This site offers five "ready to go" lesson plans for Father's Day. Lessons include art, history, writing, and more. Standards are provided. There is also some general history of Father's Day provided.
In the Classroom: Take advantage of these FREE lesson plans to honor the dads in your students' life.
This simple website offers information about the history of Father's Day, quotes about fathers, puzzles, cards, music, a countdown, and more. The music requires QuickTime. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Challenge your students to think about the meaning behind the various quotes. Have students create their own quotes about their fathers. Using a picture (or student drawing) use a program such as VoiceThread (reviewed here) to have students narrate the picture (sharing their quote or a memory).
This site is just as the title says - lots of fun and games (and some education too). There are word games, stereo grams, facts, matching and memory activities, puzzles, coloring pages, and many other activities at this unique website.
In the Classroom: List this site on your class website for students to use at home with their moms, grandparents, or other care givers - to prepare surprises for the father figures in their lives.
Although this site has some advertisements, if you take the time to navigate through - you will find a variety of lessons in social studies, science, art, language arts and interactive quizzes. The online "father" quizzes (both free trial offers) require no membership and are very challenging. There are also reproducible worksheets in a variety of subjects.
In the Classroom: Get your interactive whiteboard ready and take advantage of the free online "father" quizzes. Both are sure to motivate your students to learn more about many famous "fathers".
DLTK has created this website that includes numerous crafts, poems, online puzzles, printable gifts, recipes and more.
In the Classroom: Share this link on your class website for families to access over the summer months. Why not suggest something interactive for the students to create, in addition to the paper craft. For example, have students create online books about their fathers using Bookemon (reviewed here).
Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users and their students. Students and teachers can write their own original books, add your own images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in interactive, online form. For a fee, you can also have printed copies made, but there is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling."
Here is an example of a book created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors. Once you set up free membership in this site, students (or teachers) can select to create from a blank start or using templates provided. You can also create a book starter of your own as an example so students can follow the prompts you have created. The book creator allows you to upload your own images and to create books from a Word document or PowerPoint file you have already made. There is no provision for multiple users to collaborate on the same book.
After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire thing online, either among an audience of “just my friends” or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books in a class or school web page, wiki, or blog, but at the time of this review, this code was not working properly. The BEST option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully-public option to create learning materials for classes to access year to year for at-home review or reading practice.
This site requires a simple registration. Members must be at least 13 years old. Teachers using this tool with younger students should use a whole-class account WITH parent permission and in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions “In the Classroom” below and in our sample book!
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Join the site. No need for a confirmation email to get started. SKIP the profile and friends areas to get to the book creator. The site constantly offers ways to purchase printed versions of your books, but you can ignore them. On the Create Books page, choose from using a blank book, starting from a file, or using a template. Browse many “public” examples on the templates page of books created by others. Choose “school” to see projects from other classes or a sample created by you or a student team working in advance along with you. Explore ready-made themes (seasonal, topical, etc.) or use “open theme.” Choose book dimensions (match layout shape to any uploaded files, such as PowerPoint slides). Enter settings and description of your book (editable later), including who is allowed to “see” it: everyone, just friends, or private. Again choose a “theme” – more of a category where Bookemon will list your completed book. A logical option is “school.” Experiment with tools to upload files (within file limits), add images, add text, etc. Written help is offered as you go, but there is no video demo. SAVE often. Turn margins on to avoid chopping content. To share the book, you must “publish” it (i.e. finalize).
Once published, locate the book under "My Books" and use options to share (by email—and see the URL to copy from there), “Make a new edition” to create a new version—also useful for treating the original as a template for later books), Post to Other Sites offers embed codes not currently working properly. The BEST option is to click the book COVER which opens a new window without ads or “stuff,” and copy the ADDRESS of that window to paste into email, etc. You can also make that clean-window view a Favorite on a classroom computer!
