Category: Websites

Math manipulatives

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Math manipulatives2658 views

What it is:   I’m actually doing a two for one post today because both sites have a great math manipulative tool.  The first is an online analog clock.  Students can explore the clock by moving the hour and minute hands in five minute intervals, minute intervals, 15 minute intervals, and hour intervals.  There is no associated game with the clock, it is simply a tool to help your students get familiar with the analog clock.  The second site is all about rulers and measurement, The Ruler Game.  The Ruler Game teaches students how to read a ruler.  Students can also practice their ruler reading skills with this game.  Students can practice reading the ruler in sixteenths of an inch, eighths, quarters, halves, and whole inches.  

 

How to integrate Analog Clock and The Ruler Game into the classroom:  The Analog clock site is a great one for students to visit when they are learning about the analog clock.  In the computer lab or projector classroom, have the students interact with the clock and make observations about what happens as they click the different increments.  Talk about the way the clock works as a class.    Call out a time and have the students match the time called with the clock on their computer.  If you have access to a projector, play as a whole class and have students come up one at a time to demonstrate different times as a class.  Bookmark the Analog Clock on your classroom computers as a math help center.  The Ruler Game is a great way to help students understand how to read a ruler.  Use it individually in a computer lab setting or use it as a math center in the one or two computer classroom.  In either setting, this game will have your students reading measurement in no time.  They will love trying to beat the clock!

 

Tips: The ruler game is not compatible with some web browsers, test it on a student computer before using in class… no one likes introducing a cool new tool to students only to find out that it doesn’t work at school!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Analog Clock and The Ruler Game  in your classroom.

Get Smarter

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Get Smarter2032 views

 

What it is:   Get Smarter is an animated, interactive testing and learning site for science and math.  Students can practice their science and math skills by working on the animated activities and compare their score with other students their age from around the world.  Nothing like a little healthy competition to get your students studying voluntarily!  Get Smarter is broken into levels, elementary, middle school, and high school to ensure that their scores are measured against other students at their level.  

 

How to integrate Get Smarter into the classroom:  Competition in the classroom is a great motivator.  Since your students will be collectively ‘competing’ against students from around the world, they are working together as a class to help raise their countries average scores.  Use Get Smarter in the computer lab setting as a place for students to practice and review the skills and concepts they are learning in math and science class.  In the one or two computer classroom, students can work in teams or as a math or science center.  Keep the competition going year round to see if your students can help raise the averages.  

 

Tips: Be sure to visit the student page at each level to find some more great classroom sites.

 

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

Math Glossary

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Math Glossary2848 views

 

What it is:   I am on a little bit of a math resource kick.  It happens from time to time when someone asks about a resource for a particular project they are working on.  I get searching and find outstanding resources for whatever the subject is.  This week I was on a math quest.  Math Glossary is one of my great finds of the week.  This glossary, created by Harcourt, will help students in grades kindergarten through sixth understand math vocabulary.  The glossary is easily searched by grade and alphabetic order.  The glossary doesn’t just define math vocabulary for students, it shows them what it looks like!  Each word and definition can be read to students by clicking on the speaker icon next to the word.  

 

How to integrate Math Glossary into the classroom:  Math Glossary is the perfect place for students to learn and discover math vocabulary.  The visual representation is especially perfect for your visual learners.  Use the Math Glossary as a beginning place to introduce math concepts.  Students can look up key vocabulary for the new math concept in the Math Glossary.  Have them describe what they are seeing.  Having a good base to build on makes all the difference!  Keep the Math Glossary up on one of the classroom computers during math class as a math resource center.  Students can use the Math Glossary as they need during math class.  

 

Tips: Bookmark the Math Glossary on your class computers for easy access for students.

 

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

Math Playground

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Math Playground2654 views

What it is:   As promised yesterday, today’s post is all about Math Playground.  This is a great site packed full of games, videos, and puzzles all centered around math for elementary and middle school students.  Math Playground features some great games touching on topics from money to graphing.  The games are interactive and a fun place for students to practice those math concepts they are learning.  The word problem sections are divided up by grade level, ensuring that your students are challenged at an appropriate level.  The logic puzzle section contains some awesome online traditional logic puzzles (I love these!).  The Math video section contains videos introducing students to math concepts (all I have used are very good).  The Math Videos are generated after students submit a math question to be answered.  Students can ask their own math question…who knows, their question may generate the next Math Video!

 

How to integrate Math Playground into the classroom:  The more I use Math Playground with my students, the more I am convinced that no math class should be without it!  Use the Math videos to help introduce or review concepts with your math class.  Use the games and word problems as a center or whole class practice.  The logic puzzles are fun to bookmark for year round problem solving and playing.  We use the logic puzzles often on snow days or when students are finished with work early.  Your students will enjoy the activities on Math Playground, my students often come to tell me the latest game or puzzle that they played at home.  Voluntary math practice, what a concept!

 

Tips:  Math Playground usually has one banner advertisement.  As I have mentioned before, I use advertisements on websites to teach students about how to spot an ad and why sites feature ads.  

 

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

Math TV

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Math TV2781 views

 

What it is:  Math TV is a series of video word problems for math.  Each math problem comes with a step by step video solution, follow up problems, an online calculator, and sketch pad.  Word problems include topics such as fractions, percentages, ratios, probability, geometry, averages, and algebra.  I would have been a completely different kind of math student if I had tools like this one in school.  I could solve a math problem without any trouble but a word problem was a different story all together.  I think for the majority of students, word problems are a source of anxiety and frustration.  Math TV is an incredible solution, it is perfect for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.  You can’t go wrong!

