Learn NC Does It Again!

Learn NC is a fantastic and probably underutilized resource! There are so many things there you could not even list them all - lesson plans, online professional development, new teacher support, field trip suggestions, and so much more. I recently found where they have take Common Core and NC Essential Standards and added lesson plan links. While I have not looked at other areas much yet, I have spent a little time on the Information and Technology Essential Standards. It is such a great way to get ideas! I have not seen any that I will do just as they are written yet, but it has given me several springboards to ideas that I will tweak to use with my classes. I have also found a lot of resources I didn't know about through the lesson plans.

Check it out and add a comment of your favorite lessons or resources you find!

Explorers A to Z ... or not?

I am preparing a unit for my 5th graders on explorers and was looking for sites to add to my livebinder for them to use to research their person. I came across Explorers A to Z and it looked like a great site! Looking a little closer, I realized it will be a great site...but not for the reason I thought. Instead of using it for our explorer unit, I will be adding it to my website evaluation unit - on my list of hoax sites. You can see more about the Explorer A to Z site here and how it is meant to be used. They have even color coded the Treasure Hunts for facts by easier with more surface level fact problems to harder, more fact specific issues so you can challenge kids at the level you want. The Treasure Hunts give a real site to visit and their own fake one so they can compare the information.

This is a perfect site to use along with sites like the Northwest Tree Octopus in helping students learn more about how to look at a site and that just because it looks legit, doesn't mean the information is correct. As I was reading about Christopher Columbus, I thought at first they made some typos, because I know he didn't sail in 1942, but of course he didn't have infomercials or a toll free phone number either. Hopefully, kids would catch these things, but then again I was surprised how many still thought the Northwest Tree Octopus was real even after really exploring the website.

What sites do you use for website evaluation and examples of hoax sites? (See a list of my main ones on my livebinder.)

What sites do you use for information about explorers?

Bob the Alien and Dewey

I was looking for way to help younger students (about 2nd grade or so) understand how to look for the Non Fiction book topics they want. I came across this video on YouTube that I think breaks it down a little with fun illustrations that might hold their attention and get them to think about it a little. I will still probably pause it as we watch it to talk more about each 100's section, but it is a neat little clip to get the conversation going better than just me standing and talking to them about numbers! Here is the video:



How do you teach your kids to find books?

Electoral College

 Ever try to make sense of the Electoral College? I was working with some 4th graders on that very topic trying to explain that popular vote doesn't always cut it in a presidential election. This site from Scholastic got them interested! We talked about considering the amount of people that live in a state, not just the size of the state as well as Representatives vs. Senators and how they are allotted. They were still confused until we played the game on the smartboard. There is not a direct link to the game, but look for the Electoral Challenge here. It could work on a computer for single students or pairs, but was also great as a group in two teams on the smartboard so we could talk about it as we went. The directions for the game explain how the electoral votes are assigned to each state and that the goal is 270 votes. They really loved this and wanted to play again but we were out of time. I think I will definitely use it with other groups. (One of the best parts might just have been that one of the teams named themselves Awesomeness -  you gotta love that!) Here is a screen shot so you can see what the game looks like.

 What are you doing for the election coverage? I think next we might try this site from Disney to let students see who they would really be a supporter of from ideas alone. It could be interesting to see if they are most in line with who they think they are or not.

Election Comparisons

This year I am working with a small group (15) of 4th grade kids each week expanding on their weekly Scholastic News integrating some of the Information Skills Essential Standards. This was our first session, and we focused on an article in this edition comparing Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. We started by talking about who was presenting the information and did it seem like fair information for both parties. Then, we talked about and looked at websites such as an online encyclopedia entry about President Obama, wikipedia entries on both candidates, and each candidate's own election websites. While doing so, we talked about considering the source of information for each type of site and the purpose of each site to look for bias in the information it presented. Finally, we used this ReadWriteThink site to create a Venn diagram comparing the two candidates. Here are some of the kids in action.

