TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Feb 10, 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
The Brown Bookshelf - Paula Chase-Hyman
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): african american (107), black history (112), book lists (151), civil rights (185), cultures (128), literature (217), preK (247)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for use throughout the year, not just during Black History Month. Create a link on classroom computers for students to explore and find books for reading. Share this link on your class website or blog for students to use at home. Showcase books found on this site for classroom read alouds. Librarians will find this site helpful for creating displays in their library or for presentations in classrooms. Enhance student learning by having students create commercials for books found on this site using a tool like Powtoon, reviewed here, or Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here, and share them using a tool such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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E is for Explore! - Erin Bittman
Grades
K to 6tag(s): addition (126), alphabet (48), angles (50), branches of government (62), charts and graphs (166), density (18), dinosaurs (37), division (97), electricity (60), erosion (14), fractions (160), geology (64), geometric shapes (130), inferencing (7), literacy (103), logic (162), minerals (14), money (118), multiplication (120), place value (34), reading comprehension (135), rocks (35), senses (20), subtraction (108), transformations (12), weather (160)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for great hands-on activities across the curriculum. Use the activities throughout the school year. Allow students to explore areas of the site to find activities to perform on their own. For example, click on the fractions tag and allow students to view the list of activities to choose their own exploration. When finished, enhance learning by challenging students to create a talking avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can be used to explain the activity and its outcome. Use a site such as Phrase.it, reviewed here, to add speech and thought bubbles.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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mailDiary - mailDiary.net
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): blogs (66), creative writing (119), journals (14), writing (308), writing prompts (53)
In the Classroom
Create a diary with a message to your students each day. Have students keep a diary of their first week at school. They can re-read this at the end of the school year. Have students keep a diary of a famous person for a character in a story that you have been reading in class. Ask students to write a diary about a picture that you have sent to them. Have students write diary entries from the point of view of soldiers, presidents, scientists, and more. Prompt a giving diary during the holiday season with students writing about what they GAVE to someone else each day.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Pixabay - Pixabay
Grades
K to 12tag(s): creative commons (28), images (257), photography (129), search engines (49)
In the Classroom
Use in the classroom any time images are needed for projects, even if the project is not put on a website for others to see. Be sure students are aware that any time another person's image is used, they must give full credit for it, even if that owner cannot see it. Student groups can use Pixabay to collectively find the best image to use for a project. Enhance classroom technology use by challenging students to create personalized images (with text) using PicFont, reviewed here. Teachers can collect images for use on their interactive whiteboard for sorting activities (monocots and dicots, producers and consumers, etc). Use images as writing prompts or in poetry collections. Art teachers can find images for students to use as references or in photo montages (with credit). Elementary teachers can use images from this site as part of student-run interactive whiteboard activities, such as labeling parts of plants. Speech and language or ENL/ESL teachers can find images to use in vocabulary development activities. World language teachers can find cultural photos to use in oral exercises.Comments
A legal (yet, illegal in every sense) extortion letter from Getty Images ignited my need to find another source of genuinely free images online. Hence, ended up finding this awesome free source of truly free images online i.e. pixabay.com. I fear all the time that such a great source could easily be bought (gobbled up) by greedy and infamous businesses i.e. Getty and we will have to find some other source for genuinely free images. Until that happens, let's all enjoy the free ride.pin, , Grades: 0 - 12
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One Zoom Tree of Life Explorer - One Zoom 2012
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): amphibians (17), biodiversity (30), birds (43), evolution (87), insects (67), mammals (23)
In the Classroom
Use this site to view how organisms are related and identify the evolutionary relationships among the different animals and biodiversity. Use this site as a springboard to discussions in class. Share the videos and interactives on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Research information that explains and shows the evolutionary evidence that exists. Have students create their own simple infographic of a single species in relationship to its "relatives."Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TV411 - Finance - Adult Literacy Media Alliance
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): financial literacy (93), money (118)
In the Classroom
Include this site in a course on personal finance, business, or consumer science. It would also be very useful as a real world application for math skills. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce or review financial topics. Take advantage of the free lesson plans. Share the videos with your class as you study finance and the economy. Share this site with parents through your classroom website or blog.Comments
Great Resource!Ladisha, VA, Grades: 9 - 12
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Navajo Code Talkers - Navajo Code Talkers Foundation
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): cryptography (5), native americans (86), world war 2 (140)
In the Classroom
Share this site with your students on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) during your World War II unit or a unit on Native Americans. This would be a great link to share during Native American Heritage Month. Enhance student learning by replacing pencil and paper and use an online tool such as the Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to create a visual comparison of the Code Talkers vs other World War II battle units or cryptographers. Put a link to Fun Facts For Kids on station computors or your website for your students to learn even more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CloudMagic - Webyog, Inc.
Grades
K to 12tag(s): organizational skills (88), search engines (49)
In the Classroom
"It's in here somewhere!" Use this site as a teacher organization tool for your classroom resources, parent contacts, and more. Are you trying to find your updated class list or notes for your Algebra 2 review? Search for class list or Algebra 2 to find it without having to search through all of your online and email accounts. Share this site with older students as a resource for organizing and finding their online resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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