Here are three good sites that students can use to practise their spelling on the IWB, classroom computers or at home. Spelling City – type in your spelling words (or use their lists) and practise the words with fun games like hangman, unscramble, wordfinds, crosswords etc. Ozspeller – Australian online spelling tutor and game with voiced […]
Downloading YouTube Clips
Thanks to Aaron Petersen I found an easy way to download YouTube clips that I want to use on my IWB, class iPod or classroom computers. I had previously downloaded “YouTube Downloader” software to download the file I wanted until I discovered YouTubeSnips. You don’t need software and it’s easy to use. There are three […]
Photo Story Alternatives….
Here are a couple of good online alternatives to Microsoft Photo Story for making digital story videos or slideshows. The benefits of these tools over Photo Story are they are very fast to generate and you can often download the final product, embed it on your blog or email it. ANIMOTO Animoto allow you to […]
Xtranormal Movie Maker
Xtranormal is a site that provides a really simple way to make an effective looking animated movie. Their motto is “if you can type, you can make movies” (you just type in the script and your chosen characters speak it). The program was very intuitive and I didn’t need to read any instructions to make […]
Finding Online Images
There are many places on the Internet where you can find images for you or your students to use. Here are just a few. You can search Google Images – the first place many people look for images. While Google Images provides a comprehensive search, the problem with this is that most image results are copyright. Flickr is a […]
Skwirk – a great resource!
I came across this great site this week and instantly found so many things that I would love to use immediately with my Grade Two class. Skwirk (an abbreviation of School Work) is an “online education portal” designed for use by teachers and students in both primary and secondary schools. Skwirk covers all core subjects […]
Using an iPod Touch
Note – I updated this post with a more comprehensive guide to using an iPod Touch in the classroom in August, 2011. Click here to find it. For the past twelve months I’ve been using an iPod Touch in my classroom. My students love using this form of technology and I am finding it is […]
Behind the News
Behind the News (BTN) is a fantastic Australian site by the ABC that helps students learn about current issues and events around the world. Each week a new episode of BTN is released comprising of about 5 different stories each under 5 minutes long. The stories can be watched individually on their website or on […]
Tutpup!
Here is a site that my Grade Two students love. It is called Tutpup and is a place where students are matched up with other students from around the world to play maths and spelling games in real time. There are several games to choose from, each with multiple levels. The maths games cover addition, subtraction, […]
Make a Screen Saver for your IWB
This year I’ve started making screen savers for my IWB that help student revise certain concepts. Some may call these subliminal messages! Here are just some of the screen saver slides I have made weekly timetable monthly calendar morning routine reminders (eg “have you changed your reader?”) spelling words M100W words (100 most frequently […]
Join a Global Project
This year I became involved in a global project with my Grade Two class called the Teddy Bear Exchange Project. We exchanged our teddy, Matilda, with Theodore, the teddy of a school in Canada (see pictures below). One of our weekly writing tasks is now sending an email to the Canadian class from the point […]
Get Arty!
There are a number of free sites on the web for students to create cool artwork. Here are a few… Sketch & Paint This is a fun art program which allows you to create and save your own art work. The great thing about it is the program makes your masterpieces look like real artwork! Open and […]
About del.icio.us…
My list of favourite sites have become so large that I’ve saved them all on my delicous account. Click here or on the picture below to check the links out. I have sorted them into tags (categories) which you can click on on the right hand side. There is a search box on the top […]
Writing Ideas!
Here are four free sites that you could use on your IWB in writing sessions…. Magnetic Poetry In this virtual edition of magnetic fridge poetry, students are given a large bank of words which they can drag, arrange, and rearrange to create a poem or story. There are four type of magnetic kits to chose from: Kids […]
Integrating Technology into Guided Reading
Lately I’ve been trying out some ways to integrate technology into my small group Guided Reading session. I’ve been trying these things in the 15 minutes or so we often have spare after reading a book. Most of these involve an IWB although you could use a classroom computer. Here are some ideas…. VOICE RECORDINGS (using a microphone and […]