Posted in Fun, Ideas, Projects

Trip to NYC

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Last week I had a chance to go spend time in NYC. This was only my second time ever visiting, and really the first time I had a chance to check out some of the famous places there. Here’s a thirty second overview of what I saw:[kml_flashembed movie="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/4760bbef51b287d4" width="432" height="250" wmode="transparent" /]

I brought back some pics and short video clips of these places. I’d like to increase our collection of pictures and video clips for kids to use in digital projects without having to worry about copyright. Even though there are sites out there that allow you to download pics for educational uses, there are a number of reasons why doing this is difficult (or not safe) for younger students. Having a folder of pics that match SOLs that students can use freely would help. I’ll add the ones I brought back from NYC. If you have any other digital pics or short digital videos (especially ones that match SOLs) that you don’t mind sharing, please leave a comment here or drop me an email.

Posted in Ideas, Links, Salem City Schools

Tracking Santa and Other Fun Holiday Sites

Posted on by Tina Coffey

I’ve had a few requests for some fun sites to use with your students during the holiday time. Here’s some I’ve run across lately!

Norad Tracks Santa Want to track Santa as he makes his trip around the world? This site has games to play until Christmas Eve, when you can track Santa’s route on Google Earth.

Place the Penguins (Place Value)

Virtual Snowman (Practice click and drag–great for younger kids on the laptops!)

Christmas Music (Thanks Karen Travitz!)

Northpole.com (This site does promote some items from Amazon.com, but there are a lot of fun, free activities too!)

Make-a-Flake (Make a snow flake by clicking and dragging–another great site to practice laptop skills!)

For SCS teachers, I’ve posted these sites on the main Links for Kids Page. On the first page, they need to click “December Holiday Sites.”

If anyone has anymore great sites they are using with their students, please leave a comment. I’ll do my best to add the sites you suggest to the Links for Kids Page so that you can use them easily in your classrooms!

Posted in Projects, Salem City Schools

What We Learned from Virtual Scuba Diving Project

Posted on by Tina Coffey

I’m slowly (but surely) making my way around to the classes that participated in the Scuba Diving project with Meg Swecker. I’ve already made it to a few classes, and the students have had a chance to record what they learned on a collection of Mrs. Swecker’s pictures in Voice Thread. This VoiceThread will evolve as I finish making it around to the other classes.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=27442" width="480" height="360" wmode="transparent" /]

Meg and I also had a chance to sit down and talk about the project from our perspective as ITRT’s, and I also learned some of the other neat ways she extended this project with her students in Roanoke County . We recorded much of the conversation as a Field Report for the GenTech Podcast. If you’d like to listen, here’s the link.

Posted in Links, Salem City Schools

Fight Hunger and Practice your Vocab!

Posted on by Tina Coffey

freerice.jpgHave you heard of FreeRice.com? This site let’s you play a vocabulary game..and for every word you get right, it donates rice to the United Nations to help end world hunger.

Free Rice adjusts the vocabulary it gives according to your level…so it’s appropriate for all ages. I’ll post a link on the SCS Links for Kids area, in case you’d like to have your students try it out. A word of caution though….it’s addictive. I found myself playing for quite awhile last night!

Posted in Projects, Salem City Schools

Animal Magazine Covers

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Mrs. Prettyman’s Language Arts classes designed some awesome magazine covers on the laptops using Microsoft Publisher. Their covers were based on information they had gathered and used for an animal report! You can see them better “in person” outside her classroom door…so if you have a chance, check them out! What a creative way to get kids writing, Mrs. Prettyman!!

You can also seem them a bit closer if you click this link, and choose the “full” button.