christmas – iLearn Technology

How to create an online Advent calendar

December 1, 2013Kelly Tenkely3 Comments16489 views

I love this time of year, it comes with such wonderful anticipation of things to come. A time to be mindful.

You can build some of that anticipation into your classroom with a digital advent calendar that reveals something each day in preparation for the holiday season. Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, “coming.” In Christian traditions, this refers to God’s coming into our midst. Anastasis is a faith-based school, so the advent calendar I created for our students and families is to be in celebration of this coming. Your classroom advent calendar doesn’t have to be faith-based.

Your advent calendar could be in anticipation of the coming new year, the coming break from school, or just a fun way to surprise your students with something they get to reveal each day. It would even be fun to reveal some sort of “Mission Impossible” task each day for your students. Be creative! This could be related to something they are learning/working on in your classroom, a kindness challenge, a video of the day, a writing prompt for the day, brain teaser, a book/poem/website for the day, a peek into your classroom for families, inquiry question of the day, song/podcast, 25 days of science experiments, etc. Even as adults we enjoy moments of anticipation, why not capitalize on that in your classroom?

I used Weebly to create our digital advent calendar. You can follow our calendar here. Weebly is an easy to use, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website builder. It makes it simple to quickly put together a site that you can easily edit in preparation for the next day of revealed surprise. Weebly also lets you include a nice variety of content so that it is flexible enough to meet your needs. I started December first with some text and an image. My plan is to take a video each day of our students sharing a verse, quote, thought, blessing, song, etc. and embed the video using the YouTube option. The only thing for me to do each day will be to take the video and upload it to our Anastasis YouTube channel and then copy the url into the Weebly image for the day. SO easy to keep up with each day!

How to build your own Weebly Advent Calendar:

Sign up for a free Weebly account
Choose a template to start with for your calendar. Any of the templates will work, choose the look you like best!
Start by dragging some text onto your page. This is a great place for a few sentences about your calendar and what students/families can expect to find each day.
Under the “Structure” section, select and drag over the “Columns” onto your page. I chose 5 columns. Repeat so that you have multiple rows of 5 columns. I have a total of 5 for 5 rows and 5 columns.
Into each row and column, drag over the “Image” option so that you have 25 image place holders.
I used Apple’s Pages software to create my daily images with the dates listed on them. I used some digital paper, layered a solid box of color, and two text boxes. I took a screenshot of each date (I just created one image and then changed the text for each screenshot).
Back in Weebly, click on the image placeholder to upload the images created (alternately, you can just use the search option to find images to use). Repeat for each image.
Create a new page (under the Pages tab a the top of the Weebly screen). Be sure to check the box so that the page is hidden from navigation. This is going to be your “come back on the appropriate day” page. Click “Save and Edit.”
On your new page, add some text and an image. Type a greeting message from those who are trying to sneak a peek early.
Navigate back to your home page. Click on each image, an edit box for the image will come up. Select “Link” and choose “Standard Page” and then the page you just created. Save.
Create other pages for your site if you would like to, I created an “About” page for those who are curious about Anastasis. It might be fun to include a “contact” page where students can submit ideas for the calendar (maybe original writing or other work?)
Publish your site.
Each day go back and click on the image for the appropriate day. From the edit box, go back to “Link” and change where the image links to. It can link to another page that you create on the Weebly site, a website or video, a file, or an email address (what if your students got a new email address each day to email an encouraging note to?). Alternatively, you can delete the image for that day all together and embed a video, html, flash, etc.
Don’t forget to re-publish after you’ve added/edited the site!

There is something truly wonderful about revealing a surprise each day. Don’t leave the families of your students out, it would be great to give families a glimpse of your classroom so that they can see what there kids are up to each day. This can be photos, original student writing, video, or fun activities to be completed as a family in lieu of homework.

Students can also be in charge of creating their own advent calendar. The possibilities for this are endless!

What great ideas do you have for using an advent calendar in your classroom? Share them below!

