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February 29, 2012
September 09, 2011
SMARTBoards and Fun Word Activities
These three interactive word games from the Merriam-Webster website are great supplemental resources for the SMART Board classroom.
The first game called Alpha-bot has a unique and very engaging method for spelling words. To play, students touch on the "Audio" button to hear the word. They then have to move rows and columns to spell out the word. The game has three levels
and can be zoomed to fill the screen.
The next game is called BIGbot and it challenges students to find the antonym or synonym for different words. If they get the correct answer, they can launch the word in
the BIGbot mouth. It doesn't really do anything more than that but it's fun for the kids.
The last game is Jumble for Kids. The game works great on the SMART Board and can be used as a fun lesson starter. The game has 10-12 Jumbles to choose from and it appears they have a new Jumble each week.
Please share these fun games with your fellow teachers and let parents know about them as well.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 06, 2011
SMARTBoard and Thinking Blocks
Sites like Thinking Blocks should be placed front and center on your school's list of Internet resources that work great on your SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard. This site was developed by Colleen King as a way to model Mathematical problems related to Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Fractions, and Ratios.
This site guides students step-by-step through the process of modeling a word problem. The model drawing method is perfect for students aged 8-12 to develop more advanced Mathematical concepts and algebraic reasoning.
Thinking Blocks contains guided instruction videos that do a fantastic job of explaining the modeling process for each type of problem. Once students are familiar with the modeling process, they can go through a more guided instruction. Each section contains multiple types of problems along with an accompanying modeling solution.
Perhaps the best feature is the Modeling Tool where teachers and students can select what area and what type of problem to model. It contains a vast collection of word problems for the students to model, or teachers and students can make their own problem. When the problem is presented, students can use the tools to build their own model based on the problem type.
This site contains much, much more and teachers should spend some time familiarizing themselves with everything this site has to offer.
Please share this incredible site with the other teachers at your school or in your social network.
Sharing Is Caring!
August 26, 2011
SMARTBoard and MapMaker 1-Page Maps
Some online resources help make the decision to have an interactive whiteboard in the classroom an easy one. When you use an IWB to see and interact with a resource like National Geographic's MapMaker 1-Page Maps, it's difficult to justify "not" having an Interactive Whiteboard. This interactive map resource allows you to explore in detail different areas of the world. All you do is select a region of the world and then select a country. It even includes more detailed views of the USA, Canada, and Mexico.
This resource seems to be designed with the IWB in mind. It has an easy "touch" navigation system and it has tabs that allow you to annotate and place various icons on the map. The map elements options also allows you to add various map details including titles, latitude and longitude lines, landmarks, and key labels. Best of all, this resource includes a full-page option to help teachers display the map as large as possible with a single touch on their SMARTBoard. If this weren't enough, it even has an option to download your map to an image file or a PDF file.
This resource is still in beta, so not all the features function perfectly. For example, I had difficulties displaying some countries and I was not able to download the map I created. However, you can capture your map using the SMART Screen Capture Tool that comes with the Smart Notebook software.
Please share this resource with the teachers at your school.
Sharing Is Caring!
August 24, 2011
SMARTBoards and That Darn Cat
During my 5 year old's Kindergarten orientation, the teacher explained how the kids could get extra "explore" time at the end of the week for good behavior.
Here's a fun activity just for that kind of situation that works great on a SMART Board called Circle The Cat. The objective is to trap the cat so it cannot escape. To trap the cat, you need to encirle it with green dots. It's really quite addictive and lots of fun as well. The only tip I can give you is to pay attention to the green dots that are already in place when the game starts and try to utilize those as much as possible.
If you use the Firefox browser, you can download the Flash Game Maximizer addon to play this game in full screen. You can also use your browser's zoom capabilities to make the game as big as possible.
Enjoy!
Sharing Is Caring!
May 19, 2011
SMARTBoard Users - Mangahigh is now FREE
The online, games-based teaching resource, Mangahigh, announced recently that their entire service is available free of charge for all schools in the US, Canada, and the UK.
Mangahigh creates exceptionally high-quality, game-based learning resources to help Primary and Secondary students reinforce their Mathematics skills in a way that is both fun and engaging. In addition to all the great resources, the service includes assessment and analytical tools that enable teachers to monitor the progress of individual students. Best of all, these activities work great on the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard.
As a certified Mathematics instructor, I believe it's important for teachers to rely on multiple methods of instruction including appropriately developed game-based instruction. This field of education is growing and the quality of the resources is improving all the time.