 

How to integrate Math TV into the classroom:  Math TV is the perfect way to teach your students the method for solving both simple and complex word problems.  Use the videos for whole class instruction with a projector (an interactive whiteboard would also be great for the problem solving portion but is not necessary).  The videos are also perfect for individual student practice.  Set up Math TV on a classroom computer to reinforce the math skills being practiced in class.  Each student (or group of students) can take turns at the Math TV center to solve the problem.  Come back together as  a class after each student has had a chance to solve, and go through the problem together.  I love the interactivity of this tool and the ability to reach multiple learning styles which can be difficult in a math class.  As an alternative to the traditional math homework, assign a Math TV episode for your students to watch and solve.  

 

Tips:  The Math TV videos are a part of a larger math site called Math Playground.  Because the site is so comprehensive, I’ll be breaking it down into a few separate posts.  Stay tuned for other math videos, math games, word problems, and more!

 

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

Piki Kids Comic Creator

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Piki Kids Comic Creator5759 views

 

What it is:  Piki Kids Comic Creator is an online comic creator for students.  Students can upload pictures from their computers, or search Flickr for images to use in their comic strip.  The comics are very flexible so students can make them uniquely their own.  Students can choose the number of panels, the look of the panels, color choices, and much more.  When students are finished creating their online Piki Kids comic, they can save them to a gallery, or print out.

 

How to integrate Piki Kids Comic Creator into the classroom:  Students love reading comics, there is something about the interaction with a comic that makes even struggling readers willing to try.  I find that the same is true with writing.  Many kids who struggle to write would dread writing out a story or series of events after reading a book.  But, introduce a comic and suddenly those kids who don’t like writing are writing full stories.  Piki Kids Comic Creator is the perfect way to get your students writing about anything.  Studying dinosaurs?  Have the kids find some clip art of dinosaurs that they can upload to Piki Kids and have them write about what they are learning comic book style.  Learning about the Civil War?  Have the students retell the story as a comic strip.  You will see creativity that you didn’t know your students possessed!  Comic strips are also an excellent place for students to “write” a book report after finishing a book.  Comics can be used in science to show processes (like plant cycle…give those plants a voice!)  Comics can be used in math for students to create word problems for fellow classmates to solve.  Use comics in character education, after teaching a lesson, students can illustrate, comic-style, what that might look like.  From the technology side of things, Piki Kids Comic Creator is a great place to teach kids skills like uploading to a website, searching flickr for pictures, changing font, size, and color.  

 

Tips:  Piki Kids Comic Creator is an excellent tool.  Be aware that there are adwords on the website.  I use these as an opportunity to help my student spot advertisements and talk about why sites include ads on websites.  Everything can be a learning experience!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Piki Kids Comic Creator in your classroom.

Crick Web Literacy Resources

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Crick Web Literacy Resources2391 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.

Motivation for your Friday

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Motivation for your Friday1900 views

Today I spoke at the ACSI conference in Colorado Springs, it was a great experience and I really enjoyed connecting with other educators and sharing some technology resources that they hadn’t seen before.  (Wix site for conference)

The highlight of my day was hearing keynote speaker, Guy Doud.  In one of the education courses that I took in college we watched the video about Guy Doud called “Molder of Dreams”.  Guy was the 1986 National Teacher of the Year awarded by President Ronald Reagan.  Listening to Guy today, it is clear that he deserved the title of National Teacher of the Year, but really, he has been Teacher of the Year many years to those whose lives he has reached through teaching.  He is certainly an inspiration to me and reminded me exactly why it is that I started teaching.  I encourage you to enjoy some of Guy’s motivation for your Friday.  You can read Guy’s story here.  You can also download an mp3 audio version (outstanding because you can hear his story the way he tells it…very funny!)  If you are interested in Guy’s book, Molder of Dreams, or in his video, Molder of Dreams, check them out here.   (VERY reasonably priced and believe me well worth every penny!)   Do you have students in your classroom that reminds you of a young Guy Doud?  What teachers in your life formed your life and the way that you teach and relate to students?  Thank God for teachers like Guy Doud!

A few of my favorite things…

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on A few of my favorite things…1703 views

No, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth!  I have been getting ready for a conference I am speaking at and it has consumed all of my blogging time this week.  I thought I would share with you what I have been working ont.  It is a collection of my favorite sites (by no means comprehensive…I had to narrow down from 5 pages of sites that I love to what I can fit into an hour of speaking).  I created a site using www.wix.com to share these sites broken down by school level.  Enjoy!  A few of my favorite things…

Fold a US Candidate

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Fold a US Candidate2188 views

 

What it is:  Fold a US Candidate is a fun site that has paper foldable puppets of the US candidates for the 2008 election.  (I am very entertained by this right now!) Both presidential nominees are featured as well as their wives.  There is also an election day count down on the site to let your students know how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds they have to wait before the big day.  This is a fun site to get your students interested in the upcoming election.  

 

How to integrate Fold a US Candidate into the classroom:  Students of all ages are sure to get more involved and interested in the election after visiting this site and making their own president puppet.  These would be fun to use as you are discussing the upcoming election in your classroom.  While the site is chock full of facts about the candidates, the paper puppets would add to learning about the election and the different candidates.  Split your students into groups and assign each a candidate to study.  They can find out what the candidates believe about some key issues in the upcoming election.  Then they can have a mock debate using the puppets and the research they have gained.  

 

Tips:  Print out and fold your US Candidate today!  🙂

 

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using Fold a US Candidate in your classroom.