Miss K Campbell's ECMP 355 BLOG

GET SMARTER MATH!

2008-04-10T15:10:00.004-06:00

Get Smarter!

Grade: 4
Subject: Math
Strand: Estimation/Number Sense

What is this site all about?
This site is adaptable for any grade from 3-12 and covers a variety of subjects. It offers an interactive quiz for students to take on their own (or could do in pairs) and offers suggestions when they answer incorrectly and then gives affirmation when they get a question correct.
A great thing about this site is that it adapts to what country the student is from. So in Canada, when dealing with measurement, it uses the metric system.

How would I use this in a classroom?
I would use this for students who needed extra support in estimating as a different medium to learn from. The use of technology and being able to do a test on the internet would be motivating and encouraging to complete. I would use this at the end of my measurement: estimation unit as a wrap up and extra practice.

Curriculum Connection?
Math: Number Sense: Foundational Objectives
Math: Measurement: Length

Healthy vs Unhealthy

2008-04-10T11:13:00.003-06:00

Catapult Game

Grade 2-3
Subject: Health (A healthy body) or Science (grade 2 optional unit: food and nutrition)

What is this site about?
This is not only a "game" for students to play while learning what foods are good and what aren't so good... but it also fills in information about nutrition as they go along (getting the answers correct or incorrect)

Curriculum Connection?

Health (A healthy body)
Science (grade 2 optional unit: food and nutrition)

Cloze Reading

2008-04-10T10:57:00.003-06:00

Cloze Reading

Grade: 7
Subject: ELA
Strand: Reading and Writing

What is this site?
This site is interactive and incorporates both reading and writing. It has students read and create a story by filling in the blanks to a cloze activity.

How would I use it in my classroom?
I don't know if I would use this as its own lesson, but it would be a great "what do I do when I am done" activity that I would have on a hotlist for my students to be able to access when they are done assignments.

Curriculum Connection?
Grade 7 ELA Foundational Objectives

Essay Punch

2008-04-10T10:47:00.003-06:00

ESSAY PUNCH

Grade 8-9
Subject: English Language Arts
Strand: Writing

What is this site all about?

This interactive writing site would be great to motivate students to write using the internet. Students plug in their own ideas and are able to create their own story right from typing... no outline, no draft, just a final copy, which is sometimes okay for students to just dive into!

How would I use this in my classroom?
This would be a great site to use to motivate students to just write out their ideas and not worry about too much technical "stuff" until after they print it out and then they could edit their writing product afterwards.

Curriculum Connection?

ELA Grade 9 Foundational Objectives

GET SMARTER SCIENCE

2008-04-08T16:01:00.004-06:00

GET SMARTER!

Grade: 3
Subject: Science
Unit: Eartch
Topic: Environment

What is this site all about?
This site is designed for students to be used as an interactive quiz. The student is given the grade option as well as the topic option, so direct instructions would need to be given so they could navigate the quiz on their own as extra practice or as a end of the unit quiz. The other topics offered for science are life sciences and natural sciences.

Curriculum Connection?
Grade 3 core unit on Earth and this can be used when studying the environment

How would I use this in my classroom?
I would use it for an end of the unit quiz or possible a pre-quiz at the beginning that we would all take together on a projection computer. I would be careful to make sure to set my students up for success in doing some pre-teaching. Some of the questions are not "common sense" or can be figured out, but they do require prior knowledge and I wouldn't want to discourage them from the unit right off the bat by giving too hard of questions.

Tangrams

2008-04-03T15:39:00.004-06:00

Subject: Math
Topic: Geometry
Strand: Planes (tangrams)
Grade: 3-5

How would I use this in my classroom:
This site would be great for a SMARTBoard (but could also be used on computers for individual work). The students would be able to actually move and manipulate the shapes to form another shape from the geometric figures. With the use of the SMARTBoard, the students would be able to do the activities with the pens or their fingers to be active in their learning. As a supplement to this site I would use actual manipulatives.