Providing these resouces free of charge is a fantastic opportunity that you should take advantage of immediately. Please share this information with the other teachers in your school as well as the school principal.
The image above is taken from one of the Primary activities called Flower Power. This is a extremely engaging activity that challenges students to place the flowers in the correct order.
If you want more information about Mangehigh, you can also read my prior blog post which highlights another activity called Transtar.
Sharing Is Caring!
April 19, 2011
SMARTBoards and Physics Education Technology (PhET)
You don't need to be a Middle School or High School Science teacher to appreciate the amazing resources provided by the PhET website. This site contains the most incredible collection of research-based, interactive, Physics simulations anywhere on the Internet. Best of all, these simulations are free to use online or download to your computer.They are a must-have for teachers with Interactive Whiteboards in the classroom.
The simulations can be run one at a time from the web browser (using Java's Web Start) or they can be downloaded and opened directly from your computer. I recommend downloading the simulations and then double-clicking on the simulations when you want to use them. All you need is Java installed on your computer and most computers have it installed already. (You can click here to download and/or check whether Java is already installed).
The site also contains homework files, lab descriptions, and even files containing interactive response questions. This is a great feature for schools who have interactive response systems. PhET makes it easy to browse for resources and even filters activities by grade level.
Here is an example of one of the simulation called the Equation Grapher. You can use this right here!
You can download this directly to your computer or you can run it from your web browser.
Here is the PhET page containing the Equation Grapher.
Please share this resource with the other teachers in your school. It's a winner!
Sharing Is Caring!
March 30, 2011
December 09, 2010
SMARTBoards and Holiday Word Search Activities
If you're looking for some fun activities this Holiday Season, you can download, share, and use the following custom Word Search Notebook activities.
Each one has a riddle or a question hidden at the top of the word search puzzle. To find the answer, students use the Highlighter Pen in the Notebook Toolbar to find the words in the list. After all the words are highlighted, the answer is found by taking the first unused letters starting from the top-left of the puzzle. Each puzzle has a solution page and a reveal answer feature.
If you would like step-by-step instructions on how to create your own custom word search puzzle in Smart Notebook, you can take the Notebook Application - Custom Word Search Course on the Teacher Online Training Notebook training system. It's effective, affordable, and fun!
Now is a great time to sign up to Teacher Online Training. It's only $7.48 for the first month and only $14.95 for each additional month. You can cancel at anytime and even get a refund if you're not completely satisfied. All courses are online, self-paced, and can be completed in about an hour. No experience necessary.
Here are the word search files. Please use the Chrome or Firefox Browser to download or open the files since IE and Safari often times have difficulties recognizing the file formats.
Custom Christmas Word Search / Riddle Puzzles
How many reindeer guide Santa's sleigh? (eight)
Polar Express: What advice does the conductor give? (Believe)
*Recommended* What do all these words help us achieve? (peace)
How long should a reindeer's legs be? (Just long enough to reach the ground)
Who sang praises from on high? (the heavenly host of angels)
Who are the "Six White Boomers" (Kangaroos pulling Santa's sleigh)
Who led Santa through the Wintery Snow to deliver packages to young children? (Rudolph)
Qu'est-ce que le Père Noël aime manger? (les buscuits)
What does Santa have that's red as a cherry? (his nose)
Wie heißt der Abend vom 24. Dezember? (Heiligabend)
In what country do people write letters to Father Christmas? (England)
Why is a SMART Board smart? (It's smart because no one is bored)
Something to think about other than gifts during the holidays (Your health)
One last resource is a ESL/ELL Christmas Flash-Card application created in Notebook 10. I also put in a custom word search puzzle on the last few pages. Enjoy!
Sharing Is Caring!
November 12, 2010
SMARTBoards and Sharing Is Caring - Art
This isn't just about helping teachers - it's also about setting an example for your students. Students want to create and share what they do with others. This is a natural tendancy of the human spirit. Instead of stifeling this natural trait, let's embrace it!
Today's example of Sharing Is Caring is an blog called ArTechTivity by Ms. Cynthia Gaub. Ms. Gaub teaches Art and Technology at North Middle School in the Everett School District. Ms. Gaub is also the 2009 Middle School Art Teacher of the Year as nominated by the Washington State Art Educators Association.
This blog is a great example of what a teacher can do to help her students perform at their highest potential and is one of the best examples of a student-centered resource that I've ever seen.
It contains examples of her students' work, class handouts, class notes, class assignments, PowerPoint examples, videos, interactive links and much, much more. It didn't take me more than a few minutes to find some amazing resources that could be used in any art education program.
