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BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving

November 23, 2009November 23, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2881 views

What it is: BrainPop is usually a paid service. This week, BrainPop Jr. is offering their Thanksgiving with Annie and Mobi for free. The video teaches students about the first Thanksgiving and includes plenty of facts about the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag, and the famous harvest feast. The video includes several discussion and dig-deeper questions throughout. The questions appear on a notebook next to the video. You can pause the video when the questions appear for a class discussion or for independent reflection in a journal. You can print out an accompanying notebook page that lists all of the questions from the video. At the end of the video, you can choose to “learn more” about the first Thanksgiving with additional activities, crafts, games, suggested reading, drawing, writing, interactive word wall, and quizzes.

How to integrate BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving into the classroom: The BrainPop Jr. Thanksgiving video is a fun way to teach about the history of Thanksgiving to younger students. The video is about 4 minutes long and includes multiple opportunities for discussion and check points for understanding. There are also additional follow up activities. Some of the activities are for print (a Thanksgiving “what I’m thankful for” turkey), and some are to be completed on the computer. Watch the video as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector. Set up your classroom computer with the “learn more” activities for students to complete as a center activity. Alternatively, students could watch and complete the activities independently in the computer lab setting. The interactive word wall is a great way for students to learn some of the vocabulary associated with Thanksgiving.

Tips: Print out the Thanksgiving Notebook for your students to fill out as they watch the video. Thank you to @mrscoggin for sharing this freebie on Twitter!

Leave a comment and share how you are using BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving in your classroom.

Ecybermission

August 4, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment1924 views

What it is: Ecybermission is a free, web-based science, math, and technology competition for students in sixth through ninth grade sponsored by the US Army. Students compete in regional and national awards by working to solve problems in their community. The goal of the competition is to help students understand how science, math, and technology work in the world today. Each team needs 3 or 4 student members. The team members must register and join the team by December 18, 2009. Each team also needs 1 adviser this could be a teacher, coach, club leader, etc that is at least 21 years old. There are four mission challenges that a team can choose from: sports and recreation, 2009-2010 scenario challenge, environment, or health and safety. Students will research the problem they are seeking to address, write a hypothesis, and conduct experiments. An online Team-Talk allows students to meet with each other online using discussion forums, chat rooms, and instant messaging. Students can answer questions in an online mission folder that allows them to attach files such as photographs, survey questions, or a website. At the end of the competion the mission folder is submited (before February 26, 2010).

How to integrate Ecybermission into the classroom: Why not make Ecybermission a portion of your schools science fair? Students could gather into teams competing in the competion, solving real-world problems. My guess is that this competition would be a much richer learning experience than the typical volcanoes, and planet mobiles that usually show up to science fairs. As students work to solve a problem, they will build communication, collaboration, innovation, critical thinking and scientific process skills.

Tips: Get your students signed up today, registration is open from now until December 18, 2009. I would think the more time you can provide your students the better! Need an added bonus? Any team that registers with Ecybermission gets Brian Pop for free!

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