with it by drawing shapes with the mouse to get the ball to roll from one platform to another. Any object that students draw reacts as it would if it were subject to gravity. There are some great physics lessons to be taught with this game! Crayon Physics is a Windows only download right now…(I know, bummer for those of us who are Mac users! Not to worry, I have found a Mac version that I will be posting tomorrow.)

How to integrate Crayon Physics into the classroom: Allow students to interact with Crayon Physics to learn about principles of gravity, energy, force, velocity, etc. The game is very entertaining and even mildly addictive. Your students will love learning physics with Crayon Physics. It will bring your class and all those formulas to life for your students.

Tips: Take a look at the video above for a good look at Crayon Physics in action.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Crayon Physics in your classroom.

Leon Math Movies

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Leon Math Movies3918 views


What it is: Leon Math Movies is a part of the I Know That website that I have posted about in the past. After introducing this to a new set of second graders today I knew I needed to write about this specific part of I Know That. The kids absolutely love Leon Math Movies and it helps them practice their math skills (truly they will play this one at home without being asked). It is a great way to reinforce math facts and give some great math fact practice. Best of all it can be adapted to whatever math skill they are learning. They can practice counting, skip counting, all levels of addition, all levels of subtraction, multiplication, division, and a mix of addition and subtraction. Leon is a chameleon that goes on adventures (think Indiana Jones), as the cartoon plays, students have to solve math problems on the on screen PDA to help Leon during his adventures. The storylines and graphics are really well done and fun. Students can choose from 3 math adventure movies and any combination of practice they need. When they finish an adventure they can print out a certificate showing their math fact progress. So much fun!!

How to integrate Leon Math Movies into the classroom: Leon Math Movies are perfect for any classroom or lab configuration. The movies are fun for whole class participation on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector, call students up one at a time to help Leon by solving math problems. This is also a good one to set up on the classroom computers as a math center that students can visit throughout the week. Or, you can use it in the computer lab setting with each student playing individually. If you live in an area where you can assign this one for homework, I guarantee you will have full class participation!

Tips: There are banner ads on the I Know That website, I use these as an opportunity to talk to my class about what an ad is and what the advertisers want us to do. There is also an option to register before playing a game. I always tell my students to choose the “Maybe Later” option so that we don’t have to worry about keeping track of usernames and passwords.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Leon Math Movies in your classroom.

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Writing Repeater with Loopy

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Writing Repeater with Loopy11189 views

What it is: Writing Repeater with Loopy is a virtual piece of paper that lets you write letters or words and plays them back with looping.

How to integrate Writing Repeater with Loopy into the classroom: The Writing Repeater is ideally used with an interactive whiteboard. Teachers or students can demonstrate handwriting and the Writing Repeater will play back the correct letter formation in a loop. This is perfect for teaching handwriting, you can show the technique with your infared pen and the Writing Repeater plays the formation of the letters over and over while students practice on their own. It is also ideal for students who are struggling with handwriting, they can use the Writing Repeater and you can replay their formation to see where the disconnect is.

Tips: The online site will save your handwriting sample (even if you close your web browser) until you create a new sample.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Writing Repeater in your classroom.

Help a Hedgehog

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Help a Hedgehog4830 views

What it is: Help a Hegehog is a phonics game where students read a set of words as fast as they can to beat a timer. The online game saves the last score so students can work to beat their score. You can choose from a set list of words, or enter your own words based on what your class is working on.

How to integrate Help a Hedgehog into the classroom: Help a Hedgehog can be used on your interactive whiteboard with the whole class, individually, or in a remedial reading classroom. If you play as a class, each day students can work to beat the previous days score. Individually and students can try to beat their own score. This is a great way to start phonics instruction each morning and as practice for new vocabulary. Enter your own vocabulary for students to practice spelling words, science or math vocabulary, etc. Extend the game by adding the rule that students have to define the vocabulary word before they can move onto the next word.

Tips: This site is intended for phonics instruction but would be appropriate for secondary elementary as well with the addition of your own vocabulary. You could even use this tool for math practice, type in problems instead of words and request that the students give the answer before moving onto the next problem. This would be a great way to start your math class with some mental math!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Help a Hedgehog in your classroom.

Interactive Word Tree

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Interactive Word Tree2275 views

 

What it is: The Interactive Word Tree is perfect for use on your new Wiimote Whiteboard (or any other interactive whiteboard.) The Word Tree allows students or teachers to input up to 26 phonemes or words that become apples on the interactive tree.

How to integrate the Interactive Word Tree into your curriculum: The Interactive Word Tree is very flexible based on your classroom needs. Type in short vowel and long vowels and have the students take turns moving all the short vowel words to one side of the tree and all the long vowel words to the other side. Or, type in spelling words and have students move the apples into alphabetical order. Or, type in science vocabulary and students can categorize words on the tree based on similarities. You can also type in words that form compound words, prefixes and suffixes, etc. for students to practice matching apples. It would also be a wonderful tool for matching rhyming words, synonyms, antonyms, the possibilities are truly limitless since you can type in your own words. Another great feature: your words are automatically saved in the list even if you close the web browser so you don’t have to re-type in the words or vocabulary each day. You can add, delete, or change words at any time. Such a cool tool! As I am writing this I keep thinking of additional uses like preparing for a matching test, simple math problems with the problem on one apple and the answer on another.

Tips: You don’t have to use this great tool with the interactive whiteboard, it would also be a great center for the one to two computer classroom or even for use in the computer lab.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Interactive Word Tree in your classroom.

Wiimote Whiteboard in action

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Wiimote Whiteboard in action2529 views

So here it is…I finally got a few quiet min to get a video made. It isn’t the greatest but hopefully it will show you just how great the Wiimote Whiteboard is. My students are going nuts for it. As soon as they walk into my classroom I hear “Sweet a Wii, are we using a Wii today?” It immediately hooks them, not sure how long that benefit will be there but for this week I am loving it!

Kindle Lab

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Kindle Lab2942 views

What it is: Carrying on with the interactive whiteboard awesomeness, here is free interactive whiteboard software for your Wiimote Whiteboard. If you have a Mimio, e-beam, Smartboard, Active Board, or Promethean, this software will also work with them! Kindle Lab will run on both PC and Mac. Now, I could give you a long explanation of everything that Kindle Lab can do but I am of the mindset that a picture (or in this case video) is worth a thousand words and can do a much better job of it than I can….

 

 

How to integrate Kindle Lab into your curriculum: Kindle Lab is meant to be used to enhance all of your existing curriculum. No matter what subject you are teaching Kindle Lab, along with your Interactive Whiteboard, can bring the lesson to life for your students. The range and scope of what Kindle Lab can do for your classroom is so broad and all encompassing that for me to give you some ideas here would really be silly. Download Kindle Lab, the PDF of the Kindle Lab tools and start exploring. I promise it will be pretty apparent to you how seamlessly this could be used for any subject at any level. So cool!

Tips: At the end of the video clip above, you may have noticed another tool which is called Eduism. This is a 3-D interactive environment that was created for the classroom. It is also a free to use open source project that is meant to be used with the Interactive Whiteboards. Be sure to check it out!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Kindle Lab in your classroom.

Wiimote Whiteboard

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Wiimote Whiteboard1643 views

So, my personal Wiimote video is still a work in process but if you get as excited as I do about the thought of a $45 interactive whiteboard you need something to tide you over. This is Johnny Lee’s explanation of the Wiimote Whiteboard, he is the creator of the PC version. If you are interested in creating your own interactive whiteboard follow the links below:

PC Wiimote Whiteboard

Mac Wiimote Whiteboard