TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Feb 17, 2013

Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive

 

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Multiplication - Krimsten Publishing

Grades
1 to 6
3 Favorites 1  Comments
  
Practice your multiplication skills using this comprehensive site including games, tips, tricks, free worksheets, quizzes, flash cards, and bingo cards. There are also addition and...more
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Practice your multiplication skills using this comprehensive site including games, tips, tricks, free worksheets, quizzes, flash cards, and bingo cards. There are also addition and subtraction activities. Discover a multiplication table that has a picture with a story for every multiplication fact. Listen to a story about every fact. Beginning (or struggling) learners will benefit from the plethora of multiplication activities that will interest, intrigue, and motivate the varied style of learners in your classroom.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): multiplication (121), operations (72)

In the Classroom

Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector when introducing new facts. Use this site at centers or as a homework activity. Find all necessary tools for your class including flashcards, quizzes, practice sheets, and bingo cards. Motivate your reluctant learner as well as add challenge to gifted learners. Give this site to parents as a resource to practice multiplication at home.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

Comments

Good web site with lots of interacting games. Kevin, SC, Grades: 0 - 5

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Sound Maps -- British Library - The British Library

Grades
K to 12
1 Favorites 0  Comments
 
Find over 50,000 sounds of music, nature sounds, spoken words/poetry and human environments. Click dots on a map to see the location and play the sound. Search by keyword or ...more
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Find over 50,000 sounds of music, nature sounds, spoken words/poetry and human environments. Click dots on a map to see the location and play the sound. Search by keyword or by category and save to your playlist for future use once you create a free account.

tag(s): cultures (145), multimedia (46), sounds (42)

In the Classroom

This site is a great addition to any world language, history, music, English, or science class. Use the oral history section to hear stories from Holocaust survivors. Listen to accents from around the world. Have you ever wanted to know what a cicada sounds like? Use the recordings from the nature and environment section. Science and music teachers can use the site to show how sound waves look. Use the site to demonstrate how to create an oral history. Then have cooperative learning groups create podcasts demonstrating their understanding of a particular topic you are studying. Use a site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here). In world language classes, have students explore locations to learn more about the sound of that country. Then have them create a recording that uses recorded sounds as background to their own spoken words in their new language.

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SciStarter - Science for Citizens LLC

Grades
5 to 12
2 Favorites 0  Comments
Find citizen science projects that are available for students. View the video What is Citizen Science? Choose projects for PreK-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and for college students. Each project...more
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Find citizen science projects that are available for students. View the video What is Citizen Science? Choose projects for PreK-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and for college students. Each project has a video, thorough directions, and links for additional resources. Science teachers register and can sign up for email newsletters describing the projects. Example projects include: Budburst, Project Squirrel, Globe At Night, Crowd the Tap, and Land Loss Lookout. Topics range from weather to birds to medicine to sound. Rather than focusing on teaching content, the activities focus on using scientific communities to connect and immerse students in the science.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): animals (289), archeology (26), birds (46), citizen science (27), ecology (102), environment (245), geology (62), insects (68), medicine (56), oceans (149), Project Based Learning (26), science fairs (20), scientific method (48), sound (73), space (217), transportation (31), weather (161)

In the Classroom

Find a great project for your students to participate in, entering data and looking at the results. Search by activity or topic to find a project geared towards your students age range, curriculum, and ability to complete. Have students make a multimedia presentation about one of the "projects" using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Slides, Animatron, Vibby, and Inkscape. This resource lends itself to project based learning.

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ESA Space for Europe - European Space Agency

Grades
4 to 12
0 Favorites 0  Comments
 
Find great images, links, and articles about the sun and space on this European site. View multimedia videos, high resolution images, animations, and downloads. Find additional resources...more
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Find great images, links, and articles about the sun and space on this European site. View multimedia videos, high resolution images, animations, and downloads. Find additional resources for further information about space missions. View and read related articles. Find current topics of focus in Astronomy such as recent and impending solar eclipses. The link "For Educators" is full of "ready to go" lesson ideas. There is also a link on the Educators' section to esaKIDS: designed with elementary students in mind. Most of this site is ideal for secondary students; however, parts of the Educators' area could be used with upper elementary students.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): earth (185), solar system (109), space (217), sun (71)

In the Classroom

Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and use it as a learning station. The text portions are challenging, so you should pair weaker readers with a partner as they research on this site. Have cooperative learning groups create podcasts demonstrating their understanding of one of the concepts. Use a site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here). Have students create posters on paper or do it together online as a class using a tool such PicLits (reviewed here). Or use other online tools such as Padlet (reviewed here), PodOmatic (reviewed here).

