Category: Websites

Read Me

Kelly Tenkely6 Comments on Read Me3622 views

What it is: Do you want your students to become deep thinkers?  Read Me is an incredible set of engaging resources that will have your students thinking deeply about who they are and how learning and thinking is vital to their life.  The resources have been designed to reach 11 to 14-year-old boys, to excite them about reading in and out of the classroom.  I can tell you that as a girl, I am enjoying these resources just as much,  I think that would be true of girls in the 11 to 14 age range as well.  Read Me (by the National Schools Partnership) has created six modules that connect with students at their interest level and teach them how to be reflective, deep thinkers and learners.

This is me- covers an understanding of autobiographical texts in traditional (diary) and modern (blog) contexts.  This is me includes teachers notes and presentations that will help students to explore autobiographical texts and self-expression through blogging.

Sport & me- asks students to explore sports websites and media texts by analyzing their structure and presentation.  Students take on the role of a persuasive sports person and ultimately create their own report or website.

Love 4 me- helps students explore different types of love by using texts from a variety of time periods and genres (including images, short extracts, music, lyrics) as well as in Romeo and Juliet.  Students engage with a range of texts that are thematically linked by love.  The culminating activity here is for students to create their own chat show and to create a collage based on love.  (I’m not sure if 11-14 year old boys would be into this topic…but this one will hook the girls for sure!)

Film + me- students use film trailers and titles to develop an understanding of how meaning is created through a combination of words, images, and sounds.  After students have analyzed film trailers and titles, they are asked to present a novel as a trailer.

Graphics 4 me- this one is my favorite because it comes with an awesome graphic novel tool (learn about it here) Here students explore how graphic novels work and become familiar with the medium and its complexity.  Students can create their own graphic novel online using this tool.

Music in me- students explore songs, their lyrics, and the impact they have on their audience.  As a result, students understand how society is presented through music and the media and stereotypes and attitudes it can help to perpetuate.

How to integrate Read Me into your curriculum: There is so much learning that will happen as a result of these six modules, but at the heart of Read Me is a goal to excite kids about reading.  Read Me has incredible ideas and resources for the language arts/literature/literacy classroom.  Use these resources to connect your students with story, passion, and understanding of how language is used.  There is something for every kid to connect with here.  Each module contains teachers notes, resources, links, and tips.  This is a truly incredible resource and collection for this age group.  Read Me encourages students to understand, analyze, evaluate, apply, and create.

Tips: This site includes a graphic novel creator.  I am writing about it separately because it deserves its own post.  You can find it here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Read Me in your classroom!

Mo Willem’s Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Lesson

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Mo Willem’s Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Lesson4993 views

What it is: Isn’t it great when author’s have websites as enchanting as their books?  Mo Willem’s has a collection of wonderful websites starring his characters including my favorite, the Pigeon.  On the Pigeon Presents website, your students will find fun games starring their favorite characters.  They can learn more about Mo Willem’s books, meet the characters he has created, and even watch video interviews where he talks about his love of writing and illustrating.  In the teacher’s section of the site, you will find printable posters for your classroom.  On the Go Mo! site students will find Cat and her friends.  Here students can play games, learn animal sounds, color online, and see Cat the cat’s gallery.  Here students can see pictures that other students have drawn of cat and even submit their own.  My favorite discovery of all: Mo Willem’s Pigeon has a Twitter account!

How to integrate Mo Willem’s Websites into your curriculum: If you are a Mo Willem’s fan like I am, you will be thrilled to introduce your students to his site starring his characters.  Mo Willem’s has been a Caldecott Award honor for several of his books.  His first, in 2004, was Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  I used this book to teach my younger students about the Caldecott award, and to help them identify shapes.  Since I was in the computer lab, I taught my students to draw the pigeon using computer drawing applications.  This was a great way for my students to learn how to use digital drawing tools, while creating Caldecott worthy results.  The students pigeon’s always turned out fantastic and looked so much like the original that the kids felt like they too could be Caldecott honorees.  If you are interested in my lesson, you can purchase it here.   Mo Willem’s collection of websites would be a great tie-in to the drawing lesson and help students connect to their favorite characters.