Safety/security concerns: The home page of the site has “Featured books by our members” and the ability to browse all public books. You will want to preview for possibly inappropriate books created by others. As with any site where students can create content, you will want to obtain parent permission before posting student work online. The site does not allow users under age 13, so teachers with students below that age should obtain written parent permission for students to use generic student accounts you create and control through your teacher-extra Gmail address. Use up to 20 subaccounts of that Gmail account to create student accounts and passwords to be used by each student or group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
If you have older students use their own email accounts to join and navigate, you will want to first spell out rules about the “profile” tools, friends, and other social networking features. There are multiple opportunities to share address books, use social tools such as Facebook to share your books, etc., so teacher-controlled accounts may be the easiest option.
If students are to collaborate on the same book, they must either log in under the same user name or sit together to collaborate. This could provide opportunities for “vandalism,” so have class policies and consequences spelled out in advance.
Possible uses:
With younger students, have them create their work in PowerPoint then upload for whole-class books. See an example, created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors . The example is full of ideas for classroom use from Kindergarten to high school, including science concept tales, poetry books, general writing, math problem solve-its, and more. ANY grade can use this tool, depending on the amount of direction by the teacher. By the way, the correct answer to the problem in the sample book is c. 27. Another idea, have students create personalized books for their parents or grandparents for special occasions (Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Grandparent's Day).
Tip: Use this site for a guided introduction to social networking as a class, an excellent teaching opportunity for 21st century literacy skills and online safety discussion.
Teacher’s First Edge Review: For moderately adventurous technology users. This site allows users to create online scrapbooks including photos, video clips, and music. Users can “Start with a Theme” or “Start with a Blank Page.” Add stickers, backgrounds, text boxes, and more. Be aware many of the themes are free, but some are for a fee. The ones for a fee say "purchase" at the bottom of the screen. This site requires Flash. You can it both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: This site is fairly easy to navigate. Users must be able to access photos (from several websites or personal computers) to use in the scrapblog. View the short introduction tutorial to learn more about site. Learn how to edit photos, add stickers to your pages, add backgrounds, add text, add videos, and more! There is the option to view the scrapblogs on full screen (see the box on the top right side of the screen). If you want to control the speed of the blog, you must have it on full screen. Once on full screen, look for the turtle and hare slider to slow down the speed. When completed, you can share your scrapblog via URL, on many social networking sites, or by printing out the pages. You don't need to register to USE this site, but you do need to register to save or share your scrapblog.
Safety/Security Concerns: an email address is required for sign up to use this service. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how.
Classroom Uses: This amazing site has countless possibilities in the classroom. After a field trip, use this site to share the experience with families and as a review for the class. Can't take a field trip? Create a scrapblog of a fictitious "visit" to the historical site, showing what you have learned without even visiting. Rather than having students create traditional "book reports" or reports about famous people or events, use this site to create a multimedia presentation with photos, text, music, and more (include attribution for the Creative Commons images they may use). What would Jefferson have included in a scrapblog about his time in Philadelphia in 1776? Elementary classes could make whole-class scrapblogs about the important people and places in your school or community, using digital pictures you take yourselves. At Thanksgiving, have students make a scrapblog about the things they are grateful for. Share this link on your class website for students to access both in and out of the classroom. This is a perfect site for students to use to make free "homemade gifts" for Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Grandparent's Day.
Here is a sample of a scrapblog created by the TeachersFirst Editors
Teacher's First Edge Review: for moderate to advanced technology users. Use Go Animate to create interesting and memorable cartoon type presentations. Students will have fun unleashing their imagination and delivering a message through creative animation. Flash is required. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
Here is a very simple animation example:
In the Classroom: Skills needed: Create an account to login, but use the application right away (without waiting for an email confirmation). Video tutorials are available, and many functions are easy to figure out once you play with them. Choose from many templates or start with a blank screen. Create your cartoon using Saturday morning cartoon characters or a variety of other characters such as presidents, commercial characters, and many others. Add your images, such as faces or background pictures and customize additional characters, sounds, etc. Control length of sections, voices and sounds, and delete or add sections through the time line along the bottom. Save your creation easily and share to your favorite social or bookmark site; copy a link to share with others, or copy and paste the embed code into your wiki, blog, or website. Creations are saved in your account online and can be kept private or made public.