We Give Books

Do you use e-books in your school? I was reminded recently by a colleague about the We Give Books site. This is a great site for e-books and is FREE! They are good titles too, including books like Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, Llama Llama Misses Mama, DK Explorer, DK Vikings, Human Body Q&A, and more. There are not really any chapter books I have seen, but lots of picture books and non-fiction books for elementary ages mostly. With over 200 e-books and all free it is a fantastic resource in itself, but there is an added bonus. The site says "Simply choose the charity you want to read for and then select the books you want to read. For each book you read online, we donate a book to a leading literacy group on your behalf." It doesn't get much better than free books that give free books when you read them! Check out We Give Books soon and use it with a whole class, on your own, with a small group, or as a center.

Any other great resources for e-books out there?

Edited to add: Here is a link to my ongoing livebinder collection for e-books. 

Games for School

I posted about this site last year, but I thought it deserved a new mention for any new readers out there that may not be reading previous blog posts. Dr. Ertzberger at UNC-W has created a site with FREE downloadable game templates used in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word. All the games, according to him at a workshop I attended a few years back, have been checked by lawyers to make sure there are no copyright infringements with things like his Jeopardy-like games while some of the other templates on the web do have copyright issues that teachers are often not aware of. There are games that you can prepare ahead of time with questions, but also things like timers, printable games, and games where you just move pieces ahead so you could use those with on the spot oral questions as a quick review. I used the Big Board game, which is like Jeopardy, as a review of procedures to make it a little more interesting. The kids seem to really like it. They are easy to use and he includes directions of how to use them. Check it out if you are looking for something new to add to your lessons!

Postcard Maker

I found this postcard maker today and thought about using it to write a postcard from one character to another, to show non-fiction information, or to write as a fictional or actual person in a historical period. Here is a sample I made. 

 

The postcard maker includes space for the usual mailing address, greeting, body of the message, and closing, but I liked that it also included space to add at the top a title and description along with a citation for a picture on the front of the postcard. This is a great mini-lesson opportunity to have kids cite an image, to talk about describing an image, choosing a picture that fits the assignment, or just adding some authenticity. Give it a whirl - it is very easy and quick!

Glass Giant Customized Pictures

I was working on a SMART notebook about Big 6 today and rediscovered a site I found a while back. Glass Giant has several fun ways to take a few words and make some custom pictures with them. There are rockets, cookies, dog tags, tickets, chalkboards, animated lightening, and more. It is a fun way to add some punch to a presentation. Here are some of the examples I came up with playing around with my Big 6 presentation. 

How else could you use Glass Giant pictures?

Book Trailers

As you might have guessed from my last post, I am experimenting with having the kids make books trailers - similar to book reviews but hopefully a little more like a movie trailer! I mentioned Meet Me at the Corner as a source for some book reviews, but another site I came across was Book Trailers for Readers. There are so many good titles to choose from but the class had recently read Charlotte's Web, so we viewed that one. This would also be a great source for trailers just to show kids when they are at a loss of what book to choose.

We watched the Charlotte's Web review and talked about how they describe the book, story, and characters, but don't give anything away about what will happen. Starting with a question and ending with a cliffhanger are also key elements. The Book Chook also has a post about writing a review for kids that has helpful steps and suggestions. There is also a section there with suggested questions to help guide kids in writing their review. This site is meant more for written reviews I believe, but would still be helpful in writing the script for a taped book trailer.

I am excited to see what the kids come up with!

What are your favorite books you would like to see a book trailer about? 

Meet Me at the Corner

Meet Me At The Corner is a wonderful resource I just came across yesterday. I came across it looking for student book reviews as examples for a class I have making book trailers, and they have a great section of these in their Big Apple Book Club, along with some short videos on creating podcasts. If kids submit a book review that they use on the site (there is a video explaining what to do), they earn a $25 Amazon gift card also! I showed an example review from the site of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and the copy I had was checked out immediately and about five more kids put it on hold! I already think I may show each class a review of a book I have in our collection to get kids interested in books they might not usually pick up.