Another way to demonstrate your commitment to Sharing Is Caring is to share this resource with other teachers in your school. You'll be glad you did.
November 11, 2010
SMARTBoards and Sharing Is Caring - ESL
For today's Sharing Is Caring submission, I selected an incredible website create by Lauri Fried-Lee from the City College of San Francisco.
Her website, called Lauri's ESL Website, contains a wealth of ESL resources which can be used in almost any classroom setting. I was especially impressed with the Listening Activities section of her website. I have mentioned this site in a previous post but it's such an incredible example of Sharing Is Caring that it bears repeating. Lauri has many, many more activities similar to these that work great on the SMART Board and are very easy to use.
Thank you Lauri for creating such an outstanding "free" resource for ESL teachers and students! Your hard work is appreciated and you really understand the simple concept of...
Sharing is Caring!
October 23, 2010
Notebook Lesson - The Phantom Menace Review Game
A free gift to my readers...
I wanted to share a fun Smart Notebook review game to thank you for what you do in the classroom and for dedicating your life to the most important and rewarding profession in the world. I'm honored to share resources and support all teachers who love SMART Boards.
The game is a U.S. Western States and Capitals review game for two teams: The Grusome Ghosts and the Giddy Ghouls. Questions and Point Values are selected at random and the game is played until all the questions have been selected or one of the teams reaches a predetermined point total.
You can download the game here
Here's a short video showing how the game is played.
Click Here to go directly to the video.
Please use the Firefox or Chrome browser to download the file. Internet Explorer and Safari often times get confused and automatically rename the file to .zip. If that happens, you can save the file and then rename it back to .notebook.
If you want to learn how to created similar games and applications in Notebook, you can sign up to Teacher Online Training for only $7.48. The subscription is re-curring and you can cancel at anytime. We're so sure you'll love our self-paced courses that we will refund your entire payment if you're not completely satisfied with the courses. No questions asked!
The courses are online and teachers work at their own pace to create authentic lessons. Most course can be completed in only 1 to 2 hours and you can stop and start as often as you like.
Here is some additional course information if you're still not sure.
It really is the most affordable, effective, and fun way to learn how to use the Notebook software. And we have over 400 testimonials to prove it!
Sharing Is Caring!
October 14, 2010
SMARTBoard Halloween Resources
Halloween Clip Art
I have compiled an extensive collection of Halloween-related clip art so you don't have to spend time looking all over the Internet.
Games
Hangman - Fun graphics, more advanced word list. (3 stars)
Halloween Hangman - Good, simple hangman game for Halloween (3 stars)
Halloween Pairs Game - Zoomable and very easy to use (4 stars)
Halloween Word Search - Good interactive word search. Might be a little small to use (3 stars)
Stacking Pumpkins Game - Might be a fun way to reward your students (3 stars)
Halloween Math Games for K-6 - Great games courtesy of the Oswego City School District
The Hallowman House - A hangman-type game for Hallowe'en (middle / high)
PBS Kids Halloween Collection - Lots of games and activities from PBS Kids.
Spelloween - Practice your spelling by identifying correctly and incorrectly spelled words. You may want to bypass the part that asks you to type the word correctly since this is difficult to do on the SMART Board (middle / high).
Frankenbrain - Find the brain if you dare! (primary / middle)
Halloween, Halloween, What do You See? - Primary reading activity based on the famous book series (primary)
Jigsaw Puzzles
Animated Bat Jigsaw Puzzle - Fun puzzle. Works great on the SMART Board (4 stars)
Bat Jigsaw Puzzle - Another bat jigsaw puzzle created from Jigzone (3 stars)
Halloween Jigsaw Puzzle - More good puzzles created from Jigzone (3 stars)
Winnie the Pooh Jigsaw Puzzle - More good puzzles from Jigzone (3 stars)
Informational Activities
Halloween Safety Game - Fun game to play to educate your students about trick-or-treating (4 stars)
Interactive Halloween History Quiz - Nice game from the BBC (middle)
History Channel's History of Halloween - Some nice resources including videos and slideshows. (all grades)
5 Minute English - ESL History of Halloween includes vocabulary with an online Halloween quiz.
Create Your Own Activities
A Horror Movie - Create your story by picking words. You'll have to type in the words. (3 stars)
Creepy Coloring - Have fun coloring in a pumpkin (primary).
Carve a Pumpkin - The best online interactive pumpkin carving site. You'll love this! (primary)
Monster Band - Create your own band! This is a flash file that can also be inserted into Notebook.
Notebook Resources
Halloween Jokes - A Notebook file containing 10 different Halloween jokes. Lots of fun for the kids.