Tips: The videos on the Pigeon Presents Get to Know Mo page are really well done and will give students and inside look at how author’s develop characters.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Mo Willem’s Websites in your classroom!

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MathMovesU

Kelly Tenkely6 Comments on MathMovesU2861 views

What it is: MathMovesU is an interactive virtual world where middle school students can interact with algebra, geometry, decimals, fractions, and word problems through topics they are passionate about like sports, music, and fashion.  As students navigate through MathMovesU they will encounter math problems delivered through games, polls, and fun facts.  The site is a great supplement to curriculum and will help students practice and improve their math skills in a fun, engaging manner.

How to integrate MathMovesU into the classroom: MathMovesU is an innovative approach to math practice that shows kids how math is used in real life.  As students explore the MathMovesU virtual world they will collect points by discovering math and tracking solutions.  This site truly encourages students to discover more, dig deeper and think critically about math.  Start your own MathMovesU class competition for the school year where students work to earn the most points.  MathMovesU is a great alternative to worksheet practice.  It is best to use MathMovesU in a one to one scenario where each student has their own computer to work on.  If a one to one experience isn’t possible, use classroom computers as a center.  Throughout the year students can rotate through the center to earn points and practice.

Tips: MathMovesU needs a robust network, the site is highly interactive but can crawl if you have a lab full of students accessing it at once.

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

The Write-n-ator

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on The Write-n-ator12432 views

What it is: New Hampshire Public Television has created a great site based on the PBS Word Girl show. I learned about the site from a blog that I look forward to in my Google Reader every day, The Book Chook. The Write-n-ator site features video clips about words and vocabulary for students to watch; after completing the clip, students are offered a related writing challenge.  The clips and challenges are all related to writing, word recognition, and vocabulary development.

How to integrate The Write-n-ator into your curriculum: The Write-n-ator highlights words and vocabulary through fun videos and writing challenges starring the PBS character Word Girl.  Offer these challenges to your students as a class using a projector or interactive whiteboard.  Watch the video clip and create a class response to add to the challenge.  Alternately, each student can take the challenge in a writing journal.  These videos and challenges make for a fun introductory activity to use as a writing warm up.  They have the added benefit of introducing new words and vocabulary.  There are 20 videos and challenges total, so these could be a regular feature in your class.  If you have access to a computer for every student, students can complete the writing challenges online and view other students responses to the challenge.

Tips: Click on the “For Teacher” tab next to each mission for the correlated standards that each challenge meets.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the The Write-n-ator in your classroom!

Dushare

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Dushare3277 views

What it is: Dushare is an incredibly easy way to share files.  Dushare lets you transfer files via a web browser as fast as you can upload.  The site could not be easier to use, just pick your file, decide if you want it password protected to download, and then share the file.  Dushare requires NO login or registration, it really is simple to use!  While the transfer is in progress, you can chat with the person you are transferring the file to over Dushare.  File sharing just doesn’t get much easier than this!

How to integrate Dushare into your curriculum: Dushare is a great way to quickly share files with students, colleagues, or Twitter friends.  In a computer lab setting, quickly share a file with all of your students via url.  If they can access a website and have downloading privileges, they can access the file.  Students can use Dushare to quickly turn in work or send in work that needs a quick review.  Need to send something to a colleague but your work email limits the size of an attachment? Dushare can make sharing that file a breeze.  Dushare works when an IM transfer fails, it’s too big for email, or someone is blocked behind a firewall.  Share away!

Tips: Dushare doesn’t view chats or files, they just facilitate the transfer of files over a secure connection.  Dushare sets absolutely NO limits on file sizes of file types making it easy to send whatever you need to.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Dushare in your classroom!

