games – Page 3 – iLearn Technology

Zoodles: a kid safe mode for every device

March 21, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments8887 views

What it is: Zoodles makes it possible to have a “kid safe” mode on every device: Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android. Zoodles includes wonderful features for technology use in the classroom and at home. With Zoodles every child has their own “playground” space (login) that they access by clicking on their picture. A parent dashboard lets teachers (or parents) customize Zoodles to meet the needs of students. Parents and teachers can clearly see where a student spends their time, what their interests are, and what subjects they have been practicing. Every game in Zoodles has been previewed by experts and is rated based on it’s educational merit. Parent play-along mode makes it possible for parents or teachers to guide the learning experience. The interface is focused on kids and is extremely intuitive. There are no distracting “extras” in the navigation or URLs where students can get sidetracked or lost. The content in Zoodles adapts to each child’s age and ability level so they are constantly being challenged and engaged. There are thousands of educational games built into Zoodles…students always have something new and challenging to interact with. Zoodles also gives students access to fun educational videos. Zoodles is geared for toddler to third grade (8 year old) students. You can peruse the games included in Zoodles by clicking on the “Games” tab on the site. There are games for: cognitive development, creative development, life skills, math, reading, science, and social studies. The games and videos in Zoodles are pulled from several places on the Internet. What makes Zoodles a great tool is the ability to guide students in their learning, easily find quality educational content, scale as a student is ready, and keep ads blocked and hidden.

How to integrate Zoodles into the classroom: Zoodles is great for classroom computers and devices in the primary classroom. It provides students with access to quality learning games and content from the Internet without having to sort through the Internet to get to it. Zoodles is perfect for classroom computers that are used as learning centers. For the classroom, create 3-5 different accounts. Instead of basing the accounts on individual students, the accounts can be based on a learning level. Through the dashboard, teachers can guide the learning that happens in each account. This keeps your students on task, learning at their level, and engaged in meaningful activities. Even if you don’t use the Zoodles interface on your computers for students, it is definitely worth a download as a teacher. The games and videos are broken up into subject areas and age groups. This makes it easy to find an activity for any learning that you are doing in the classroom. Use Zoodles as your guide to find great activities and learning games on the web.

Tips: I found Zoodles when searching for a solution for one of the families I teach. They were looking for a way that all of their kids (2 years old to 8 years old) could use the family computer for fun, safe learning experiences. This is a great app to recommend to parents who don’t know what they don’t know, but want to provide their kids with virtual learning experiences. Be sure to recommend it to your students families! There are premium features that families will LOVE!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Zoodles!

MinyanLand: A virtual world for economics and finance

March 3, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4116 views

What it is: I love virtual worlds that go beyond just play and incorporate learning opportunities. MinyanLand is a virtual world where students get to play games and make friends while they learn about earning, saving, spending and giving. Best of all, it is free to use! Students begin their time in MinyanLand with $50,000 in MinyanMoney and a condo. They can visit the ATM in the MinyanLand bank to invest their money. Each time students visit, they can check to see if their balance has gone up or down. Students can earn more MinyanMoney by playing fun games, or doing real life chores or classroom jobs to collect a virtual allowance. Students can use their MinyanMoney to buy things for their home, add rooms, and move into a new neighborhood.

MinyanLand has it’s own newspaper called the MinyanLand Journal, it will keep students up-to-date with what is new every day. Students can play games where they practice their math skills and test their knowledge about money. Games include a Lemonade Stand, Guitar Mayhem, Paper Route, Concentration, Balloon Quiz, Fill in the Face, Fill in the Name, Catch the Money, Word Search, Money Sorter, Cluedoku, Boo Blvd., Where Did You Get That Money?, and Quiz Boxes. Students will need to keep their virtual character healthy by fueling up at Ollie’s Diner.

The characters in MinyanLand are fun and varied, there is Hoofy the Bull, president of the bank; Boo the Bear, a retired dot-com millionaire; Daisy the cow, executive producer of MinyanLand’s TV station; Cassidy the Bear, a school teacher; Sammy the Snake, an administrator in City Hall; and Snapper the Turtle, the go-to guy in town.

MinyanLand is a fun way for students to learn about and interact with economic and financial concepts. The economic system in MinyanLand can even take advantage of real-life pricing of general goods and services. Students are encouraged to charitably give within MinyanLand. The idea is to offer every child the opportunity and platform to be financially literate. MinyanLand is ideal for students in 3rd-5th grade but younger students would enjoy it as well.