12 Days of Dreaming #12DOD

December 3, 2012Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2512 views

I love this time of year. Everything seems so full of possibility and optimism. @Mr_Brett_Clark took hold of that feeling and started Education Dreamer: 12 Days of Dreaming. Today was the big launch! From Brett: “There is no greater time than now to share our dreams for education. Everything great that has ever happened, started as a dream.
Education Dreamer will post a new post on Monday through Thursday the first three weeks of December beginning December 3rd.
You can support this project by sharing out the post using #12DOD, adding a badge to your website, and leaving comments.”

I fully support this 12 days of dreaming and added my own dreams which were posted on day number one. Lucky me!

Follow along, dream with your fellow educators and be inspired to make those dreams a reality!

My contribution is called: Dreaming of a Better Education. Click the link to have a read.

Thank you for including me Brett! Happy Everything 🙂

An advent calendar for everyone including my Web 2.0 calendar and app-a-day calendar!

November 29, 2011November 29, 2011Kelly Tenkely5 Comments4367 views

It is almost December again, which means the beginning of Advent. Advent calendars are a fun way to reveal information and “surprises” for your students to look forward to each day in December leading up to Christmas. Last year I thought I would make an advent calendar of my own using Wix. I created a Web 2.0 advent calendar by choosing 25 of my favorite web 2.0 tools for the classroom. Each day you can check out a new one. (I’ll let you in on a secret, you can cheat and look at them all by clicking on the bird to get back to the calendar page…shh don’t tell anyone!) You and your students can create your own custom advent calendar like I did using Wix. Students can create an advent calendar of pictures of their school work, trivia for their parents, special audio notes, or anything they are learning. To create your own Wix advent calendar, choose a template, add shapes to the template to create your calendar pieces, add 25 pages to the site, add links to those pages. You could also create an advent calendar of your own using Glogster. Create a customized advent calendar for your students with fun surprises, quotes, video clips, sound bites, etc. It can be related to the learning they are doing in your classroom, suggestions of books to read, or reveal special rewards like extra computer time, time playing a favorite game, time for reading, etc. Be creative! I’m hoping to make a new advent calendar this year…we will see if I can find the time to make that happen! In the mean time check out these other great calendars to use with your students!

Woodlands Jr has a great online advent calendar every year that tests students knowledge about Christmas around the world. The Woodlands Jr. 2010 advent calendar is a fun one, I am hoping that they come out with one for 2011 in a few days. 🙂 This is a fun way for students to test their knowledge and learn about the ways that Christmas is celebrated all around the world. As an extension, plot the places around the world that they are learning about on a world map.

BBC Radio has a fabulous Bach advent calendar. Each day your students can listen to a story about Bach or music.

The National Museum of Liverpool has an advent calendar that reveals a piece of art from the museum each day.

The Dirt Dirt advent calendar is purely fun, each day click on a number and an animation will be added to the tree.

For those of us who are app inclined, you can download a free app for your iDevice every day from Appvent Calendar!!

Below you will find my interactive advent calendar finds from last year. You are bound to find one that is a perfect fit for your class!

What it is: It is December! This means the beginning of Advent along with the anticipation and excitement that it brings. The Internet is full of interactive advent calendars that you can use in your classroom to teach about how the Christmas season is celebrated all around the world. These advent calendars reveal fun facts, interactive activities, and stories.

Santa’s House Advent Calendar– This advent calendar tells a fun story. Each day reveals another secret about what goes on inside Santa’s home on the 24 days leading up to Christmas. In each picture, there is a little mouse hiding. When students click on his ears, he jumps out.

Christmas Around the World Advent Calendar– Each day students click on the date to reveal a fun fact about how countries around the world celebrate Christmas. The facts are accompanied by great illustrations and pictures. This site shows up very small inside my Internet browser (Firefox). To remedy this problem, click on “view” in your menu bar and choose “zoom”. You may need to zoom in several times.

Christmas Mice Advent Calendar– This calendar tells the story about a mouse family who celebrates Christmas. Each day a little more of the story is revealed. Each picture includes some animation.

Santa’s Advent Calendar– On this advent calendar, each day reveals a new song or activity for students to complete. There are some fun Christmas themed mysteries to solve, stories to read, and activities to work through.

French Carols Advent Calendar– This is a French advent calendar. Each day contains a new French Christmas carol sung by children. This advent calendar would be a fun one to include in a study of Christmas around the world.