Life Is from BBC Earth

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Life Is from BBC Earth4340 views

What it is: Life is is an incredible site from BBC Earth.  The beautifully interactive site is full of images, video, and stories from BBC Earth’s most captivating documentaries.  Each month features a different theme with September’s theme, Life is…Colorful.  The astonishing images and video capture life’s most colorful displays in nature.  The search page is equally stunning, offering an on-screen widget that lets students adjust the pictures in the grid by filtering by hot/cold, slow/fast, sea/sky, or color.

How to integrate Life Is from BBC Earth into your curriculum: Life is would make for an incredible discussion starter or creative writing prompt.  This month’s theme is Life is Colorful.  Ask students to come up with descriptive words for the pictures and images they are seeing.   Students can use the descriptive words they came up with to write a Life is… poem.  The poem could start with the line Life is… include descriptions of what they observed in the video and end with …Colorful.

Students can make their own Life is… type videos with a theme of their choosing using a tool like the National Geographic Wildlife  Filmmaker.

This site can be used on classroom computers or in a lab setting, but I think it would be absolutely stunning on an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer!

Tips: The left and right arrows on the site let you view each picture in the theme series separately. Each picture has an overlay with additional information about the image.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Life Is in your classroom!

57 Ways to Celebrate National Literacy Day

Kelly Tenkely8 Comments on 57 Ways to Celebrate National Literacy Day9653 views

Did you know that today is National Literacy Day?  It is!  I think that literacy is something to celebrate, being literate is a gift I enjoy every day but don’t stop to appreciate nearly enough.  In honor of National Literacy Day, I thought I would share my favorite technology enhanced literacy tools.  In no particular order, here are my favorite ways to celebrate literacy.  What are your favorites?

1.  Save the Words– an excellent site that values language, vocabulary, and words.

2. Grammaropolis– an enchanting site that teaches students parts of speech through character and story.

3. Signed Stories– an online story collection accompanied by British Sign Language, pictures, and sound.

4. Learn Direct– where students can be the star in their own online storybook.

5. Inkless Tales– a literacy website with a beautiful mission statement “You can do anything. Try, try again. Don’t give up. Experiment. Write, draw, explore and more.”

6. Storybird- a beautiful collaborative storytelling website.

7. My English Images– images that illustrate difficult vocabulary and language concepts.

8.  Lexipedia– a visual dictionary and thesaurus.

9.  Tikatok– Students become published authors with Tikatok

10. Free Reading– an open source instructional program to help you teach early literacy.

11. Word World– a great site for kindergarten and first grade letter and word recognition.

12. Reading Rockets– free reading guides for teachers to improve reading achievement of kids.

13. Super Why! – a site that helps kids gain important foundational reading skills such as alphabet, word families, spelling, comprehension, and vocabulary.

14.  Get Ready to Read!– a great site that helps teachers equip children with the basic skills necessary for learning to read.

15. Roy the Zebra– Excellent site for emerging readers.

16. Fable Vision– the beautiful virtual town filled with stories and games.

17. Kidoons– brings time honored tales from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, Thorton Burgess, and more to life.

18.  GameGoo– fun educational games that help students develop reading and language skills.

19. Read Write Think– a collection of online student resources that support literacy learning k-12.

20. Seussville– the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss brought to life.

21. Digital Booktalk– book trailers that will whet your students appetite for a good book.

22. Storybook Web– a website based on popular children’s stories where students can listen to author’s reading excerpts.

23.  Mee Genius– where students can read books, personalize them, and share them with a friend.

24. Stage’d- a tool that helps students tell stories digitally.

25. Kerpoof– where students can create their own storybooks, comics, and movies.

26.  Lightning Bug– “your writing partner, helping you write a story from beginning to THE END.”

27. ePubBud– for publishing your very own ebooks.