Wizard Spell Ordering Numbers - Have the Wizard conjure up five numbers and then use a counter-spell and place the numbers into the correct order. (Shared by Peggy DuBose)
Halloween Word Search Riddle - Who started the tradition of Halloween? (Celts)
Halloween Word Search Riddle - Where do baby ghosts go during the day? (Dayscare)
Halloween Ghost Countdown - Keep track of correct
answers using this fun Notebook countdown that announces a winner after five correct answers (4 stars)
Halloween Random Number - Generate a random number and student say whether it is less than, equal to, or greater than the late great Lucius Creven who died at the age of a hundred seven.
TeqSmart Halloween Word Bucket (Notebook Gallary item) - Create fun and interactive sorting activities, word lists, Foreign language activities, math fact reviews, and more with a Halloween theme.
Halloween Sound Files
All the sound files below are in mp3 format and can be imported in Smart Notebook
Monster Mash (song)
Next Time (fun & scary negative feedback)
Sharing Is Caring!
October 11, 2010
SMARTBoards and the Fifty Nifty States and Capitals
Today, while searching for a Geography Notebook activity to highlight on the blog, I came across a simple United States map activity that utilized the U.S. background and the U.S. State images from the Gallery. I've seen and used these Gallery objects in the past and I really like them because the images fit perfectly into the U.S. background image.
What I didn't realize was that the background image has a special built-in feature - it actually "snaps" the state images into place if they are dragged close enough to the correct location. I'm not sure how I missed that before but I think it's pretty cool.
I found a wonderful interactive activity on the SMART Exchange called 50 States - Political Map created by C. Austin and added a page where the students drag the State names on to the map. I also included a solution page. Click here to download the Notebook file.
In addition to the U.S. Notebook activity, here are some good interactive sites intended to help students practice learning their States and Capitals.
Ben's Interactive Games - Place the State
This is an outstanding resource that has two activities for placing the States in the correct location as well as one activity for placing the State Capitals.
In this resource, students touch on a State and then select one of three possible answers for the capital.
Sheppard Software - U.S. Geography Games Page
This is one of the best interactive resources for reinforcing the states and capitals. The activities range from beginner to very advanced and teachers can utilize the supporting detail when using the activities.
YouTube - Fifty Nifty United States song
Popular version of the Fifty Nifty song. You can search and watch other versions appropriate for your students.
If you have difficulties opening the Notebook file, please switch to another browser like Firefox or Chrome. Internet Explorer and Safari have difficulties recognizing .notebook files. If you have to use one of these browsers, then save the file to your computer first and make sure the file extension is .notebook and not .zip - if it's not, you'll need to rename the file and change the extension back to .notebook.
Sharing Is Caring!
October 06, 2010
SMARTBoard Games and Puzzles from Jefferson Lab
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science funds the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility also known as Jefferson Lab. Part of Jefferson Lab's mission is to "serve the nation and its communities through education and public outreach." In connection to that mission, they have developed a wonderful collection of teacher resources dedicated to Math and Science teachers.
The Online Games and Puzzles section contains so many useful interactive resources that you'll want to take some time to explore everything that they have to offer. These activities work great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.
Your students will get hooked on the "Who Wants to Win $1,000,000?" game as well as SpeedMath Deluxe. SpeedMath Deluxe presents a Math problem without any operators and the students need to select the correct operations to make the equation true.
Science teachers will love the Element Balancing and the Element Hangman activities and the Element Concentration game is really a great way to let your students have some fun at the SMART Board.
Teachers can use the interactive practice tests and select the number of questions, the type of questions, as well as the specific state standard strand (Virginia).
Please share these wonderful interactive resources with your technology department and the other Math and Science teachers in your school.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 27, 2010
SMARTBoards and Invention at Play
Looking for something fun AND educational for your SMARTBoard? Okay, that's a retorical question but it really sums up the Invention at Play site on the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (maybe the can "invent" a shorter name).
The Invention Playhouse has four flash-based interactive activities for your students to use at the SMART Board. The Cloud Dreamer activity lets students create their own cloud image and then see it float across
the sky. The Puzzle Blocks is a fun activity for manipulating shapes to create an image; Word Play lets students create and change unique stories in a fun and collaborative manner; and the Tinker Ball activity lets students move and manipulate tools to solve a simple gravity problem.
All the activities work great on the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard. If you're using Internet Explorer, I would recommend "zooming" in on the activity to make it fill the screen. If you're using Firefox browser, you'll want to use the Flash Game Maximizer Add On to have the activities fill the screen.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 21, 2010
SMARTBoards and Edheads Interactive Games and Activities
Here is a nifty site called Edheads that provides various interactive activities for your SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard.