Christmas Around the World Advent Calendar Quiz– This advent calendar tests students knowledge about how other cultures celebrate Christmas. Each day students are asked a question and given hints to help them answer. When the answer is revealed, students can click on links to learn more about the Christmas celebrations in that country. This site also includes great activities and teaching resources for Christmas.

Christmas Advent Calendar– Follow the adventures of Zac the elf as he tries to find a Christmas present for Santa. Each day a little more of the story is revealed.

Christmas Activity Advent Calendar– This advent calendar has fun little games and activities to play each day. The games and activities are quick and easy to complete, building mouse and keyboard skills. This advent calendar would be a good one for the classroom computers as a center activity.

How to integrate Interactive Advent Calendars into the classroom: The season of Advent is always filled with eagerness and expectancy. Build some of that anticipation into your school day by allowing students to unlock a new secret on the advent calendar each day. Use these advent calendars with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or set them up as a quick center activity that students can visit. Use the advent calendars that reveal a story to practice looking for foreshadowing clues, using context clues to guess what will happen next, or as story starters for students own stories. The Christmas around the world advent calendars are wonderful for teaching students some of the history of Christmas and the way that other cultures celebrate the familiar holiday.

Tips: Each of these advent calendars has some fun goodies and hidden surprises, find the one that best fits your classroom needs.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Interactive Advent Calendars in your classroom.

iLearn Technology Top 10 Posts of 2010

December 23, 2010August 8, 2012Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2820 views

As 2010 winds down, I thought I would do a quick recap of the top 10 most popular posts on iLearn Technology this year (because who doesn’t love a good top 10 list?):

10. My Macmillan McGraw Hill Treasures reading curriculum supplements for 1st-5th grades.

9. My iLearn Mac in education ezines

8. 31 of My Favorite Digital Storytelling Sites

7. Interactive Advent Calendars

6. 16 of the Best Internet Safety Sites for Kids

5. My Promethean Quick Tips (page)

4. My Um-Bloom-ra Blooms Taxonomy Umbrella

3. 14 Online Interactive Advent Calendars (including my Web 2.0 Advent Calendar)

2. My Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloomin’ Pinwheel

1. My Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloomin’ Peacock

As it turns out, your favorite posts are my lists and content that I created…nice!

Remember you can buy a pack of all of my Bloom’s posters here ($.99). Or get the Bloomin’ Peacock on a variety of items. All sales in the month of December will be donated to a Donor’s Choose project. ***UPDATE: Bloom’s Posters are now only available through my Kickstarter project!

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and holiday season; I hope it is filled with family, good memories, love, and of course…technology! 😉

More Advent Calendars: Student created, creative, and imaginative!

December 2, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments21727 views

After my last post I found some new advent calendars that I just had to add to the list.

First is an advent calendar created by eighth graders at ASLS who’s teacher Mr. Akerson (@mra47) I follow on Twitter. What is so neat about this advent calendar, is it is made up of pictures of the students and teachers. Each day that you click on delivers a new devotion written by one of the eighth graders. I have NO idea how they created this site, each day all of the students pictures look a little different direction so that they are focused on the person on the date of the day (that is a total of 2200 pictures!!). Genius! They are making Weebly do things I am sure it wasn’t intended to do. The students at ASLS have a goal to get someone from every state in the US to view their advent calendar. I think we can help them out with that and do one better, let’s get them views from around the world! This student created calendar is not to be missed! This calendar is a fun one to use with your students, but why not blog lift their idea and create a similar calendar with your students? Since we are already into December maybe yours is a 12 days of Christmas calendar or a unique lead up to your schools winter break. Students could create a “word a day” calendar, math problem of the day, featured student art, story of the day, poem of the day, fact of the day…the possibilities are endless on this one. Ask your students, they will have great ideas!

