Free Learning Websites

Hi All

Tomorrow I will be running a parent workshop at school. It is focusing on kids tech time at home and what types of websites would be educational, but fun at the same time!! I pulled some of my favourites together in one handout and thought you might like it too!

Click the image to go and grab it from Google Drive.

Credits - Krista Wallden and Kimberley Geswein Fonts

Learning with YouTube

Nothing needs to be boring! YouTube is our friend!

There are so many resources available on YouTube to help us with concepts in the classroom and help make learning engaging for our kids.

Let me give you a couple of examples from our week this week....

Counting

Our backwards counting is not so great. I saw this clip in my daughters Kinder room and knew it would be a hit with my kids

This counting video is a great one for the beginning of the year with numbers to 10...

Magic 'e'

We know that very important rule that an 'e' can make a vowel say its name...these 2 videos are some that my kids in Kinder and last year in Yr 2 all enjoyed and helped them remember...

Morning Routine

We use these songs nearly every day as part of our morning routine or calendar time

Days of the week

Months of the Year

And lastly a time video that the kids love!

Do you have any favourite videos you use?

Techy Tuesday....Topmarks Ladybirds

If you haven't used TopMarks before, you need to go and visit! There are so many fun, interactive games for kids and they look and work great on the IWB too.

This one in particular has had a facelift and is working really well in my Kinder computer time.

The great thing about this game is that it only deals with numbers between 1-10 making it perfect for early learners.

Subitizing! Put the right amount of spots on the ladybug

Matching/subtising/numeral identification - matching the number of spots to the number on the leaf.

 Ordering (counting/subitizing) smallest to largest

Ordering (counting/subitizing) largest to smallest

Go and have a look :) Click any pic to get there.

"Dream English" - check this out

I stumbled upon these videos purely by accident! My teaching partner on my day off had found this kind of weird guy singing kind of weird songs BUT the kiddies LOVED him!

I've been using them as a brain break or a quick wiggle, but he has some songs you could link to learning.

So without further ado, I introduce.....

Dream English

This is one of our current faves

Go and check out his videos if you are after some brain breaks. I would probably say they were suitable for Kinder and Year 1.

Let me know what you think !

Ken Robinson

Have you seen a video on TED with Sir Ken Robinson speaking about the shift in education. If you haven't you will find a powerful piece of viewing. It talks about technology and its impact on education. He says that we are educating our children out of creativity instead of teaching it to them. Here is the original video link.

But on our last day of school for 2012, our new principal showed us this talk, but done very differently by RSA. It is one of those animated drawings and puts visuals to the words.

Please go and check it out and share with your teacher friends. It is a long clip but definitely worth it.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Deep Space Sparkle

No it isn't anything sciencey - it's actually a fantastic art website!

I know that at times, I struggle with eye catching and easy art lessons but Deep Space Sparkle could just help me (and you) to overcome this!

I thought it was great that they separate the lessons by grade but they also can be sorted by topic or even technique used.

I was introduced to this by a friend who did this particular lesson with me year 2 kiddos but it turned out fantastic, even though it is a Year 6 lesson.

Here is some of our efforts - I was so impressed that I mounted them all and laminated them. Energy and time well spent! Apologies about the glare of the laminated pics.

So go and try Deep Space Sparkle for some new ideas :)

Website Wednesday

This term, Year 1 and 2 at my school are studying plants and animals - life cycles, habitats etc. So as I was scouring the internet for a cool and easy life cycle video, I stumbled onto this site.

Turtle Diary

A lot of these games and videos say they are aimed between PK-1 but having looked through a few, I think that it was be appropriate for Year 2 as well.

Home Page - The top tabs are where the money is :) The following pics are screen grabs from the Games and Videos tabs, but having looked through the stories and worksheets ones, think there is lots of value in the sheets and online story books too

Some of the Maths Games, but I couldn't fit them all in this grab. Includes topics such as addition, time, numbers and fractions.

Language Games including vowels, sequencing, phonics. Lots of easy to use independent games.

Science Games to support many units including life cycles, senses, animals and space.

A grab of the videos page (again I couldn't fit them all in). The videos are short and simple to follow, perfect to illustrate simple concepts.

Go and check out TurtleDiary. I'm sure your students will enjoy it :)

Website Wednesday

This week we are going back to basics - maths basics with a site called Count Us In Games

COUNT US IN

 This is the home page. The site itself has 15 games and if you look in the sidebar (not shown in this screen shot) you can actually download these games as applications for your computer.