28. Magic Treehouse- a wonderful website where students can engage in the popular book series.

29. The Stacks– a wonderful creation by Scholastic that excites students about reading.

30. The World of Peter Rabbit– an absolutely captivating site based on the work of Beatrix Potter.

31.  My Hippo Has the Hiccups– a free poetry ebook by Kenn Nesbitt.

32. Weboword– a visual vocabulary site.

33. National Geographic Young Explorer– non-fiction for the primary classroom from National Geographic.

34.  Online Audio Stories- an impressive collection of free audio stories.

35. Story Nory– another collection of free audio books for kids.

36.  Skratch Track– a virtual bookshelf for primary students.

37.  Picture Book Maker– a place for students to create picture books.

38. Story Cove– a collection of stories from around the world.

39.  Skype an Author Network– connects teachers, students, and authors over Skype.

40.  Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos– animated vocabulary videos.

41.  My Story Maker– a website where students are in charge of the interactive story.

42. Book Wink– an incredible site that motivates students to read through podcasts and web video.

43. Scholastic Story Starters– a tool that generates writing ideas.

44. Telescopic Text– a site that expands a sentence to demonstrate descriptive writing.

45.  The Tale of Despereaux Adventure- a beautiful interactive story book.

46. Literactive- leveled guided readers, comprehensive phonics activities, and supplemental reading material.

47. Pic Lits- a creative writing site based on pictures.

48.  Speakaboos– a collection of online stories and ebooks.

49. Animailia– a site based on the popular book by Graeme Base.

50. Mrs. P’s Magic Library– an absolutely enchanting site that celebrates books and reading.

51.  Free Rice– practice vocabulary while helping others fight hunger.

52. Shelfari– a virtual bookshelf.

53. Read to Feed- Heifer International reading project for kids.

54. Into the Book– an outstanding site that teaches reading strategies for comprehension.

55. Google Lit Trips– exploring literature using Google Earth.

56. Starfall– a must see website for phonics.

57. Book Adventure– a free reading motivation program.

But the very best way to celebrate National Literacy Day…read a book!

Seussville

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Seussville2128 views

What it is: The last time I wrote about Seussville was in May 2007.  Recently I have written a few Dr. Seuss posts and my friend @crudbasher sent me a link to Seussville asking if I had seen it.  I had NO idea it had been so beautifully and creatively revamped!  The new Seussville truly feels like a site Dr. Seuss himself would have imagined.  It is simply a funtastical place!  On the site your students will find little snippets of Dr. Seuss books to read, video clips based on Dr. Seuss books that could act as book trailers, printable activities, online learning games, a place to meet the Dr. Seuss characters, a place to meet Dr. Seuss the author, and much more.  Seussville also has funtastic classroom resources for teachers including printables and activities, lesson plans, The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library, an author study, a complete list of books, and information about programs like Read Across America and the Lorax Project.  This is such a fun, engaging site I could have explored it for hours!

How to integrate Seussville into your curriculum: A Dr. Seuss author study is always fun! Seussville has all of the resources you need to let your students get up-close and personal with Dr. Seuss.   The learning games on Seussville make students think and play using trial and error and critical thinking(see the Green Eggs and Ham game for example).  This is a fun site to use year round with your students but would be particularly exciting around Dr. Seuss’ birthday.  Set up Seussville on your classroom computers during reading time and invite students to search for a Dr. Seuss book they might enjoy reading.  The mini descriptions and book trailer type video clips will have your students excited to read to find out what happens next.

Tips: Sign up for Seussville newsletter to be delivered to your email box throughout the school year.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Seussville in your classroom!

Save the Words

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Save the Words3251 views

What it is: Save the Words is a site that celebrates words by “saving” words that are becoming forgotten and left behind in the English language.  I learned about the site today from @BookChook on her wonderful literacy blog.  The site has a simple premise, words are displayed graphically, when your roll your mouse over them they call out to you “pick me”, clicking on a word displays the definition, part of speech, and a contextual example of the word.  Signing up on the site allows you to adopt words.  I love the mission of this site, on the f.a.q. page they state that “Words are the cornerstone of language. The more words we have, the richer our vocabulary. Words allow us to communicate precisely.  Without the right word to describe something, well…we’d be speechless.”  So true, words bring so much color to language, it is a shame to use the same words over and over.  I am certainly guilty of this in my overuse of words like fantastic, outstanding, wonderful, amazing, great, nice, fun, etc.  in blog posts.  Surely there are many more appropriate words that describe the tool I am reviewing more precisely, but we become lazy in language and use words that are easy and we don’t have to think about.