Back on the main page are links with videos of interviews with different people in various careers (such as park rangers, perfume makers, animal behaviorists, a cowboy, a fashion designer, and a Tuskegee Airmen), informational videos for kids about everything from ferrets to pop up books to harpsichord music! This is definitely a source I will be spending some more time digging through to see what else I can find!

What do you like best about Meet Me At The Corner?

Native American Wordle

Our 5/6th grade AG class has been working on researching various Native American tribes in the United States including elements like housing, dress, government, food, and how they survive their climate. The used this information to write a paper including full citations, then also created a Wordle from their finished paper (after editing and typing!) The AG teacher and I discussed how to grade the Wordle since if they are using a variety of vocabulary you can't count on certain words to stand out. As a result, what we settled on for the Wordle grade is relevance of the larger words to the tribe as a whole. (The paper is getting its own separate grade to be combined with the Wordle grade.) Here are some of the finished Wordles and some pictures of the citations being created and paper being edited and typed.

Citation Maker

Edited paper and creating Wordle

Editing and Typing

Making your Wordle

They enjoyed the Wordles and they are quick and simple to do with an already typed paper! It helped them see the main ideas of their papers in a very visual way!

Lino It!

I just came across a great resource called Lino that I thought a lot of us could use in a lot of different ways. I have just started playing with it but I think it could be used in a thousand different ways. You could use it as grade levels to collaborate and share sources or ideas, you could use it with students to pose a question and have them each post a sticky note response, use it as a brainstorming board with students, and probably a lot more I haven't thought of yet! Let me know if you come up with other good ideas! My first thought was collaboration, my second thought was you could have a daily question that students each post an answer sticky note.

Here is an example of one I started brainstorming some of the projects I do with my 3rd graders.

It says there is no limit to the number of boards you can have and is easy to figure out and use. It is free, you just need an email to make an account. You can embed them on your website, give links, make them public or private, and allow others to also post sticky notes. Could be a great resource for LTMs (Learning Team Meetings at my school where grade levels meet to plan) or for a canvas for each unit you do with your grade level? Just a thought that I wondered if some of you might be able to use. Here is a how to.

Have a great Wednesday!

Jog the Web to Learn About Coca-Cola

I recently learned about Jog the Web, a source that lets you take a group of sites you want kids to go through, add your comments or directions, and it puts it into a webquest sort of format for you. (You can also search for and use other people's 'Jogs' that they have done.) I have a teacher currently working on a cookie marketing project with his students where they are designing cookie companies complete with budgets, storefronts, ads, recipes, and more. He asked for some advertisement sources that show advertising over history, so I collected some into a livebinder for him. When I found Jog The Web, I thought it would be a good topic to try it out on, but you could do it with anything. I narrowed it down to Coca-Cola ads over time to see how they have changed, since that is one product and one they should be familiar with. Below you can see how it looks with the directions at the top of each page directing students to think about things like who are the ads aimed at, what are they using to make you want to buy the product, and how have the ads changed over time. On the left are arrows that take them through the sites, or they can click on the page titles below the arrows.

This is a screenshot of the Jog I made about Coke.

Jog the Web was very easy to use and you can find lots of short video tutorials. I really liked this one that I posted below, and it showed me enough in about 5 minutes to get me off and running. I made my jog in about 5-10 minutes once I had all the sites I wanted to use.

If you create a Jog, please leave the url and topic in the comments below! I think my next one might be on different authors maybe?

How to make a Jog using JogTheWeb from James Smith on Vimeo.

Leading up to Titanic!

Source

The 100th year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is coming up. Kids are always interested in this topic (and I have to admit, so am I!) There are some fun things going on right now that can lead up to it. How can you participate? Here are some ideas.

-Follow Titanic on Twitter and see what people were doing at this time 100 years ago involving the Titanic. For example, here is a tweet from March 12th.

-Look at biographical sketches of people on the Titanic.

-Discuss who survived the most and least and why.

-Look at stats of the Titanic and use in math lessons or compare with other objects. (Width, length, top speeds, length of the gash, depth of the wreck, etc.)

