What it is: Wiglington and Wenks is a rich virtual world for kids that I wrote about a few weeks ago here. This virtual world brings together literature, history, and geography into one amazing learning experience for kids. Wiglington and Wenks is a place for students to explore, think, discover, and grow. I can’t say enough about this virtual world as a learning space, I wish every textbook company on the planet would move toward this type of model of presenting content and learning! While Wiglington and Wenks is free for everyone, they do offer memberships that give students access to extra features, special areas, and extra privileges. Wiglington and Wenks has provided 10 one month memberships for iLearn Technology readers! If you would like a free membership for your class or as a give-away to one of your students or children please leave a comment below. In your comment, tell us your favorite feature of Wiglington and Wenks. I will choose 10 winners randomly and send an email with instructions for redeeming your free membership.
How to integrate Wiglington and Wenks into the classroom: Wiglington and Wenks is based on a story book. Read these stories with your students or include them in your classroom library for reading. In this virtual world, students have the opportunity to travel to and explore real places. Students can learn about the Amazon, Madagascar, Singapore, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Pyramid, Chchen Itza, the Bermuda Triangle, the Great Wall of China, Big Ben, and more. As students travel through the worlds, they are presented with various quests and meet with famous historical figures. Right now students can interact with Gandhi, Charles Darwin, Genghis Khan, Beethoven, Buffalo Bill, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Neptune, and Chief Joseph. Many new characters are being released including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Cleopatra, Issac Newton John, Albert Einstein, Pocahontas, and Wilber and Orville Wright. Send your students on quests to learn more about each of these characters and places. Find more ideas for using Wiglington and Wenks in your classroom on my original post here.
Tips: Make sure that you use a valid email address in your comment so that I can contact you!
Leave a comment and share how you are using Wiglington and Wenks in your classroom.
I am a Chinese language teacher. I recently have been exploring the Wiglington and Wink website. I haven’t introduced it to my class yet, but I will definitely do that once the Great Wall of China and/or the Leshan Buddha features are launched in the website. I plan to have students visit those places to do a culture virtual trip. They will need to go sight-seeing in China and meet Confucius and Emperor Qin to get to know their influences and contributions on the Chinese society.
Wiglington and Wink will be a great resource for my students to have hands on experiences in exploring different cultures. I love the fact that students can now use their avatars to travel to another country and visit famous historial sites and people. Many thanks to Wiglington and Wink, now my students can learn Chinese history, geography and culture while having tremendous fun!
I am a Chinese language teacher. I recently have been exploring the Wiglington and Wink website. I haven’t introduced it to my class yet, but I will definitely do that once the Great Wall of China and/or the Leshan Buddha features are launched in the website. I plan to have students visit those places to do a culture virtual trip. They will need to go sight-seeing in China and meet Confucius and Emperor Qin to get to know their influences and contributions on the Chinese society.
Wiglington and Wink will be a great resource for my students to have hands on experiences in exploring different cultures. I love the fact that students can now use their avatars to travel to another country and visit famous historial sites and people. Many thanks to Wiglington and Wink, now my students can learn Chinese history, geography and culture while having tremendous fun!
I’ve introduced W&W to my 5th grade social studies class…I’ve had issues with making accounts for my 40 students as I’m not allowed to use email addresses for my “under-13” crowd. I’ve used my own for 5, and coworkers etc.
This site is AMAZING as it allows the students to learn geography as well as history. It ties in perfectly with our hero study – and with our USA history unit. We are finding our place in the world – using this in conjuction with Google Earth.
My favorite feature is that the students use avitars in a virtual world…which speaks to their level of interest. Every kid in my class is familiar with Club Penguin or Webkins….and this is a natural progression with great educational value.
Thanks for introducing us to this. YOU ROCK!!!!!
Carol, I am working with W&W to create an education option so that teachers can sign up whole classes. The setup now is a little cumbersome when you are signing up multiple students. It would also be great if we could assign quests for students and track progress in one central location. The learning here is great and the students do love it!
Rei, I love the idea of a cultural virtual trip. This will be a fun addition to your class!
Hello,
I haven’t heard about this site before, but after reading your helpful post did check it out. It is a very nice site and hope it will spark new interests for my kid too.
Thank you for having a great website and its been my favorite making me come back to it all the time!
Mona
I’ve been using this with my youngest son. I’m lucky that I finally found what he loves- history! So, between episodes of Carmen Diego and W&W, he learns SocStudies/History/Culture/Geography/Ecology and most importantly- READING! Comprehension, inference, I get to use ‘prior knowledge’- all the really good stuff- you just don’t always know WHAT they know!
I want to take him to the AmNH & Smithsonian this Summer- he’s been wanting to see the Hope Diamond for 4 years!
:0)
That would be amazing! What fun for him to see history up close and personal like that!