First Grade

Cyberchase: Poddle Weigh-In

• Technology Tool
• Evaluated by Allison Selden
• Other Grades: 2nd

This is a balancing game based on the PBS kids show Cyberchase. Hacker, who is one of the bad guys, has removed (stolen) all of the numbers from the poddles in Poddleville. The player (student) is tasked with using the scale to get things back to normal by exploring how weights valued 1, 2, 3 and 4 can be adjusted to find the weight of the character on the other side of the scale. The player (student) can add and subtract weights as needed, and the balance will visually adjust, until the correct weight (answer) is attained.

IXL: Recognize Patterns

• Technology Tool
• Evaluated by Allison Pargoff
• Other Grades: Kindergarten, 2nd

This website is a great tool if you are introducing fractions to a youngster. In short, students are asked to replicate and match a given pattern. Students are introduced to a variety of patterns including AB, AAB, and ABB. If a pattern is left incomplete, or is incorrect, the answer is revealed along with an age appropriate explanation. Students can then click "got it" and repeat a similar pattern.

Miss Giraffe Blog: Place Value in First Grade

• Resource
• Evaluated by Allison Selden
• Other Grades: Kindergarten, 2nd

This resource is a teaching blog maintained by an experienced first grade teacher who goes by the screen name "Miss Giraffe". Her blog contains posts, ideas and resources for literacy and math. She features many of her Teachers-Pay-Teachers products on her blog as well. Her products and resources vary from free to $80 or so, depending on what it is you are purchasing. The specific blog post I am focusing on for this evaluation is about Place Value in First Grade, although I adapt many of her activities, resources and fun ideas for my second grade classroom. The same activities, resources and fun ideas can also be adapted to provide enrichment in Kindergarten.

Illuminations: Amazing Attributes Unit

• Resource
• Evaluated by Allison Selden
• Other Grades: Kindergarten, 2nd

Amazing Attributes is a 5 lesson unit that guides students in collecting data through the use of objects, pictures, and symbols. Students will also be guided in learning about organizing the data they collect and sorting and classifying it in different ways. Lastly, students will learn how to display the data they collect with various representations. The lessons for the Amazing Attribute unit are:

1. Properties Everywhere
2. Grandma's Button Box
3. Alike and Different
4. Naming Rows and Columns
5. Show and Tell

Shape Inlay

• Technology Tool
• Evaluated by Allison Selden
• Other Grades: 2nd, 3rd

The tech tool is a dynamic game that was designed as a way to allow students to critically think about which shapes should go where to create a geometric work of art. Shape Inlay uses various trapezoid, rhombus, triangle and square shapes that can be rotated, turned and flipped to fit into different areas of the "shape" outline. Students are challenged to use their spatial reasoning and problem solving skills to complete this geometric puzzle. They can use whatever shapes they choose and put them wherever they would like until one of two things happens:

1. They position the shapes on the board to complete the outline and win!
2. They do not position the shapes fast enough and the conveyor belt at the bottom fills up and the game is over.