PicLits

If you are looking for something new to inspire reluctant writers in your classroom PicLits could end your search. PicLits is an attractive product, has many easy to use features, and is free. Students should be instructed to write only and introduction or first paragraph  in a image, not a full story. Short poems, quotes or thoughts would work well within an image. Try one for yourself. I used Microsoft Word first, then used cut and paste to bring my writing in to PicLits.  PicLits has a Help button to use if you need information on how to format the text to best fit the chosen image.

60 Second Lectures

What Makes a Poem a Poem? A 60 second lecture.
Instructors from University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences take a minute each spring and fall to offer their perspectives on a wide variety of topics.  You may find these 1 minute talks entertaining and who knows, some might be useful in a lesson design.
The 60 Second Lectures site was discovered on the blog titled, Free Technology for Teachers.

Magnetic Poetry

Kids' Poetry Page offers teachers a fun way to integrate technology into creative writing.  Try it out and I guarantee your head will fill with great ideas on how to use this site with your classroom poetry writing.  Put it together with an interactive whiteboard and use it for more than just poetry.  Explore the site and you will find poems by kids that are really cool. The creator of Magnetic Poetry offers classroom uses and other helpful information. Find this information by opening the Shopping tab and looking at the top of the window for "teachers".

Check out my Haiku!

New Year's Resolutions

Teachers love to ask their students to write New Year's Resolutions.  Maybe you could make good use of Wordle when making this assignment.  I came across a funny pie chart and used Wordle to show the same "data" in another way.  Do you think Rick Astley was making his New Year's Resolutions when he recorded "Never Gonna Give You Up" on New Year's Day 1987?  Fourth Grade is a good place to begin using Wordle.

Lawrence Hall of Science

From the University of California Berkeley comes Explore LHS for Kids.  Richard Byrne, creator of Free Technology for Teachers says, "Measure Yourself could be a fun way to introduce students to measurement using the metric system. The activity give students some familiar animals by which to gauge metric measurements. Overall, Hey LHS Kids offers a variety of similar activities that can be useful for introducing some basic science and math concepts to elementary school students."  Please practice navigating this site's offerings before bringing your students to the computer lab.  This icon and link have been added to the Five Lakes Elemantary School webpage.  Look in Kids Zone inside the Science category.

Similar activities that may be useful for you:

Activity TV

Explore the Galapagos

Finding Wonderland

Wonderland is a collaborative blog for writers to share news, links, and book recommendations for young adults.  Give this blog a try and you will find many treasures like this one:

10 NEW Techie Things To Try This Year: 1. Tripline

Tripline is a new map creation service that offers users a presentation tool for sharing a trip to others or for designing a trip itinerary.  The special features of Tripline allow you to add details to each stop on your itinerary. Also, add images, and music to the presentation of your trip.  The completed product is a slideshow tour of you trip.  Creating a map is EASY!  After log-in, click "create a new trip," enter map title, then type the first location on your map.  After that you can add more by simply typing location names into your list. Placemarks will be added to the map for you.  Adding text is accomplished by clicking the edit icon.  When your placemarks are complete  you can select music to enhance your tour.  Your final product can be embedded into your webpage or blog.  Try Tripline in your Social Studies class!  FREE!

Example:

ABC 3D Book

This is a fun video to watch!

Cool Cat Teacher Blog Discusses Keyboarding

Some interesting comments about the importance of teaching keyboarding  can be found in this short blog post from Cool Cat Teacher Blog.  Teachers are still commenting to this post 3 years after it was created!

BrainPop and BrainPop Jr.

   Fairmont Area Schools has purchased a multi-year subscription to BrainPop and BrainPop Junior.  Links to this product can be found in Kid’s Zone on your school’s webpage.

   If you have lost this information ask a colleague or send me an email.  Your password will work for both versions.

   For a quick overview of the great features offered by BrainPop try this link: http://www.brainpop.com/about/tour/ .

Dictionary.com

Take a look at these vocabulary games from Dictionary.com., titled Meaning Fall and Clockwords.  I played this game and tried the others found on this site.  Each game could be used as a class activity or by individuals in the computer lab.  I especially liked Clockwords.  Previewing these games will help you introduce them to your class.  These word games allow students of all abilities participate.

Web 2.0 Project Ideas

This little book is truly "amazing".  An educator named, Terry Freedman published it as a free pdf file.  It is simply written and easy to understand and offers project ideas for using Web 2.0 in our K-12 schools.  You may be unfamiliar with some of the applications discussed but don't be discouraged by that.