Mar 4
Alphabet Rain is quick and free game to help elementary students with their typing. As letters fall from the top of the screen the student hits the corresponding key on the keyboard and earns points. Each round lasts a minute and gets progressively more difficult, and would be a great warm up for a lab or keyboarding session.
NASA Lunar Simulator on iPhone and iPod Touch:
I don’t often write posts about iPhone apps or iPod Touch apps, but today I learned about one that I had to pass along. NASA recently released an iPhone app that they’re calling the Lunar Electric Rover Simulator. As I don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch myself, I haven’t been able to try it yet, but the Lunar Electric Rover Simulator looks like it could be a fun learning experience for students that have iPhones or iPod Touches. The app is free and can be found in the app store where you can see more screen shots of the app in action.
Mashable, which is where I learned about the app, has some more information that you may be interested in reading.”
(Via FreeTech4Teachers.com.)
This morning many of us were awoken by a magnitude 3.8 earthquake that struck northern Illinois, likely many of your students were as well. Below is the link the US Geological Survey’s site on the event, and if more resources are found they will be added here as well.
US Geological Survey
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology: Education Outreach Center
FEMA for Kids: Earthquakes
Global Earthquake Response Center
Chicago Tribune: Mild Earthquake Rattles Chicago Area
CNN: Earthquake rattles northern Illinois
Google News: Chicago Earthquake
BrainPop! Earthquakes
BrainPop! Plate Tectonics
BrainPop! Natural Disasters
Discovery Education: What are the odds? Earthquakes in the Midwest
Doing What Works: Research-Based Education:
“Doing What Works is a project of the US Department of Education, West Ed, and Little Planet Learning. The purpose of Doing What Works is to share the best research-based education practices. Doing What Works presents those best practices with videos of real teachers using them, interviews with educators, visual planning diagrams, and information for further research.
Applications for Education
A lot of websites share ideas for implementing new education practices, but few sites share videos featuring real teachers talking about their practices. Doing What Works does a good job of presenting both ideas and examples. ”
(Via FreeTech4Teachers.com.)
Digital Dialects – Activities for Learning 55+ Languages:
“Digital Dialects has a large selection of educational games and activities for learning 55 different languages. Most of the games are designed to learn and practice the basics of each of the 55 languages listed on the Digital Dialects homepage.
Another good website for learning and practicing language basics is Literacy Center.net. Literacy Center offers games for learning and practicing French, Spanish, German, and English. The Literacy Center is a 501c non-profit with a contract from the US Department of Education.
Applications for Education
The educational games and activities found on Digital Dialects and Literacy Center are great for students just beginning to learn a new language. The games provide instant feedback to students and parents so that they can monitor progress and choose a skill or set of vocabulary terms to practice”
(Via FreeTech4Teachers.com.)
Cool Food Kidz Teaches Kids About Diet & Fitness:”
Cool Food Kidz is a kid-friendly website about nutrition, exercise, and general health. Cool Food Kidz provides easy-to-read lists of things they can do to take care of their health. For example, there is a list of ‘building healthy habits’ tips which walks kids through ten basic things they can do to keep themselves healthy. Cool Food Kidz also provides students with tips for dental health and tips for keeping their brains sharp. The tips for eating out section offers advice to students on picking a healthy lunch and healthy snack foods.
Applications for Education
Cool Food Kidz could be a good resource for elementary and middle school health teachers.”
(Via Free Tech For Teachers.)
Defend your space station from incoming meteors by solving multiplication problems or drag race your friends through division. AcademicSkillBuilders.com has a number of great math games covering Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Addition, Subtraction, and Integers. The games run great under any web browser and are quick to start and easy to play. All of the games are research based, and aligned to state standards.
Theres also a selection of language arts games focusing on spelling, vowels, verbs and Social Studies games focusing on State Capitals and countries. Now I better close the window so I can get some work done…
Flash cards are a staple of students studying toolbox, but the tedious work required to create and share them sometimes gets in the way of their regular use. Enter BrainFlips, one of the best flashcard sites I’ve come across. An account (free) is required to create and share flash card decks, but no account is required to use the decks that other users have created which as of this writing there are 726 decks available. Some cool examples include: Barack Obama, Addition, and Introductory Spanish. Plus each deck can be viewed in one of 3 ways: Introduction mode, which gives you the question and answer side by side, Traditional Mode, shows question and then the answer, or Response Mode, which creates a multiple choice game out of the cards.
Thanks to FreeTech4Teachers for finding this site.
A Lifetime of Color – Lesson Plans Incorporating Art:
“A Lifetime of Color is one of the resources that was listed today in a blog post on Curious Works. The Curious Works post is full of art education resources. A Lifetime of Color offers lesson plans incorporating art activities into Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, Music, and Social Studies. The lesson plans are designed for use with K-8 students. You can search for lesson plans by subject area or you can search for lesson plans by grade level.
In addition to lesson plans, A Lifetime of Color offers a collection of games and interactive activities for learning about artists and learning to create art.
Applications for Education
A Lifetime of Color’s lesson plans could be useful for finding new ways to combine content areas through the creation of art projects. “
(Via FreeTech4Teachers.)