-Look at the Online Titanic Museum and see colors, tiles, swatches, and more from the actual ship.

What other sources have you found? What lessons are you doing with your kids?

Read Across America and Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is quite an interesting person that you might not know much about other than his name and the children's books he wrote. Those in themselves are quite an accomplishment. The fact that they are still as popular as they are is quite a testament. Some of my personal favorites are The Lorax and Hooray for Diffendoofer Day (which was completed with his words and sketches after he died.) March 2nd has become Read Across America Day in his honor, and I thought this would be a great time for one or more of several lesson ideas with students. There are so many directions you can go with this - timelines, author studies, art class analysis of his style, and more. This site has many links to sketches, videos, biography info, and more. Here are a few ideas that I thought went a little different direction than the regular author study unit if you want something a little different or for older kids.

- Getting information from a variety of sources. This would be a great time to do something like show these video interview clips of his wife talking about him and their life together. Talk about getting information from people or video sources and how that might work the same or differently than a book or website.

- Talk about his political cartoons and how you can convey meaning in this manner. How can you get information from this format? This could also be used for inference lessons. This one for example has lots of imagery, inference, history, etc.

- Discuss advertising and the messages companies are trying to send, who they are aiming products at. Look at his advertising artwork samples and talk about the messages they are sending. (click the logos at the top of the page to see other images.) Would you buy the product?

Source



What is your favorite Dr. Seuss lesson idea or book?

Happy Accidents

I have been reading Shark Vs Train with some of my classes this week as part of the North Carolina Children's Book Award classes. I had the webcam for the Monterey Bay Open Sea exhibit open in the background ready to show after the book as students are sometimes lucky enough to see a hammerhead shark swim past. Suddenly in the middle of the book, a woman's voice started coming from the webcam. I was not quite ready for it yet, but quickly finished the book and switched over to it as I realized it was an announcer at the aquarium talking about a live feeding happening in the moment. I had not even thought about an experience like that being available, but it was a lot of fun. We could not see the feeding itself as the camera doesn't move but we could still see the animals swimming and heard a lot of fun information about them. We never got the see the hammerhead shark in the tank swim by, usually we see him at least once, but there is a page that has pictures of all the animals so we used that instead as a backup. We did see sardines, mahi mahi, sea turtles, rays, and tuna. The aquarium is in California and we are in NC, so it was actually 2 PM here when it started, but here is the information about the feeding.

From the Monterey Bay site:
Open Sea Feeding
Where: Open Sea Exhibit
When: 11 a.m.
Length: 15 minutes
Join us in front of one of the world's largest windows as we feed the animals in our spectacular Open Sea exhibit. See who's hungry and learn about the amazing adaptations of tuna, turtles, sharks, sardines and others. Learn the important roles they play to keep their habitats in balance. View our underwater cam for live images of this exhibit.

There are other feedings available also, you can see more information on their site. Look for ones with links to webcams. Here is a picture of their Open Sea exhibit.

Source



Where can I find a picture of ...?

Source

I often hear from teachers and students one of two things about images. It seems to be either "I went to Google Images" or "Where can I get an image of xyz?" We try to discourage using Google Images since the copyrights are in question as you don't really know where the pictures are coming from, but even more importantly, are the pictures appropriate. You can search for something innocent and come up with not so innocent results.

Instead, I try to use sites for pictures that already grant rights to use them to start with, but also sources that have more appropriate choices. This is a good time also to talk to students about copyright, fair use, sites granting permission to use images, etc. While this doesn't always work and you sometimes need to use pictures from elsewhere for an educational purpose, we always talk about being sure to cite our sources. Here are some sources of copyright friendly images I have used or recently come across.

Pics 4 Learning - From their website: Pics4Learning is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use the copyright-friendly photos and images for classrooms, multimedia projects, web sites, videos, portfolios, or any other project in an educational setting. The thousands of photos in this collection are approved for use in the classroom and indexed and sorted in order to maximize their effective use by students in a 21st century classroom. I have used this site quite a bit for things like Fakebook pictures, animals pictures, and such. In some areas, they have a great selection, but it is lacking in other areas as all the images are submitted by amateur photographers.

