Tag: logic puzzles

NORAD Tracks Santa

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on NORAD Tracks Santa2276 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.

Animalia

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Animalia3771 views

 

What it is: The Animalia website is based on the popular book and television series written and illustrated by Graeme Base. The website is just as impressive as the book with amazing illustrations and activities for students.  On the Animalia website, students are introduced to the characters of Animalia, the goal of the Animalia site, Animalia news, and games and activities.  The Animalia site brings students on a wonderful adventure where their goal is to collect all of the “core spores” to restore the Core of Animalia.  Students collect the core spores by going on several adventures where they will play learning games, discover, and follow directions.  Games and activities include logic puzzles, memory skills, code cracking, map reading, and listening skills.  The listening game is called Toucan Talk (which I learned about on Larry Ferrazlo’s blog) and  asks students to listen to a message in the wrong order, and change the order of words or sounds so that the message makes sense.  The site is extremely interactive.  Students will love becoming part of the adventure.

 

How to integrate Animalia into the classroom:   Animalia is like a giant online scavenger hunt where students solve problems to advance in the game.  This site would be a great one to use to teach following written and oral directions, logical thinking, and problem solving skills.  These aren’t skills that we generally focus on in isolation but the Animalia site does a wonderful job of weaving a story around a problem and inviting students along on an adventure to solve the problem.  Because students are problem solving, this would be an excellent site for students to work on collaboratively as a team.  Students can be split into teams to see who can collect all of the “core spores” first through problem solving.  What I love about watching my students interact with each other on this site, is the way that one team would solve a problem and then teach another team how they did it.  Nothing better than kids teaching kids!  For younger students, the game could be completed as a whole class with a projector or interactive whiteboard.  The clues and games will have to be more teacher directed but your students will quickly catch on and be ready to play!

 

Tips:   This site is highly interactive including video clips, highly interactive games, and sounds.  You will need a high speed connection for this site.  Bring on the bandwidth!

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