I hope that you have all enjoyed listening to the audio book of Charlotte’s Web, and that your students are excited to attend the play this Thursday. Here is an online activity and corresponding lesson plan that you might want to use. It is a comic book creator that lets students create their own comics based on the book.

Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

I have two interesting sites to share with you this week. The first one has been a hot topic on the eMINTS discussion list the last couple of days. It is called Class Dojo, and it is a tool you can use to provide students with instant behavior feedback. Here’s the description from the website:

”ClassDojo works by setting up real-time feedback loops in the classroom, to recognise and reinforce desirable behaviors and values. You can recognise and reinforce specific behaviors and accomplishments with just one click, and have real-time visual notifications appear on your smartboard, laptop or projector. All recognition is logged automatically, and student behavior records are automatically created and updated so you don’t have to do any other data entry (unless you want to, of course!). ClassDojo automatically generates analytics, shareable character report cards and insight into your classroom that has never before been possible.”

Basically, you project a diagram of your class on your SMART Board, and then you can click to provide positive or negative feedback for specific behaviors. I’m not sure how I feel about this tool, since the feedback is pretty public, but when we give oral feedback to kids, it’s public, so maybe this is ok. I’m curious to see if you think this would be useful. If you try it out, let me know what you think.

The other resource I want to share with you is PBS Learning Media.  This is a great resource. It is a searchable database of videos, lessons, etc. from PBS, and it’s free. I glanced at the Language Arts section and narrowed it down to the grade levels I teach, and I found lots of great stuff. Check it out and let me know if you like it.

Enjoy!

Cindy

Here’s a neat interactive site you can use on your SMART Board or on the student machines to have students practice with base 10 blocks. Let me know what you think of it.

The new Windows 8 shows that technology is taking a big step forward with the prolific use of touch screens on tablets (gotta love the iPad for that one). It will be good for us to think about how this impacts the way our students access digital information. Will the traditional keyboard and mouse be a thing of the past?  Something to think about.

Check out this great resource for encouraging students to read, write and wonder!

Teachers, you’ve got to check this one out! This is a fabulous science site created by the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California Berkeley.  Their LHS Kids page has tons of great interactive science activities, and they have no ads, which makes this library lady very happy.

Take a look at the different activities and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

I thought this site might be useful to use with students who need some basic phonics help. Here’s what the site creators have to say about their program:

Progressive Phonics is an all-in-one reading program that is easy, fun, and totally FREE—that’s right, totally and completely free! And with Progressive Phonics, ANYONE can teach a child to read and write in just a few minutes a day, which makes it ideal for parents, teachers, tutors, volunteers and home-schoolers.

• No experience necessary. Just pick a book and start reading it with your child/students.
• Matching handwriting worksheets and activity sheets for each book — when children write what they learn, they learn it better.
  
• Also teaches the essential sight-words (phonics rule-breakers) that most phonics programs fail to teach.
  
• Instant access — download and use today. (Free registration required, but there are sample books you can look at before registering.)
  
• Our books can be read on-screen or printed on your color printer. Each book takes 4–8 minutes to print and uses as little ink and paper as possible.

This might be a great resource to use with parents who want to do some extra practice at home. Be sure to check it out and leave a comment to let me know what you think of it.

Here is an online resource that might helpful for your students who read at lower reading levels or for your ESL students who are new to learning English. It has leveled readers, phonics activities and more that you can download and use on your computer. Here’s what the site creators have to say about Literactive:

“Literactive is the leading provider of reading material for pre-school, kindergarten and grade 1 students available online. The program is comprised of carefully levelled guided readers, comprehensive phonic activities and a wealth of supplemental reading material which gradually develop a child’s reading skills in a sequential and enjoyable manner. Developed and approved by teachers and parents across the United States, Literactive is the acknowledged leader in early learning online. All the material is available for free from this site but you need to register. “

You do have to register to use the site materials, and the files are .exe files which might be blocked for downloading at school, so you may need to download them at home and bring them on flash drive to install. If you find the site useful, I can talk to the tech department about having access to the files unblocked. Let me know what you think about it!

Harcourt Publishing has a great math resource called Think Math available to teachers and students. You will find great online math games, interactive demonstrations of math concepts, math jingles to sing along with, and more! The activities are categorized by grade level and concept. Be sure to check this one out!

Many of you search for sites where you can find copyright-friendly images, sounds, etc. for your websites and blogs. Instead of stressing about the “copyright police”, check out this wiki by Joyce Valenza. It has links to several sites that might help you in your search. This is definitely a resource for you as a teacher. I would not link this for elementary students. I hope you find it useful!

http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/