How to integrate MinyanLand into the classroom: MinyanLand is such a fun way to work toward financial literacy in the classroom. It offers students a virtual economy where they can practice real-world skills of buying, earning, investing, and giving. I love the way that MinyanLand ties the real world to the virtual by allowing students to earn virtual MinyanMoney for real chores and jobs.

Registering is free and easy enough for young students to register themselves. A parent or teacher email address is optional for registration. If students include a parent or teacher email address, they can earn MinyanMoney for chores or jobs that you assign.

MinyanLand is one of those sites that would be great as a year-long project. Students can visit MinyanLand throughout the year in the classroom (and at home) to learn about money, investing, spending, earning, and the economy. It is a natural fit in the math classroom where students are already working with money and numbers. MinyanLand would be best in a lab setting where each student has access to a computer. If you don’t have a lab for students, use classroom computers as a learning center. Students can visit the center throughout the week to interact in MinyanLand.

Tips: Even if you don’t want to use the virtual money in class, consider letting parents know about the opportunity to tie household chores to learning. Students can play in class and earn virtual money at home.

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

LiveBinders: Chemistry!

December 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2944 views

What it is: LiveBinders is one of my favorite ways to quickly gather and share information with others. Whenever someone asks me for a collection of resources, I immediately start gathering them in a LiveBinder. I have written about LiveBinders in the past, you can read those posts here and here for ideas of how to use LiveBinders in your classroom. A few days ago a friend asked if I had any good Chemistry websites I could recommend. I had a few but thought I would call on my Twitter network for their favorites. This Chemistry LiveBinder is the result. Thank you PLN for all of your help and recommendations, as usual they were spot on!

How to integrate LiveBinders: Chemistry into your curriculum: If you teach Chemistry (or have a friend who teaches Chemistry) this binder is a great one to pursue! I separated resources into videos, periodic table, games, simulations, and websites.

Don’t teach chemistry but are interested in using LiveBinders? Here are some ideas for using LiveBinders in your classroom:

Live Binders can be used as online digital portfolios for students. Any Word or PDF documents that they create can be added to a binder along with any web content that they create. The binders are easy to keep track of and share. Each tab can represent a year in school and each subtab can represent a subject within the school year. The Live Binder can easily be used from year to year creating a digital portfolio. Live Binders can be placed on desktops so that students don’t have to type in long URL’s to access a website. Everything can be organized and easily updated in a Live Binder for students to access the web through. This is a great time saver for the computer lab or classroom computers. Create your own ‘textbooks’ for students to access as a Live Binder. You can easily add content to it and students can access the materials from any Internet connected computer. Create an assignment Live Binder with all worksheets and classroom materials. Students can access any classroom materials from home, no more lost papers! Students can create Live Binders to keep themselves organized as they complete research projects. Students could turn in a final project as a Live Binder that includes all of their web research, notes, and final written work. Live Binders would be a great way to go paperless at your school. Create a binder with important school information, meeting notes, calendars, etc. for school staff to access.

Tips: Educators are making some really fantastic LiveBinder collections, if you are looking for a specific subject or topic, search LiveBinders, someone may have already created the perfect go to guide!

Yep, that is my smiling face you see in the banner at the top of LiveBinders, I am going to be joining LiveBinders and Dean Mantz on January 12 on learncenteral.org for a live podcast. I hope you will join us too!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using LiveBinders: Chemistry in your classroom!

Sumdog: Fun Math Practice Games

October 6, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4806 views

What it is: Sumdog math is a site with an outstanding collection of math games covering over 100 numeracy topics and split into 10 levels. The games are free to play for home and school math practice. Sumdog games can be used as an engaging anticipatory set for mental math, or to reinforce a specific math topic. The games can be played individually or in multi-player mode. Teachers can create school accounts and upload classes to the program. For a low-cost school subscription you can also have detailed class and student reports, set up class competitions, and set a minimum level for a class. The free features of this site are more than enough to get your class having fun interacting with math. With 100 numeracy topics, you are bound to find games to help your students practice exactly the skill they are working on. Topics range from ordering numbers, addition, subtraction, doubling, rounding, multiplication, and division, to positive and negative numbers, advanced number sequences, prime numbers, and adding and subtracting negative numbers. Each game asks targeted questions based on the level chosen, provides immediate feedback to students based on their answers, allows students to review any questions they got wrong and lasts about a minute. Multi-player games let students compete against their class or students online worldwide, and provide an option for playing solo or against the computer. Students can play athletics where they sprint against players worldwide to get the most questions correct; Street Racer where they are head to head in a car race against other players to cross the finish line first, Alien Invaders where students compete against another player to see who can survive the longest against alien invasion; Penalty Shootout where students compete against another player in a soccer penalty shootout of math questions; Tennis Tie-break where students trade volleys with a real opponent; Talent Show where they answer questions correctly to please judges in a talent show (think American Idol); or Canal Clear Up where students clean up trash from a canal by matching questions to answers.

