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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!
August 22, 2011
SMARTBoard and Starfall - A Perfect Combination
Learning To Read.
Teachers know that learning to read and learning to enjoy reading is one of the most important skills for Pre-K through 2nd Grade students. Trying to locate high quality reading resources for the SMART Board classroom can be very frustrating. In addition, too many interactive sites are riddled with advertisements or are too costly to use for the average teacher. The answer for many teachers is Starfall.
After all these years, Starfall continues to be the leader in providing high quality and engaging reading activities that work great on the SMART Board. Not only that, students will love being able to use the same activities and resources at home.
If you're a primary school teacher, you should really get the word out to all your parents about this site. One of the best things about Starfall is that it is free of advertising. Advertising is becoming a huge concern for teachers looking for online resources and Starfall has done a great job avoiding this educational pitfall. Instead of placing advertisments all over their site, Starfall created an affordable membership area containing additional resources.
Starfall has a lot of little extras including a complete Scope and Sequence Listing to help teachers identify which reading unit to use. It provides a detailed description of each story (unit) and summarizes the unit objective and provides detailed information and print resource links for each activity.
To get you started, here are a couple quick links to some fun activities on the Starfall site:
* Let's Make a Calendar (perfect for Back-To-School activity)
* Word Hunt - I just love this activity that lets the student choose a descriptive word and an action to word to complete sentences and complete a short interactive story.
Sharing Is Caring!
March 30, 2011
January 04, 2011
SMARTBoards and Between the Lions on PBS Kids
It's really easy to have some fun with the SMART Board and get the kids involved in new and exciting ways. However, sometimes it's difficult for teachers to know where to start.
Here's one of my favorite interactive websites for children aged 3 to 7 to help them with their reading and writing. It's called Between the Lions and it's based on the PBS television show with the same name. It's really an incredible site that contains games, videos, stories, printables, downloadable music, and much, much more.
Here is their description:
Between the Lions is designed to help kids ages 3 to 7 learn to read. Unique among the hundreds of programs aimed at children, this puppet, animated, and live-action show is based on a detailed and rigorous literacy curriculum. It was developed in extensive and ongoing consultation with reading professionals. The result is a lively, educational blend of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and other teaching methods for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students. Several independent, scientifically-based reading research studies have shown that Between the Lions has a significant impact in increasing children's literacy.
You can also view the site contents here.
I'm excited to make 2011 the best year of "Sharing Is Caring" yet and I hope you will too. Please let the other teachers in your school know about this amazing resource.
Sharing Is Caring!
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 01, 2010
SMARTBoards and Spell a Picture
Awesome! This is the best word to describe all the wonderful activites on the Kerpoof website. I've recommended this site once before and I'm happy to report that it keeps getting better.
I've been utilizing a new activity they have call Spell a Picture. It's such an incredible learning tool for the classroom and it's highly engaging. Your students will be begging to come to the SMART Board to spell out words.
As the student begins spelling out a word by touching one of the letters, different pictures appear on the page that begin with that letter. As the student touches more letters, pictures become larger if they are being spelled correctly. Students can click and drag a letter to remove it if they make a mistake.
When they spell a word correctly, an arrow points to a picture to let them know that they can add it to the page. Once they add a word, they can move it around the page. You can even spell some action words like "chat" and "sing" to provide some action from the characters on the page.
Teachers can use this activity in many different ways and it works great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. The website is free to use although they have some membership options that might be appealing to some teachers.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 28, 2010
SMARTBoards and The Magic Key
The BBC has a wonderful interactive site called The Magic Key based on the Oxford Reading Tree learning program. The site contains nine literacy "adventures" for children that all work great with the SMARTBoard Interactive Whiteboard.
The Magic Key website is aimed at children aged 5-6 years and follows the TV programmes in which Kipper, Biff, Chip, Wilf, Wilma and Floppy go off on their adventures.
Each adventure contains an online interactive activity, a corresponding worksheet, and a teacher resource section that describes how to use the resource and provides curriculum key skill information.
I now you'll enjoy these simple but highly engaging activities inside your classroom.
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 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 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!
September 13, 2010
Notebook Lessons - Writing and Spelling
These two amazing Notebook lessons for the SMART Board were created by two amazing teachers, Becky Arnett and Sherri Fricker. These two lessons are very special to me because each one utilized techniques found in the courses from Teacher Online Training. As a matter of fact, Becky's "Writing Prompts" lesson was the grand prize winner of the SMART Exchange Contest Challenge.
Becky and Sherri went way beyond the techniques found in the online courses and each one created a lesson that made my jaw drop.
Becky's lesson is called Random Writing Prompts:
Use the random selectors to choose writing prompts for kids writing assignments. Reluctant writers love to use this tool to come up with a writing idea. Topics include citizenship, favorite things, remember a time when... and many others.
Click here to download
Sherri's lesson is called Spelling Bee:
Students can practice their spelling words by "typing" them on this keyboard. The keyboard is sensitive and doesn't like the wrong keys to be pressed.
Click here to download
Thank you Becky and Sherri! Your creative abilities are simply awesome!
Sharing Is Caring!
April 21, 2010
SMARTBoard and eflnet ESL and EFL Resources
The eflnet ESL and EFL Resource page has an amazing collection of Language Arts review activities designed for TOEFL preparation. These interactive review activities are fantastic assessment tools in any classroom.
