#35: Sponge Activities for Vocabulary Building
There are lots of great online vocabulary websites to help kids learn high-frequency and dolch words. I’ll share five you would enjoy this summer. Maybe you have some to share with the group. (more…)
Weekend Website #51: 17 Story Sites for First and Second Grade
This is my list of websites students can use when we’re studying story-telling, fables and myths. This list includes sites
[caption id="attachment_4872" align="alignright" width="222"]
Create a story[/caption]
where students can read stories, have stories read to them and create their own. I pick 3-4, post them on our internet start page for a week or two, and then change the list. If you click that link, it takes you to kindergarten. You can select the red first grade tab or the blue second grade for more choices. If you don’t see any there, it’s because we’re not discussing stories right now.
See which work best for your students:
#10: Drawing in Photoshop
Photoshop reputation as a photo editor ignores its many other tools that enable you to draw like a pro with a wide variety of brushes, textures, and scintillating extras. This side of Photoshop is perfect for creative projects that tie in with many different classroom lesson plans.
[caption id="attachment_5413" align="aligncenter" width="576"]
Photoshop basics[/caption]
Weekend Website #50 Visuword
Every Friday I’ll send you a wonderful website that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.
[caption id="attachment_4806" align="aligncenter" width="614"]
Visuwords–makes words exciting[/caption]
(more…)
#38: Introduction to Google Earth
Google Earth can be used for so many classroom activities. It is a favorite of even my kindergartners. I start by showing them how to pan in and out, drag to move the globe, change the perspective of the earth’s surface, use the built in tour or one I add on Calif. Missions or the solar system. I have fifth graders create a tour that the youngers then watch as a tie in. I also let them type in their address and visit their home, including street view.
Click on pages for a full size alternative. (more…)
Tech Tip #40: Where Did Windows Explorer Go?
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy! (more…)
#36: My First Report
Students type a report for their class on one of their units of inquiry (i.e., animals) using MS Word. Use this lesson to introduce MS Word, margins, page breaks, centering, fonts. Show students how to add pictures from the internet (using copy-paste), from the computer (using insert). Takes a few classes, depending upon how long the report is (more…)
#33: Grow Your Story
Use a first-grade or second-grade story. Show students how to add description to it, setting details, sensory details, characterization, so it sounds more mature and interesting. I use thought bubbles to make it more fun.
Click on them for a full size alternative. Or visit the original post on Ask a Tech Teacher (more…)
#30: A Cover Page in Publisher
Use the Quick Publication template to make a fast cover page for a report, project, etc, in the classroom. Pay attention to layout, grammar, spelling, design.
[caption id="attachment_5021" align="aligncenter" width="614"]
computer lesson plan[/caption]
Weekend Website #49: Tux Paint
Every Friday I’ll send you a wonderful website that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.
Tux Paint–the free KidPix[/caption]