How to integrate Save the Words into your curriculum: Save the Words is a site with a beautiful goal, preserving words to keep language rich and powerful.  Most of the words on the site are new to me, but I was surprised at how many of them I could make an educated guess about  meaning based on what I already know about words.  Use Save the Words in your classroom (at any age) to enrich your students vocabulary, help them identify word patterns and meaning clues, and to help them appreciate words.  Choose a word to adopt each day as a class using a class account (adopting a word requires an email address).  Commit to using the word at some point during the day.  My elementary age students loved learning new words, especially words that they found out parents and other teachers didn’t know.  They become the experts.  In my class, I often had a secret word of the day.  I would casually mention what the secret word was at some point in the morning.  Throughout the day if I needed my student’s attention I would ask for the secret word, immediately students were silent with their hands raised to give me the word.  Save the Words would be the perfect place to draw those secret words from.

Students could also keep a journal or word list of all of the words they have adopted, I could see this being especially popular with the Webkins age group.  The words are often difficult, but I don’t think that is any reason to exclude them from the classroom vocabulary!

Today I adopted the word antipelargy: reciprocal or mutual kindness; love and care of children.

Tips: You can sign up for a word of the day delivered directly to your email on Save the Words.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Save the Words in your classroom!

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That4000 views

What it is: The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That is a new PBS TV series and website that ignites an excitement about science for primary students.  The series is based on the Beginner Book Collection “The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library”.  The goal of the series and online resources is to “cultivate positive views about science and scientists among the next generation-the children who will become tomorrow’s citizens and innovators-and help teachers and families build communities of science explorers.”  I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of building communities of explorers, science or otherwise!  In the TV series, The Cat in the Hat, Sally, and Nick set off on a science adventure.  In one episode, the trio flies with birds to discover why they migrate.  In another, they are taking a snowcat to the Arctic to explore freezing and melting.  As the Cat in the Hat guides them, the children solve problems by engaging in science inquiry.  Right now students can watch video clips on The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That website, play related games, find activities and coloring pages to print, and play games with snapshots from the program.  Right now adventures on the site include science concepts like bird migration, camouflage, and melting/freezing.

How to integrate The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That into your curriculum: If you are a regular visitor of my blog, you know that I am a big Dr. Seuss fan (see pictures of Dr. Seuss inspired classroom theme here).  While this site isn’t strictly Seuss, it does a remarkable job of bringing The Cat in the Hat to life with a focus on scientific inquiry.  Use the videos on the site to introduce your students to new science concepts including migration, camouflage, and melting/freezing (my guess is more will be added as the series takes off).  Students can engage in the inquiry process along with Sally and Nick and then practice the newly acquired concept in the games section.  This would be a fun site to use as a science center that students visit on classroom computers during a coordinating unit.  Students can view videos prior to exploring the concept as background knowledge, or watch the videos after engaging in their own inquiry process on the topic and compare the journey of inquiry taken.  Did Sally and Nick come to the same conclusions?

The printables on the site include fun mazes, coloring pages, matching vocabulary, and even bookmarks, stickers, and other paper crafts.  One of the print outs in the Paper Craft Sections is a Cat in the Hat frame that would be great for framing pictures of students engaging in their own scientific inquiry.

Tips: Be sure to click on the teacher button to find an Explorer’s Guide where you can find tips for engaging young students in scientific inquiry.  You will also find tips for using the online video in your classroom, a list of Cat in the Hat science books, and find video enhanced activities.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That in your classroom!

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