December 2009
Curriculum Links
Reading/Writing Great Parent Link! CREATING A LITERATE NATION BY LEVERAGING THE POWER OF THE FAMILY The Smithsonian and the National Center For Family Literacy have jointly developed several brand-new learning interactives. Learning Chocolate is a very good interactive vocabulary site for beginning readers. The site is divided into categories, provides audio support for the text, and has numerous re-enforcing online games. Social Studies Zoom into Maps offers hundreds of historical maps—maps showing European exploration of the Americas; migration, population and economic activity; the growth of roads, railways, canals, river systems, telephone systems, telegraph routes and radio coverage; landforms, recreational and wilderness areas; troop movements, battle routes and campsites during major U.S. military conflicts; and more. Timelines is a neat tool that lets users contribute towards making “timelines” of historical events with text, photos, and videos.
Math Max's Math Adventures- is from Scholastic, and offers a variety of relatively simple math games. Math Matters, Apply It! is intended for anyone who wants to know more about the mathematics behind everyday life and the technologies we encounter. Carrotsticks.com- Math Facts Practice Science Join the Happy Scientist Educator Robert Krampf, “the Happy Scientist,” shows visitors to his Web site that science can be fun and understandable. Part of that effort is his Free Experiment of the Week list. If you join the Experiment of the Week list, each week you will get a new experiment that you can try yourself. Also check out the free Science Photo of the Day and view the Latest Video (Fun at Technorama). The Sue Files is a Web-based curriculum designed by The Field Museum to put students in the shoes of a paleontologist studying Sue, the largest, most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex. Although the scenario presented on this site is fictitious and designed to be an engaging story, all the scientific information regarding Sue the T. rex and the science of paleontology is completely accurate. In addition, the questions that students answer as they investigate this mystery are the same sorts of questions paleontologists struggle with on a regular basis. Specialists The richly-illustrated ArtDaily publishes art world news, with special emphasis on what is going on at leading art museums, galleries, and auction houses.Fun features include an art-related Word Search and downloadable puzzles. Internet Safety: CyberSmart! prepares students to use the Internet for communication, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving—the new basic skills for 21st century learning. | Videos for December  12-7 Pearl Harbor Day (World War II) 12-10 Nobel Prize awarded 12-11 Hannukah Begins- Winter Holidays 12-31 New Year's Movie Calendar and Dates (brain pop jr) Videos: The New England Colonists: The Pilgrims and Puritans, Grades 6-8 Discovering Language Arts (Audio Description Version): Grades 03-05: Research, Grades: 3-5From generating topics to collecting research materials from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and the Internet, introduce students to research strategies, information gathering, and presenting findings.
Reference Links Homework Hotline has a variety of resources designed to help students with their…homework. The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) provides services designed to support and improve the academic achievement of students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind. The DCMP has a library of free-loan described and captioned educational media that teachers of, media specialists who serve, other professionals working with, and parents of students who are deaf or blind can use. WatchKnow—as in, “You watch, you know”—is a nonprofit online community that encourages everyone to collect, create and share free, innovative, educational videos. Educational Blogs worth following: Looking for some new Blogs to read? Search by Lexile at Barnes & Nobel When shopping online, Barnes & Noble.com offers a Lexile Reading Level wizard that allows you to build a custom book list based on your Lexile measure and interests. The Lexile wizard is available on the “B&N Kids” page, in the box called “Easy Search Tools for Children’s Books” (see below). To launch the Lexile wizard, click on the “Find Children’s Book” button. Copyright Friendly Images and Sounds...this collection of sites with "generous" copyright licensing is a nice place to start if you need some images or sounds for your Web page, blog, wiki, podcast, or videos; remember to read the usage rights and the citation information required by each site before you use their materials Alec Couros, a faculty member at the University of Regina, has collected over 90 "interesting Internet videos that would be appropriate for lessons and presentations, or personal research, related to technological and media literacy"; plan to spend a lot of time here! | Teacher Highlight Resource Used: Voice Thread Teacher: Zach Prowell- HL- 5th Grade Link to Project: Kindness Retreat, Math Review, Math Lesson Teacher: Gerri Schinckle- HL- 1st Grade Link to Project: Family Stories Teacher: Katie Higgins- CN- 4th Grade Link to Project: Trapped in Death Cave group summary Other Examples using Voice Thread: Subtraction of decimals (in French)- Seck- ND Newbery Books 08-09- Strom - CV Figurative Language - Swanson - CC Our Community - Rink - CV Want to try a project like this? Just for Fun! Aviary.com Photo editing, logos, web templates, filters, color palettes, screen capture & more.  glitchscape; The only way to describe this is you make a box and it plays a tune...you can make your own loop of music. Just try it, it's cool! Painted Lady butterflies in space! On November 16, 2009, larvae that hatched six days earlier flew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. Now, we are studying their development and behavior in microgravity. Photos and video are available here. Please join the investigation! Engage your students in concurrent activities with their own butterflies. Download the free Teacher's Guide to begin. Wallwisher Wallwisher is an online notice board maker. No registration required - click, write, post - that's it! Here's a demo wall:. |