 Game 1 - Sharing. Pretty self explanatory, kid practice sharing into the two paddocks. Gets them understanding the concept of equal groups

 Game 4 - Ordinal Numbers. There isnt too many ways to make ordinal numbers fun is there? But this seems to do the trick

 Game 5 - Number Identification. Students match the number to a number of objects

Game 8 - Subtraction. This uses the concept of bowling to knock down/take away pins.


Although my Year 2 student find most of these games relatively easy, they still do enjoy playing them and because they are successful in completing these activities correctly, they have a great sense of achievement too.


I hope you have enjoyed this weeks website :) Click on the home page to go and try it yourself


Also Shanyn over at Coffee, kids and Compulsive Lists (don't you just love that name?) is having a 100 follower giveaway...and I'm donating a prize :) Go and follow her for a chance to win some super stuff.

Website Wednesday

Im taking a detour today. Away from the 'academic type' websites and towards a more engaging, interactive fun one that the kids will love (but still has a place in your literacy time).


The website that my last year 2nd graders had heaps of fun with was Kerpoof.

KERPOOF

 The home page is your key to unlocking the fun. If you want your kids to save any of their work, you might like to look into signing up. There is a fee though. I never needed to save my kids work last year so this didnt bother me.

This screen shot is from the activity Spell a Picture. Students have to use the letters to spell the word which corresponds with any picture shown. When the word is spelt correctly, students chose the picture and it is added to their background to make a bigger picture.

This one is from Make a Card. Students choose a theme and then add whatever they like to make their own card

This shot is from Make a Picture. After choosing a background, students add embellishments to create a scene. All pics that you can can be resized, flipped etc.

This was my class' favourite activity. It is called Make a Movie. After choosing a theme, students add characters and props. They can move their characters around the scene, use perspective, add sound effects - the possibilities are endless! Its like movie making 101 and totally kid friendly.

This would be great for literacy. It is called Tell a Story. After choosing a theme, students illustrate their pages by using the pictures provided and then write text to match. Pretty awesome hey? I love this one.

Another great page is the Lesson Plans page. There are some great goodies for teachers, some lesson plans and then advice on how to use Kerpoof to address the topics in the plans. And they are linked to standards too!

Click on the first picture to go and check out the great fun at Kerpoof!

Website Wednesday

I was wondering what I was going to post about for this week. But then, during a rather boring riveting professional development session this morning at school, I was introduced to this little beauty.

THINKING BLOCKS

 Thinking blocks uses manipulatives to model how to solve word problems for all operations

 It gives you lots of choices about the type of question and the size of the number, making it adaptable for K-2 and primary students. The following are screen shots from an example addition question I ran through.

 Place the labels and 'blocks' in the correct place

 Add the numbers to the correct label - this enables you to find the missing number (or part of the word problem you need to solve)

 Use the calculator to help you solve and input the answer

I have only just begun playing with this but it looks like a fantastic tool for helping to dissect word problems and gives your visual learners those cues as well.

Click on the first slide to go try it for yourself :)


Now keep on blog hopping!

Website Wednesday (on Thursday)

Apologies for the slight delay on this post. Its been miserable weather here in Sydney and when I went to write this the other night, our power went out and didnt return til the next day. Better late than never hey?


Just one website this week that my kids will be using tomorrow in computer time. I saw some people were posting about it last week so I decided to try it out.

A B CYA

 General screen shot of the home page to the website. The following pics are from the Grade 2 part of the site.

All about Number activities

More number

Other cool stuff including shapes, geometry, patterns, art and much more.

This site is well worth a look. I certainly enjoyed cruising it and I have only just scratched the surface.

Enjoy!

Website Wednesday - You Tube

I'm taking a slightly different approach this week. We have been looking at all the ways an 'e' on the end of a word effects different parts of the word. Last week we did 'magical silent e' which makes the vowel say its long sound. Here are two awesome YouTube videos which focus on this concept

SUPER E

 VOWEL BOOT CAMP

Hope you can find a use for these in your class rooms. My kids LOVE them :)

Website Wednesday - Probability

Ahhhh probability. You are the dark cloud in my mathematics sky. Its one of the topics that doesn't need much attention...but it does as it is such an abstract concept for our kids to grasp.


In NSW, Australia where I teach, Year 2 Probability (Chance) is mainly about the language of chance - such as certain, impossible, even chance etc. But I like to take it a little bit further to prepare them for Year 3. I don't actually explicitly teach the probability of things (eg probability of a green ball getting picked form a bag that has 1 green and 3 blue). I just let them explore through play.


This is where this website ROCKS!!!!


Check out the screen shots of the different parts of the game, each exploring chance and probability

PROBABILITY FAIR

Enjoy :) Please let me know what you would like to see next week.