The second calendar is one that is sure to spark your students imagination and creativity. Send Felicity is a beautiful idea and way to celebrate all things imaginative. Every day Felicity From Thin Air will surprise your students with fun activity ideas that are illustrated by some of the best children’s book illustrators in the world. The idea behind the Send Felicity and the illustrations are enchanting. Currently ideas are being shared on the Send Felicity website. There is an accompanying application for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad that is soon to be released. This complimentary (read free) application will guide students in creativity and imagination. Eight arts and crafts ideas will be interspersed throughout for students to complete with their families or at school. All creations can be submitted to the Send Felicity gallery. Felicity from Thin Air is meant to be a new way of learning and engagement for the mind. It is about creativity, collaboration, and sharing with a global audience. In addition to the daily activities, there are magic surprises. I don’t know what the magic is but I am assured I will know it when I see it 🙂 Get your students families engaged in some fun holiday spirit. Instead of homework for the month of December, why not give your students (and parents) the homework of following Felicity from Thin Air and engaging in creativity as a family. I guarantee that the positive effects will be much more lasting than any worksheet you could send home. Today’s Felicity from Thin Air activity is Fancy Dress for Dinner. Pick any theme and invite the whole family to show up for dinner dressed for the occasion. Costumes can be as silly or creative as you like! Following Felicity at school? Adapt the idea for a Fancy Lunch or Fancy Math class and have your students create impromptu costumes out of classroom items. Don’t have time for the cut/paste? Have your students draw their costume. The goal is to let kids be creative and imaginative!

Librarian extraordinaire Shannon Miller of VanMeter shared the Polar Express advent calendar with me. This calendar includes the beautiful Polar express illustrations and combines it with fun activities and give away opportunities. Enter a chance to win the giveaways for your class (for example yesterday was a chance to win the Polar Express bell from Santa’s sleigh) and complete the activities together. Each day is a new surprise!

Tips: Each of these advent calendars has some fun goodies and hidden surprises, find the one that best fits your classroom needs.

Thank you to all of you who have spread the word to fellow teachers about my Web 2.0 advent calendar, I am glad you are enjoying it!

14 Online Interactive Advent Calendars

November 30, 2010November 30, 2010Kelly Tenkely11 Comments18610 views

It is December again, which means the beginning of Advent. Advent calendars are a fun way to reveal information and “surprises” for your students to look forward to each day in December leading up to Christmas. This year I thought I would make an advent calendar of my own using Wix. I created a Web 2.0 advent calendar by choosing 25 of my favorite web 2.0 tools for the classroom. Each day you can check out a new one. (I’ll let you in on a secret, you can cheat and look at them all by clicking on the bird to get back to the calendar page…shh don’t tell anyone!) You and your students can create your own custom advent calendar like I did using Wix. Students can create an advent calendar of pictures of their school work, trivia for their parents, special audio notes, or anything they are learning. To create your own Wix advent calendar, choose a template, add shapes to the template to create your calendar pieces, add 25 pages to the site, add links to those pages. You could also create an advent calendar of your own using Glogster. Create a customized advent calendar for your students with fun surprises, quotes, video clips, sound bites, etc. It can be related to the learning they are doing in your classroom, suggestions of books to read, or reveal special rewards like extra computer time, time playing a favorite game, time for reading, etc. Be creative!

Woodlands Jr has a great online advent calendar every year that tests students knowledge about Christmas around the world. The Woodlands Jr. 2010 advent calendar is now up and ready for viewing! This is a fun way for students to test their knowledge and learn about the ways that Christmas is celebrated all around the world. As an extension, plot the places around the world that they are learning about on a world map.

BBC Radio has a fabulous Bach advent calendar. Each day your students can listen to a story about Bach or music.

The National Museum of Liverpool has an advent calendar that reveals a piece of art from the museum each day.

The Dirt Dirt advent calendar is purely fun, each day click on a number and an animation will be added to the tree.

For those of us who are app inclined, you can download a free app for your iDevice every day from Appvent Calendar.

Below you will find my interactive advent calendar finds from last year. You are bound to find one that is a perfect fit for your class!

Christmas Mice Advent Calendar– This calendar tells the story about a mouse family who celebrates Christmas. Each day a little more of the story is revealed. Each picture includes some animation.

Christmas Advent Calendar– Follow the adventures of Zac the elf as he tries to find a Christmas present for Santa. Each day a little more of the story is revealed.

Tips: Each of these advent calendars has some fun goodies and hidden surprises, find the one that best fits your classroom needs.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Interactive Advent Calendars in your classroom.