Safety/Security concerns: Some scenes may be inappropriate for all students but can be deleted easily. Caution: check student creations during the process. Students will need an email address to create an account. Check your school policies about accessing/sharing student email on school computers. You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how. Also check your district's policies on displaying and sharing student work. CAUTION! This site includes the ability for the general public to submit their own animations. Be sure to preview for content inappropriate for your classroom. You may want to limit use to whole-class activities or prohibit accessing the public portion of the site. The home page has loud music and links to many “public” animation projects, so firm policies and/or practices to avoid "exploring" these are vital.
Possible uses: Students can sum up debate ideas using animated characters or present simple concepts from researched material to introduce to the class. Students can tell book report stories, create fictitious stories or present ideas in a fun format. Challenge students to use this site to tell the history of political figures, historical figures, or historical areas. Use this site to teach about chemical properties, scientific figures or discoveries, or great moments in Science through animation. In language arts class, you can use this tool to apply concepts of narrative patterns or characterization. Teachers of gifted may want to assign students to create an entire animated series. ESL/ELL or world language students could create animations to practice their new vocabulary. Why not have students create a comic strip about their mom or dad for Mother's or Father's Day or honoring someone else special in their lives - - even the school custodian, nurse, or secretary!
TimeRimeGrade 2 to 12
- Marijn Bom, Jaap Joziasse, Gerard Pastwa, and Pico Wilbrenninck- 9679
TeachersFirst Edge Entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. TimeRime.com allows you to view, create, and share interactive timelines. Use this site to search for user-created timelines about Barack Obama, and other past U.S. presidents, the sound of Motown, the history of Coca-Cola, Modern Thai Politics, and countless other topics. Use the search options at the top or bottom of the page to narrow your search. There is also the option to create your own unique timeline and share it by URL or by embedding in your class blog, wiki, or web page. To create a timeline you MUST register at the site. This requires a username, password, and your email address. The timelines require Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the Classroom: Skills Needed: If you only plan to VIEW timelines, no extra skills are needed. If you plan to create a timeline, you must register. Registration requires a username, password, and email address. To create a timeline, click on the Create Your Own Timeline link and follow the step-by-step directions. You must open the email sent to your account (from TimeRime) before you can create your timeline. The email does not automatically "appear." So you will want to register several hours (or even the day before) you wish to use this tool with your students.
Safety/Security Concerns: You must register to create a timeline. Registration requires a password and email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, You may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
Possible Uses: There are many uses for the already created timelines: use your interactive whiteboard or projector to learn about the history of Motown during music class, research presidents and other famous people, learn about historical events, research literature, and more. Have students create timelines for research projects using TimeRime. Use this tool to make a timeline of your class’ school year for younger classes who are just learning the graphical representation of time. Create author biographies, animal life cycles, or timelines of events and causes of wars. Create a historical time line, scanning old pictures or using copyright free images from the Library of Congress American Memory Collection. Other ideas: artists, musicians, writers from a certain period in history, the twentieth century in different countries, World War II timeline, Civil War timeline, timeline of insect stages, timeline of the rock cycle, of a plant or tree, timeline or life cycle of migratory animals, personal timelines-- suitable for younger students only if they work with a teacher account. Have them create a timeline of the plot of a novel, interspersed with the ways themes appear throughout the novel. If you read Dickens, be SURE to create a timeline of the many intertwined characters, such as Estella and Pip in Great Expectations! If you teach chemistry, have students create illustrated sequences explaining oxidation or reduction (or both). Elementary students could even interview grandparents and create a class timeline about their grandparents’ generation for Grandparents' Day. Why not create a timeline highlighting students' family events for a special gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, or other holidays? You may need to assign students to do some investigative work first (years of births, marriages, vacations, etc.). For collaboration, link up with another classroom in another town (or another country) to build a time line that shares events in each local area so students can see what was happening at the same time in another location, maybe in the opposite hemisphere (compare weather and seasons!). In world language classes, have students create a timeline of their family in the language to master vocabulary about relatives, jobs, and more (and verb tenses!). The possibilities are endless!