How to integrate Sumdog into your curriculum: Sumdog is a fun way for your students to practice mental math. The 60 second time limit of each game makes it a great math center activity. If you have one or two computers in your classroom, students can sign into their account, choose their level and practice mental math for 60 seconds; when they are finished with the game, the next student can rotate into the center. In a computer lab or 1-to-1 classroom setting, students can save and track their progress as they practice with a variety of games. Sumdog is a welcome break from timed worksheet exercises and flash cards. It lets students compete with kids around the world in a safe environment while helping them with faster number recall.

Tips: Don’t forget to tell parents about Sumdog, they are always looking for new ways to help their kids with math fact practice.

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

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The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That

September 2, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3997 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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Kidopo

August 11, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments4577 views

What it is: Kidopo is an online coloring application where kids can color online coloring books. The application simulates a real coloring experience (in other words you can color outside the lines and the more you color over a spot, the darker it gets.). There are a lot of coloring pages to choose from with categories like animals, cars and transportation, cartoons, food, toys, holidays, learning, circus, sports, music, nature, occupation, seasons, and more. Kidopo has fun printables for the classroom including coloring sheets, bookmarks, birthday printables, awards and certificates, mazes, writing paper, connect the dots, room decorations, and stickers. You will find a collection of flash games for kids including brain games, card/board games, math games, memory games, puzzle games, science games, and word games. In the craft section of the website are videos that walk students step by step through a craft.

How to integrate Kidopo into your curriculum: The online coloring book on Kidopo is a great way to help primary students practice mouse manipulation. I like that you can color inside or outside of the lines just like in a real coloring book. If you are in a computer lab setting, the Kidopo coloring book is a fun way for students to practice, and a good way for you to gauge where their fine motor skills are.

The printables on Kidopo are perfect for the classroom. Bookmarks are always fun classroom give aways and the awards and certificates are a good way to recognize your students.

The learning games on Kidopo make a good practice center activity on classroom computers. My favorite are the math games that help students with fact recall through fun arcade-type games. In the word games, you will find a fun game called Word Frenzy that will give your students a place to practice typing. Check out the games, some are better than others but they are definitely worth a look!

Tips: One of the downfalls of Kidopo are the advertisements in the sidebar and introducing the games. I use websites with this type of advertising to teach my students about how to spot ads and discuss with them why ads are placed on websites.

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

BBC: Magic Key

July 9, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments3030 views

What it is: The BBC is a constant source of excellent classroom interactives and games. Today I ran across Magic Key while working on supplementing MacMillan Mcgraw Hill’s Treasures curriculum for first grade. Magic Key is based on a cartoon in the UK, even if your students aren’t familiar with the cartoon, they are sure to enjoy the website adventures. Magic Key has fun literacy games for kindergarten and first grade students. The games help students practice full stops (sentence endings), sentence order, questions, character characteristics, capital letters, seeing patterns, figuring out new words, descriptions, and words that make sounds. The games are age appropriate, include fun characters, and help students practice and understand important literacy skills. In each game, students enter an adventure where the goal is to collect the Magic Key.

How to integrate BBC: Magic Key into the classroom: The Magic Key games are short and sweet, they give students the opportunity to practice new skills independently. I like to use games like these as a center activity. These types of short games make a great center because they provide students with immediate feedback and are self leveling. Set Magic Key up on your classroom computers as a literacy center for students to visit independently or in small groups. Don’t forget that the interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer can also be a center station! These games are a great alternative to the worksheet (you didn’t really want to grade one of those anyway) and will provide your students with an opportunity to practice what they are learning.

Tips: Check out the teacher section of Magic Key for a description of each game, the curriculum tie in, and (I hesitate to mention) worksheets.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using BBC: Magic Key in your classroom.