Curriculum Connection:
Math: Geometry: Planes: G-16 combine two-dimensional geometric figures to make other figures

Information from the site:

Tangrams is an ancient game that originated in China. There are literally hundreds of recognizable shapes that have been made by combining the seven smaller pieces (called "tans"). Our tans can be dragged and rotated, snap together when placed close enough, and when selected, the color of a piece can be changed. There are fourteen shape buttons below the workspace, some of which are provided with hints. Young children may profit from simply moving pieces around and fitting them together in various color combinations. After some initial experience, they may want to activate all the hints to get an outline for each piece in the desired construction. Making the pieces fit the outline, using the Flip button if needed, is a useful exercise in control and manipulation. As students gain confidence and experience they can tackle more substantial challenges from the shapes given.

Animal Classification

2008-04-03T10:28:00.005-06:00

Animal Classification
Subject: Science
Grade: 2-3

WHAT IS IT?
~This interactive site gives students the background knowledge in "kid-friendly" language and provides them with the information they need in order to play the game.
~The Animal Classification game gives the students the options of what category to put each animal in. If the student is incorrect, they are given more information about the animal in order to correctly determine it's type.
~There is sound! As the animal comes out on the screen, a sound associate with that animal plays as possibly a hint and as a hook as well.

WHY/HOW USE IT?
~This site is a great teaching tool for students to be able to go at their own pace and self-evaluate along the way.
~A great way to sum up a unit on animals as a self-quiz before formal assessment is done at at the end.
~Shows students first hand which animals are similar in the type of animal they are (as they answer the questions, the animal goes under that list of type so they can see what other animals the new one is like).

CURRICULUM CONNECTION??
Grade 1 Animals (used as a group possibly)
Grade 2 Habitats
Grade 3 Animals

Kid's Against Bullying

2008-03-18T15:02:00.004-06:00

Who and What is this site for?
Subject: Health
Topic: Social Relationships
Strand: Bullying
Grade: 3

What is this site all about?
I came across this website during my internship but never had the chance to have my students explore it because of the lack of computer lab time in our school. It is very interactive and I think it would work great in pairs so the students can explore together and come up with solutions collaboratively. The site contains: Games and Fun, Contests, Watch This (contains great videos for students), Kids Say (stories, ask sally, poll results, and a dear diary section), and Smart Stuff (which contains information for kids to read as well as where and who to turn to).

How would I use this in my [future] classroom?
I would tie this into a health unit about social relationships, but I think a topic such as "bullying" shouldn't just be taught as a section within a unit and then that's it, carry on to the next subject. It is a year-long issue and therefore, should be addressed year-long. This isn't a site I would just send my students with the link and say "have fun", I think it needs some pre-teaching. Such as What is bullying, What does it feel like to be bullied? Who else is involved in bullying?, etc. I really like the idea of the poll, so I would introduce that into my instruction to get an idea of what the students think and feel about bullying. Then I would have them read some of the stories and watch a few of the videos and then from there they could explore more of the site. Even the "games" which I think would grab their attention are very informational.

Curriculum Connected?
This ties directly into the health curriculum.

Grade 3: Gathering facts for: Wellness: Social Relationships: Making Friends: Resolving Conflict without Violence and Identifying & Expressing Feelings.

Brain Teasers

2008-02-26T11:14:00.002-06:00

Kid's Place Weekly Brain Teasers

Grade: 3-4
Subject: Monday Morning Message (usually Language Arts)

This site is would be great for a morning message. The format would be easy to use by putting up on a SMARTBoard or a projector screen from a computer with the internet. If those are not accessible, it could also be used as a centre.

What the site is is brain teaser questions that are updated weekly. The students could keep a separate notebook for these questions because they can check last week's answers when the new question comes up. After a few weeks, the students could do this independently or in partners without much teacher instruction to create independent work.

Curriculum Connections:
Grade 3 English Language Arts Reading Objectives:

The goal is to help students become fluent, independent, strategic readers. According to the International Reading Association (1999), reading requires teachers to help students develop:

motivation to read extensively
appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print
sufficient background information and vocabulary to foster reading comprehension
ability to read fluently
ability to decode unfamiliar words
skills and knowledge to understand how phonemes or speech sounds are connected to print.

This site can help students reach the Saskatchewan Curriculum goals for reading during this weekly activity.