TeachersFirst Edge entry: for moderately adventurous technology users. Voicethread allows you to upload images (from your digital camera, scanner, or even paint program), then allow students to record their own comments and/or narration about the images. Other listeners can "comment" back, as well. TeachersFirst is providing the link to the VoiceThread home page but suggests that you first watch this quick explanation about two types of FREE educator memberships being offered for classroom teachers (one completely free, the other after a one time fee of $10...so "sort of" free). You can click to go to the home page from there. Access to the ed.voicethread site (as opposed to www.voicethread)is restricted to grades K-12 students, educators, and administrators.
VoiceThread explains how to set up a classroom account and has some ideas for classroom use, as well. Ideas from the TeachersFirst Edge review team are listed below, under "In the classroom."
In the Classroom: Skills needed: join the site (free). You will be logged into your account immediately after you fill in the registration form. Watch the "One Minute Voicethread" to get a very quick overview of how easy it is to create a digital story. Set up student identities. You will want to "Browse" some Voicethreads to get an idea how they work. Use first names only. You need to know how to locate and upload saved pictures. You WILL need a microphone, either plugged into your computer or built in. They can be purchased for less than $10 at a discount or electronics store. Once you create a Voicethread, it can be shared by copying the URL and sending it via email or other means, inviting others to comment back. You can also decide whether you wish to allow comments and whether these comments will be moderated by you.
Of course, you should be sure that you have the RIGHTS to any images you upload. Fair Use does not apply when you put an image on the web!
Safety/security: TeachersFirst recommends that you explain the VoiceThread projects via a note sent home and obtain parent permission to post student work to the web, even anonymously. Then invite parents to share in the results (The VoiceThread classroom page tells you more about this). TeachersFirst does not recommend using actual, identifiable pictures of children. Let them draw a picture or take a digital picture of an object that somehow represents them (middle schoolers will love that idea!). If you allow others to "comment" on student Voicethreads, the experience can be both wonderful and a bit intimidating. Use this opportunity to promote ethical and kind interaction with other students and their projects.
Possible uses: Elementary classes can create or take pictures, then ask each child to talk about the images. Each child can comment on the SAME pictures, creating a collaborative collection of responses. After a field trip or special class event, you can assign groups of students to explain each of the digital pictures you took and how they relate to curriculum topics. In art class, students can critique works of their own or of fellow students. In language arts classes, students can scan and comment on writing pieces as part of a reflective phase of the writing process. Or post an image as a prewriting activity and allow students to respond orally in an idea-generating phase. In social studies, have students provide a picture of a grandparent then narrate what they learned about that grandparent from interviewing him/her. Have students create narrated pictures as gifts (for parents or other care givers) for special occasions, winter holidays, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc.. During a science experiment or demo, have a student take pictures of the steps. Then ask students to "narrate" them by commenting on what is happening. The narration assignment could even be a center activity or an assignment on a few classroom computers for students to rotate through. What a great way to review and apply key vocabulary! Be sure they identify their voices if you are using a single class account and want to be able to assess understanding. Other ideas: narrated local history projects (pictures of local sites), audio "museum tours" of artifacts (photos) or war veterans telling their stories along with images of their uniforms or old photos. Speech/language, ESL/ELL or early childhood teachers could use this tool to promote vocabulary development and oral expression.
This craft and activity site for elementary children has links to excellent craft sites as well as a rotating feature of current interest. For example, in June, activities on Father's day are in the forefront as well as summer craft fun. Other subjects of interest for kids and parents include lunch box ideas, a music/song feature, party ideas, games,and recipes. There are advertisements (designated as "Ads by Google"), so you will want to navigate the site together to prevent getting stuck in commercialism! Look for the word "Activity" for links to the actual ideas.
In the Classroom: Make this site available to parents and students from your teacher web page for vacation periods and birthday party ideas. Your students and parents will thank you! You may find that some of the craft ideas fit in well with classroom themes, as well.
TeachersFirst's Fathers' Day Resources 
This site offers five "ready to go" lesson plans for Father's Day. Lessons include art, history, writing, and more. Standards are provided. There is also some general history of Father's Day provided. 
Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users and their students. Students and teachers can write their own original books, add your own images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in interactive, online form. For a fee, you can also have printed copies made, but there is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling." 