Whiz Kids

July 8, 2010Kelly Tenkely5 Comments3964 views

What it is: Whiz Kids is a new site developed for autistic children. It was designed to give these kids a fun place to develop life skills. All of the games and videos have high production values, making them engaging and impressive, they feel as though you have stepped into a Pixar movie. Through this one portal, you get 16 interactive and therapeutic games. The games help kids develop essential life skills like empathy, recognizing emotion, making decisions, coping with change, transactions, non-verbal gestures, grouping, schedules, finding a route, and making eye contact. Although these games were specifically developed for children with autism, they are wonderful for primary elementary students and ELL students as well.

How to integrate Whiz Kids into the classroom: Whiz Kids has an incredible back story, the site was created by more 80 students 8 lecturers and 10 autism specialists, the project represents more than 16,000 hours of research and development. The games are tailored to fit the needs of autistic children. If you teach autistic children, these games will help them develop important life skills that will aid them when interacting with classmates. The games would be great for classroom computers as a center activity. Help other students in your classroom understand how they can help the autistic children in the classroom by having them play the Whiz Kids games as well. This will give your students a shared vocabulary and experience to draw on when they are working and playing together in the classroom. Because the games focus so much on character development, they are appropriate for any primary classroom. Help your students learn about complex human interactions like empathy, non-verbal communication, and coping with change through game play. The games can be played and discussed as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer, or they can be played independently at a computer center, or a computer lab. After playing the game, practice the skill taught as a class. For example, if students play Robbie the Robot and are practicing recognizing emotion and facial expressions, follow up by asking students to work with a partner making faces and naming the emotion. ELL students can use Whiz Kids to develop character related vocabulary and understanding.

Tips: On the Whiz Kids sister site, Autism Games, teachers can get more information about individual games and how to use them with students. Each game is categorized based on the life skill that it teaches. The game descriptions and suggestions are fantastic.

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

Rags to Riches

July 5, 2010Kelly Tenkely8 Comments3704 views

What it is: Rags to Riches takes Lemonade Tycoon to a whole new level with simulated business. In Rags to Riches, students are working to make their band a success. Students play the part of a new band going on tour with a few new songs. As they play the Rags to Riches game simulation, students must make decisions about what the band should do. They have to decide which cities are best for them to play in, what venues to play, how much money to spend on publicity and how much to charge for tickets. Students start out with $100 and must make wise decisions to continue in the simulation. When they run out of money, the game ends and they must start again.

How to integrate Rags to Riches into the classroom: If you teach students like mine, breaking out Lemonade Tycoon in the classroom is met by cheers from some and with eye rolls by others who are “way too cool” for a lemonade stand. For those students, Rags to Riches is in order. The premise of the game is the same, but instead of selling lemonade, students are working to take their band to super star status. This is a great game for teaching students about business, economics, and money. This game is really best played in a computer lab setting where each student has access to their own computer, but if you don’t have that luxury, it could also be played as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. If you are playing as a class, give each student a roll in the band and set up rules together about how business decisions will be made. After the simulation, come together as a class and talk about what decisions had the best outcomes and which led to downfalls.

Tips: Don’t hit your back button while you are in the simulation or your game will start over. This is an important tip to pass on to students!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Rags to Riches in your classroom.

Branches of Government Interactive

June 7, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2742 views

What it is: The Branches of Government and their roles can be tricky to learn. Branches of Government interactive is a good way for students to familiarize themselves with the branches of government. The activity is a simple one, students are given a leaf and must decide which branch of government it best describes. Students receive immediate feedback about their answer. If students dragged the leaf to the correct branch, it will stick. If not, the leaf returns to its original location at the base of the tree.

How to integrate Branches of Government Interactive into the classroom: The Branches of Government Interactive is a great one for interactive whiteboards. As your students are learning about the different branches of government, they can practice what they are learning with this interactive. I like to make everything into a game, students are more engaged in the activity and must work together to solve problems. Split your students into 3 teams (one for each branch of the government). When a new leaf comes up, teams discuss if they believe that the leaf is describing their branch of government. If they believe it is, the team sends one team member to the board if they are correct, the team earns a point. If teams send up a member incorrectly, they lose a point. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Branches of Government Interactive could also be set up for students to play as a center activity on classroom computers. The activity is self directed and provides students with enough feedback to navigate it quickly and independently.

Tips: This would be a good way for students to study for a test on the branches of government. Be sure to send a link home with students, parents always appreciate help in the studying/homework department!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Branches of Government in your classroom.