BLAST OFF

2008-02-18T16:28:00.004-06:00

Subject: Health and Science
Grade: 2
Topic: Food and Nutrition

A site that I found very useful when I did my Food and Nutrition unit in health and science was My Pyramid. There is a wealth of information for teachers as well for students. There is an activity, "Blast Off", for students to do that I would have them do that the very beginning of the unit and then again at the end to see how much better they do. It is set up to choose food and exercise for a day. There is a huge variety of options for each meal for them to choose and gives nutritional information each time a food is chosen. They also have the option sometimes to take away extras, for example, on popcorn for a snack, they can choose to not have butter on it. Each time a smart choice is made, they get a little congratulation message pop up.

This is a great site for students to use because it is so interactive, they are given all the power in terms of choice, and are given feedback for their choices.

Out on a Limb

2008-02-18T15:20:00.003-06:00

Subject: Health
Grade: 3
Topic: Social Relationships
Strand: Conflict Management

One thing that is very important to continually teach all year long is conflict management. During my internship, I started with my health unit on Friendship/Conflict Management right from day one and continued teaching it until the last day I was there. A great site I found that I wish I would have had then to use to introduce this unit. This site is called "Out on a Limb". I would have the students go through this site with a partner to be able to discuss different options and problem solving ideas.

This site contains different problems that students will be able to relate to, such as fighting with a friend, spilling secrets, and not getting a long with an adult (such as a teacher). The students can click along at their own pace and the site also reads to you, which would be good for weaker readers. There is a lot to do just in one day, so I would have an outline set up on my blog or hotlist for the students to follow. The first day, I would do just as a have described above. Then there is a section on "how we see things", "listening", "getting along", "feelings" and then "Maria's fun place". I would break these up and have them go through each with a different partner each day so they are able to discuss this with a variety of people.

TIP: This site contains many vocabulary words that should be discussed beforehand, such as the different feelings, so the students are able to understand the different situations.

Visual Fraction Games

2008-02-18T14:57:00.002-06:00

Subject: Math
Grade: 2
Topic: Numbers and Operations
Strand: Common Fractions

A site my sister told me about when she was learning about fractions is Visual Fractions. There is a section for Games and then there are various games to play to learn about fractions. The one I liked and would use in my classroom would be Cookies for Grampy. I would use this as a introduction lesson for teaching Math: Number and Operations: Common Fractions. I would be able to observe the students while they are "making cookies for Grampy" and make notes about who understands these concepts of various fractions. From here, I would also use this as extra practice for students and create an answer sheet for the site, for example: How many 1/6ths does it take to make a whole cookie. They could also use manipulatives along with the game if they wanted to see it in more than one way.

Dinosaurs!

2008-02-18T14:13:00.004-06:00

Subject: Science
Grade: 2 (with reading buddies)
Topic: Dinosaurs

A great site for students to learn about dinosaurs is a section from http://www.kbears.com/. I searched for interactive sites on DINOSAURS and it was one of the first ones to come up. It lists over 40 kinds of dinosaurs and for each kind, it has information, pictures, links to more sites, colouring pages, and sounds. There is a fair amount of reading for a grade 2 level, so I thought this would be a great activity to do with reading buddies from an older grade. Each pair would choose a dinosaur to research and present to the classes. I would create a sheet to be filled out for them to have as a guideline for researching information. From there they would have to come up with a method of displaying the information as well, such as, diorama, posters, pamphlet, etc. At the end, we would have a display day where they would each present their dinosaur with their partner to the classes and then have a chance to go around and look at everyone’s at the end.

TIP: There are also pages similar on the topics of: A-Z Animals, Ocean, and Farms that I could do similar things with, depending on the subject and topic. Again, a bit of reading, so would have to do as a class activity where I would have to lead the group or with reading buddies again.

Rainforest Maths

2008-02-18T14:04:00.003-06:00

Subject: Math
Grade: 3 (could be used anywhere from K-gr6)
Topic: Measurement
Strand: Money

I used this site in my internship called Rainforest Maths. It is a WONDERFUL site for kids to be able to use at their own rate. I used it for my introduction lessons to my Measurement unit on Money. I went through on the projection computer to show the students how to choose what grade level and then how to choose the money section. Then under the money category, there are three activities to choose from. I had all the students start out on the same level and then went around and allowed a few of the stronger students to move up a level or two to challenge them. This gave me a great idea of who had the main concepts and who needed extra practice. Throughout my unit on Money, I had students asking me if they could go onto the computer to do Rainforest Math when they were finished their task. We only had one computer in the classroom so it was hard to accommodate that, but it showed me their interest in the site so I used it often for other lessons beyond Money.