"Edheads brings you high quality, free educational activities for your classroom. Edheads helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. We partner with various school systems in the United States, which help us research, design and test our activities every step of the way!"
I really like the Odd Machine activitiy as well as the Weather activity although your Middle School students will probably be drawn to the actual photos contained in the virtual surgery activities.
Be careful of all the ads that surround the activities.
These are flash-based resources that are a lot of fun to use on your SMART Board. When using flash-based resources, I highly recommend that you use the Firefox Internet Browser and download the Flash Game Maximizer Add-On. This handy little add-on allows you to run flash activities in full screen on your computer. This is extremely helpful when viewing the activities on an interactive whiteboard. It may not work for all flash activities but it works for the majority of them.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 20, 2010
SMARTBoard Notebook Lessons - Idioms
Here's an interactive and fun Notebook Lesson about "idioms." You can use this as a starter activity for introducing idioms in the classroom.
This lesson has three sections. The first section uses a common idiom in a sentence and the students have to choose the correct meaning. The second section gives an informational statement and then challenges students to pick the correct idiom. The last page challenges students to write their own idiom using information about Daylight Savings Time.
Here's an online activity called Eye on Idioms from the ReadWriteThink.org. It's a fantastic resource that lets the students choose the correct idiom and then asks them to reflect on the actual meaning of the phrase and then has them use it in a new sentence.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 17, 2010
Notebook Activity - Role Model
This is a fun little Notebook activity called "Role Model" that guides the student through a series of short calculations. When the students get their final answer, they use that number to determine their perfect role model.
The fun part is that no matter what number the student starts with, the result will always be the same number - nine. Since you know what the answer will be, you can place "your" name at position 9 to show that "you" are their perfect role model.
Instructions: Before using in the classroom, you will need to edit the text object on the last page and enter your name in the 9th position. To do this, you will need to move the image out of the way and then double-click on the text object that is underneath. After you finish editing the text object, place the image back over the list of names. You may also want to lock your objects when you're done and re-save the file.
You can also change the other names and add additional pictures to the main image to reflect the current trends or personal preferences as long as you don't remove Jennifer Lopez. :o)
If you have difficulties opening the file, please switch to another browser like Firefox or Chrome. Internet Explorer and Safari have difficulties recognizing .notebook files. If you have to use one of these browsers, then save the file to your computer first and make sure the file extension is .notebook and not .zip - if it's not, you'll need to rename the file and change the extension back to .notebook.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 14, 2010
SMART Boards and Tagxedo Word Cloud Generator
I am in awe of one of the latest entries into Word Cloud Generators called Tagxedo. The options for creating word clouds are simply incredible and best of all, the site makes it very easy to save your work as an image file without the need to "capture" your work.
The flash-based results are a lot of fun to use and when you are using your SMART Board, you can touch on a word to make it enlarge and come to the forefront.
Here's a word cloud image I created from the words in my post from yesterday:
The site allows you to change almost any aspect of your word cloud including font, colors, number of words, shape, orientation, etc. When you're finished, you can Save your work in various sizes and formats.
This site is spectacular but be ready to spend a little time playing around and having fun. Please share any classroom ideas you have in the comment section.
Sharing Is Caring!
February 11, 2009
SMARTBoards and the Crickweb Flash Resources
I was searching through my past blog posts and I'm quite surprised that I have not written a post about the amazing flash-based resources found on Crickweb. This site contains hundreds of quality interactive resources for
children aged 4 to 11.
For my U.S. readers, the activities are organized into three age groups: The Early Years (age 4 to 5), Key Stage 1 (age 6 to 7), and Key Stage 2 (age 8 to 11). Within each age group the activities are organized by subject area.
The basic subject areas include Math, Science, History, and Literacy. However, there are also activites for Geography, Religion Education, French, Spanish, and even Design & Technology. (Please note that since this site is from the UK, the money activities use British Currency. However, teachers from other areas should still explore these activities.)
The resources contained on this site are all interactive and very few of them require keyboard input. Best of all, all of the activities work great on the SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard since most of the activities only require students to touch or drag objects. (If you would like to download and use the Promethean Flipchart files that are available, you can import these using Notebook. Just open Notebook, select "import" from the file menu, change the file type to "All Promethean Files.")
I've included a few screen shots but the best way to find what your looking for is to browse around and play with the activities. I can promise you that you'll find something fun and exciting for your classroom!
Sharing is Caring!
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