Interactive Advent Calendars

December 1, 2009Kelly Tenkely8 Comments10123 views

What it is: It is December! This means the beginning of Advent along with the anticipation and excitement that it brings. The Internet is full of interactive advent calendars that you can use in your classroom to teach about how the Christmas season is celebrated all around the world. These advent calendars reveal fun facts, interactive activities, and stories.

Christmas Mice Advent Calendar– This calendar tells the story about a mouse family who celebrates Christmas. Each day a little more of the story is revealed. Each picture includes some animation.

Christmas Advent Calendar– Follow the adventures of Zac the elf as he tries to find a Christmas present for Santa. Each day a little more of the story is revealed.

How to integrate Interactive Advent Calendars into the classroom: The season of Advent is always filled with eagerness and expectancy. Build some of that anticipation into your school day by allowing students to unlock a new secret on the advent calendar each day. Use these advent calendars with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or set them up as a quick center activity that students can visit. Use the advent calendars that reveal a story to practice looking for foreshadowing clues, using context clues to guess what will happen next, or as story starters for students own stories. The Christmas around the world advent calendars are wonderful for teaching students some of the history of Christmas and the way that other cultures celebrate the familiar holiday.

Tips: Each of these advent calendars has some fun goodies and hidden surprises, find the one that best fits your classroom needs.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Interactive Advent Calendars in your classroom.

NORAD Tracks Santa

December 10, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2257 views

What it is: Who knew that NORAD Tracks Santa? They do! In partnership with Google Earth, now your students can track Santa live starting December 24th. In the mean time, students can enjoy other fun holiday activities on the NORAD Tracks Santa site. There is a count down to Christmas clock, Santa videos, information about Santa (including some history of the original St. Nick), Santa FAQ’s, Santa snack ideas, and Santa’s village where students will find fun Christmas themed games like light the Christmas tree (a logic puzzle), and Christmas memory. Students can also learn about why and how NORAD tracks Santa. This is a fun site for students to explore!

How to integrate NORAD Tracks Santa into the classroom: Because this site uses Google Earth to track Santa, this may be a good time to teach your students how to use Google Earth and some map skills in preparation for tracking Santa. The information pages about Santa and NORAD are great reading and discussion material for the holiday season. Set up your classroom computers with Santa’s village countdown and let students take turns completing the light the Christmas tree challenge over the next few weeks.

Tips: The NORAD Tracks Santa site is available in seven languages!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using NORAD Tracks Santa in your classroom.

Northpole.com

December 9, 2008Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2560 views

What it is: Northpole.com is a fun Christmas themed website for kids pre-k through 3rd grade. Students can work on fine motor skills with activities like connect the dots, connect the dashes, and mazes. You will also find great Christmas time activities to help build letter recognition, sound recognition, vocabulary, numbers, ordinal numbers, right and left, and size. Students can practice writing skills with a letter to Santa or a holiday postcard. Northpole.com has printable awards and diplomas for students who complete the activities. Northpole.com also has a number of online Christmas stories that students can read on their own or have read to them. My favorite feature are the personalized stories. Students fill in their name and some other information and Northpole.com creates a story with the student as the main character that they can immediately read online!

How to integrate Northpole.com into the classroom: Use the outstanding activities on Northpole.com during the holiday season to teach and reinforce fine motor skills, alphabet, numbers, reading, and writing. Set up your classroom computer as a personalized story generator. Throughout the week, allow students to read a story about themselves during silent reading time.

Tips: The teacher page at Northpole.com gives a great break down of the site so you can find exactly what you are looking for.

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

Christmas Tree Puzzle

December 20, 2007Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2145 views

What it is: Christmas Tree Puzzle is a fun game where students have to light up a Christmas tree by connecting all of the wires to a power source. This requires critical thinking and problem solving but is a lot of fun!

How to integrate Christmas Tree Puzzle into the classroom: This is a wonderful Christmas math game for students. All ages will enjoy this puzzle game, younger students will play with trial and error while older students will use some math strategy and planning to light the tree. Have tree lighting contest where students race to light their tree first or with the fastest time. This is a great activity for the last week of school when students are wound up!

Tips: Set up Christmas Tree Puzzle as a center that students can visit throughout the day or as part of a Christmas party.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Christmas Tree Puzzle in your classroom.