Edupic - All images on the site are free to use for educators and their students. All other uses are by permission only. This site has many images and they are sorted into curriculum areas, quick links, or by site search. I have not used this one with students yet as I just found it, but it looks like one that I will return to often. (Edited to say: I have used this one more myself and there is so much to choose from for images and they are high resolution so they work well to crop if you need to also. Just click the search button and search.)

Uncle Sam's Photos - This is a directory of the US Government's Free Photo Galleries. There are not a huge amount of photos, but might also be a place to look. I have not used this one as much yet, but wanted to throw it out there.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Galleries - This looks like a great site for animal images, biomes, and other outdoor type images. I like that it is from the Fish and Wildlife Service. It is easily searchable. From the website: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library is a searchable collection of selected images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video and that are in the public domain. You are free to use them as you wish - no permission is necessary. We do ask that you please give credit to the photographer or creator and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a format similar to the example below. Credit: John Doe/USFWS

Creative Commons Flickr - Various attribution requirements, but lots of images to choose from and lots to sort through sometimes. To save a picture to insert into a project, right click on the picture and choose the size you want. That will then take you to a screen where you can download it. "Creative Commons is a non-profit that offers an alternative to full copyright." There is a great variety of images.

What sources for copyright friendly images do you use?

Looking Back at Marian Anderson

I was asked by a Kindergarten teacher to do a lesson with kids on authors purpose. Apparently, all her students are under the impression that pretty much all books are written with the purpose to help them learn to read. While we hope they do, we talked about how to get this idea across and decided to focus on a biography with the author's purpose of giving information. Since it is Black History month, I wanted to do a biography that went with this as well, but not someone they will hear about for years to come. I chose Marian Anderson, someone who faced down challenges with grace and is an accomplished singer all on her own that should be remembered even without those challenges.

I wanted to give the students more of an experience with her than just reading a biography, so I started searching. I was a little surprised to find video clips of her Lincoln Memorial performance that I didn't know existed. This will help to put that into context with the time, the location, and to be able to hear her voice and see her face as she becomes her music will be an experience for them. 75,000 people attended this concert and millions listened in on the radio. What an impact this must have made, especially with Eleanor Roosevelt helping set it up after Constitution Hall would not let her perform due to her race. I also came across several song recordings, interview recordings, and photo galleries from various sources that could be used in a larger unit.

A study of Marian Anderson can fit into units on music, opera, NAACP, Eleanor Roosevelt, segregation, and many other topics.

What is a topic you brought to life from the past for students?

Kerpoof!

I am having way too much fun for a Monday morning playing with Kerpoof! There are a lot of fun things to do on this site, mostly relating to reading and writing, but could be applied in other ways. You can see a short introductory video about the site here, but I mostly just played with some of the elements to get started. There is a teacher link that allows you to set up free teacher accounts, but I have not tried it yet as I could access many pieces without it. There are some parts like the Make A Movie that wanted you to buy the scene at the Kerpoof store first, so I would suggest testing the teacher account before you have students rush into  it. I imagine it would be best to have one if you use it with students though to allow them to save their work.  You are agreeing to moderate your group if you do so however. You can see more about this and other elements here in the FAQ section.

The first ideas are to use Kerpoof for writing, spelling, genre writing, etc. but there are so many other places you can take it. The spell a picture is rather fun and a great way to make spelling fun, but also a great way to practice content vocabulary. Make a picture about a certain biome and only include things you would find there, or make a mystery scene or a science fiction scene all while practicing spelling and having fun. The Tell A Story or Make a Movie would be fun ways to teach genre through the student's storytelling, or have them use it to create a report about something they are learning. There are a ton of ideas on the lesson plans page as well.

There are lesson plans, pdf tutorials for each section, classroom ideas and more, but the best way to get started in my opinion is to just play!

How would you use Kerpoof in your classroom?