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Fetch - PBS Kids

Grades
2 to 8
1 Favorites 0  Comments
  
Join Ruff Ruffman in the PBS Kids Game show, Fetch. Learn about animal science as you view (and participate) on this educational game show including 5 contestants ages 10-14. "Ruff"...more
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Join Ruff Ruffman in the PBS Kids Game show, Fetch. Learn about animal science as you view (and participate) on this educational game show including 5 contestants ages 10-14. "Ruff" hosts the game show, reality style with children contestants, learning about science and also crazy challenges. Topics include (but are not limited to) animals, engineering, deserted islands, dinosaur footprints, hover crafts, mummies, song birds, and more. There are past episodes and games available.

tag(s): animal homes (57), birds (46), dinosaurs (41), diseases (69), literacy (116), machines (14), simple machines (17), vocabulary (238)

In the Classroom

Invite Ruff Ruffman into your classroom to add spice to your science, language arts, and math curriculum. Although contestants are ages 10-14, younger students would benefit by watching the activities. Some may be too challenging for younger students to complete on their own. Students will identify with the contestants as they learn and laugh along with Ruff. Add a Ruff adventure or interview as an anticipatory guide for a unit. Share a clip or experiment on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use as a way to enrich during your unit on mammals, motion, or problem solving. Have older elementary students (or middle school) become familiar with the show's format and create an "episode" based on your unit of study. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create videos to share using a site such as TeacherTube. Create a writing experience from episodes given. Use an episode as a spark to begin a further area of inquiry. Add to your computers as a center time activity, or even as a special earned award. Share on your website as an enrichment source, or a great place for educational learning.

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Future Me - Write a Letter to the Future - Matt Sly and Jay Patrikios

Grades
K to 12
2 Favorites 0  Comments
Future Me is an email service that allows you to write an email and have it delivered in the future (up to 50 years later). Insert your email address, subject, ...more
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Future Me is an email service that allows you to write an email and have it delivered in the future (up to 50 years later). Insert your email address, subject, and write your email. Choose a future date for delivery, and it's ready to go! Options include adding an image and making the email public or private. Note - the public gallery is unmoderated so may contain content not suitable for school.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): back to school (62), creativity (91), digital storytelling (152), letter writing (19), Teacher Utilities (159)

In the Classroom

Future Me is a wonderful tool to use at the beginning of the school year. Ask students to send themselves (or you) a "future" email with what they would like to learn this year, subjects they do and don't like, and goals for the school year. Send and share the emails on a date near the end of the year to see how they have changed. High school seniors may want to write a letter to themselves four years in the future with their goals for college and the future. Share with parents, and ask them to write a letter to their student for future delivery. Have students write an email to you describing what they know about any topic or person before beginning a unit, have the email delivered upon completion of the unit as a reminder of how much learning has occurred. Have middle schoolers write emails with summer goals before summer break and have set them for delivery in September so students can see whether their summer was as productive as they had hoped. What a great way to teach goal-setting!

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Scoop.it! - Scoop.it Inc

Grades
5 to 12
1 Favorites 0  Comments
 
Scoop.it considers itself a free "publishing-by-curation" tool on the web. You create a Scoop topic and add articles and websites to the topic. People who view your Scoop see...more
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Scoop.it considers itself a free "publishing-by-curation" tool on the web. You create a Scoop topic and add articles and websites to the topic. People who view your Scoop see what you want them to see. This is a way to deliver subject focused articles and information to a specific audience. Scoops can be shared through social media or using a widget to embed on your website.

tag(s): bookmarks (46)

In the Classroom

Create Scoops for projects so that students have a one stop shop to research. Create a Scoop with information and sites for students to use as a study guide. This also gives you some control over the information to which your students are exposed. Have students sign up for their own free account. Students could use this as a working bibliography of the resources they use for research, posters, and presentations for all classes. Assign students to create a collection of online literature about a specific topic as an assignment. Have students use the "add your insight" text box to provide a mini review of the articles.

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