National Geographic ANIMAL Videos

2008-02-18T12:56:00.005-06:00

Subject: Science
Grade: 3
Topic: Animals

A really great interactive site I found for kids was National Geographic. There is a link to videos and I think that would really capture kid's attention and create motivation. There are close to 80 different videos on animals. Most are between 1-2 minutes long. In my classroom I would have the students explore about 4-5 different videos and they can decide what interests them. Then I would have them sign up for which one they want to report on. I have connected this to the Science curriculum for Grade 3 in the core unit of Animals. From the information, they learned in the video, they would write a short summary and then display that in some form such as a poster, diorama, skit, clay, etc. There is also a link to the Colouring Book Page that has a list of many of the animals in the videos, so they would be able to print that off as possibly a cover page to their mini-report instead of just having an actual photo of the animal.

Web 2.0

2008-02-12T12:06:00.002-06:00

Grade: 6+
Subject: Language Arts
Topic: Definitions

I would use this site, MetaGlossary, as a tool for my students to use to search online for definitions. As an introduction to this site, I would make up a little quiz, about 10 questions, that they would have to look up words to find the definition for. Then they would have this resource to use in the classroom when they needed to find a definition. This site also offers links to sites where you can find more information on the topic requested. In addition, it has "related words" that they can click on to find more information on.

I am in early childhood, but there is no telling where I will end up getting a job and what grade that will be. There is far too much reading on this site for students in my age group, but I think this would be a great site to use in middle years and beyond.

Lil' Fingers Time Telling

2008-02-12T10:57:00.001-06:00

Grade: 2
Subject: Math
Topic: Time

This website called Lil' Fingers Time Telling would be great for grade 2 Math: Measurement: Time. To use this in my classroom I would use it as a set for my lesson on teaching time. This would give me an opportunity to go around and observe the students and make anecdotal notes on how they are doing, what they need work on and what they know already. This would only work in a school setting where we have a computer lab and a computer available for each student. I would have the students go until they get a score of 10 out of 10 like the site challenges them to do. There are also links along the side of Storybooks, Fun & Games, and Colouring Pages that they could work on when they are completed the challenge of 10 out of 10.

Robert Munsch Site!

2008-01-31T15:05:00.002-06:00

Subject: Arts Education
Grade: 2
Strand: Visual Art
Unit: 2 Ideas and Inspirations

I did a Robert Munsch author study during my internship and his "official website" is a great resource, not only for teachers but for students as well. There is a link to Kid's Art that I had my students browse to get ideas for what they wanted to do for an art project. We had many laughs and got many great ideas. I tied the unit plan into language arts but tied this direct site to the Sask Learning Arts Ed curriculum in the Visual Arts Strand, Unit 2: Ideas and Inspirations. I think this is great for students to be able to use beacause it is so kid friendly and full of ideas for students for inspiration.

STARFALL

2008-01-15T11:01:00.004-06:00

Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 3
Topic:
On the first day of this class I found a great resource from another student in this class. Starfall is a great site that students would really enjoy and is very interactive. This is especially useful since I am in early childhood and this is a site that even my students could use themselves. There is a section "I'm reading" and under that, there are many categories. The one I found most interesting is "folktales" because I was in a grade three class for my internship and that was the next unit my co-op teacher was covering. It ties in right into the Sask Learning ELA curriculum under Grade 3: Folk Tales. Students would benefit from this because it is interactive, visually appealing and contain a variety of stories while doing it independently or cooperatively.

I would use this as a possible ending to my folktale unit and have the students work in small groups and create a skit or reader's theatre from one of the stories listed. They could work together to create a script and put together masks or props for their character. This also then connects to the Arts Ed curriculum to drama Unit 1: Learning to Create.

Intro Blog

2008-01-10T12:04:00.001-06:00

Hi my name is Krista. I am in ECMP 355 and I am just learning to blog and have never done this before. I am now going to add a link to this post!

Google is a great search engine.

This is pretty cool.