I can think of a myriad of uses for these resources including using them as a quick starter activity. When used with the SMART Board, they can definitely help to increase engagement while assessing student understanding.
The activities are mostly multiple-choice review questions that provide instant audio and visual feedback although some activities require keyboard input. Most of the review activities in each topic area go from beginner to advanced and most activity groups contain 10 questions.
I used something similar in my classroom when playing "last one standing." It was a review activity that I did half way through a block session to assess understanding. I created two teams and each team would take turns answering a series of 10 questions. When one member of a team missed, someone else from the other team would continue. When the 10 review questions were complete, the team that was standing got 10 bonus points. We would then begin the next set of questions. This game would have been even better if I had a SMART Board in my classroom at the time.
Firefox users can use the Flash Game Maximizer Add-on to remove the ads and make the activities fit on the entire SMART Board.
Sharing Is Caring!
the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software
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April 15, 2010
SMARTBoard and Phonemic Processing With Word Builder
One of the best ways of testing online resources to see if they will work well with SMART Board equipped classrooms is to put it through the "Wesley" test. Wesley is my four year old son and he loves to play on my office SMART Board.
He is learning to read and spell and I was looking for an activity that would pronounce a word and then challenge the user to spell it. It took me only a few minutes to find the Phonemic Processing With Word Building activity from the Room 108 Primary Kids Education Site.
This is a flash-based application that does a very good job letting early learners explore and play independently. The application uses audio to say a word and the students have to drag and drop the correct letters into the spaces provided. Each time they touch a letter it makes the letter sound. They can also touch the "Speak Again" button to hear the word repeated as often as they need. After a few tries, Wesley was on his own and he never looked back.
This site has five levels that will begin automatically or you can start independently on any level. The goal is to get 10 correct answers. If you do, you'll move to the next level. It's simple, but it's effective.
You'll find additional activities on the main Room 108 site that also work great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. They even have a "SmartBoard" category.
Sharing Is Caring!
the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software
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April 12, 2010
SMARTBoard and Spin & Spell
The interactive spelling site called Spin & Spell is an incredibly engaging spelling activity that works great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.
While it can be used in any of the primary grades to enhance the curriculum, it would be especially effective in the ESL classroom since it has an image and pronunciation accompanying each word.
You begin using Spin & Spell by clicking on one of the five categories: What We Wear, What We Eat, How We Get There, The Animal Kingdom, and In And Around Home. Each category contains a page containing images of various objects relating to that category.
Students can select one of the pictures to spell or they can have Spin & Spell choose a word for them. To spell the word, students touch on the correct letter in the wheel. Each time students select a letter, the game will say the letter out loud. To check if the word is spelled correctly, students touch the "Submit" button. The game will also show the correct spelling and the corresponding picture when students touch on the "Show Me The Word" button.
I like the idea of playing this in teams where one team gets to select which word the other team will spell. I hope you'll share this amazing resource with the other teachers in your school. It's a winner!
Sharing Is Caring!
the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software
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March 09, 2010
SMARTBoards and LITERACY at The Children's University
I love when I find interactive resources for Language Arts that work great on the SMART Board.
This morning I was looking for some interactive resources for describing adjectives and I came across an activity called the Adjective Detective.
This is a wonderful interactive lesson that reviews the different types of adjectives and then allows students to check their understanding by taking a quiz or playing a game. The activity works great on a SMART Board, especially when displayed in full screen mode.
Upon further investigation, I found that this activity is part of The Children's University of Manchester website provided by the University of Manchester.
In addition to the Adjective Detective, the Literacy section has some great activities including a World Language Map, a word origin activity, and a wonderful interactive activity for learning about idioms.
You can view all the activities in full screen. However, the full screen option did not work in Firefox on my system so I had to use the Flash Game Maximizer add-on. The full screen option worked fine when using the Internet Explorer browser. Sharing Is Caring!
the most effective, affordable, and fun way to learn how to use the SMART Notebook software
December 07, 2009
SMARTBoards and e-Learning for Kids
One of my very first blog posts talked about the non-profit e-learning site called e-Learning for Kids. That was over two years ago! I'm happy to say that this amazing website is still around and is only getting better.
I didn't really say too much about this site on that initial blog post...I didn't need to. It doesn't take long to realize what an amazing resource this is for the SMART Board classroom. The site contains over 100 courses covering Math, Science, Computer Skills, Language Arts, and English.
In addition, the site contains over 50 courses in Health and Life Skills. The courses in this area range from understanding how the body works to understanding things like depression, bullying, and preventing diseases. It is by far the most comprehensive collection of activities for learning and understanding about the human condition.
The age-level for the courses ranges from 4 to 12 years old and the design of almost all the courses was done with Interactive Whiteboards in mind. It is truly a pleasure to see such wonderful educational content on the Internet free of advertising.
Firefox users should look into using the Flash Game Maximizer add-on to help enlarge the flash activities so they fill your entire SMART Board.
Sharing Is Caring!
October 08, 2009
SMARTBoards and Punctuation Campground
I love the site from Harcourt School Publishers called Punctuation Campground. Very few online Language Arts sites dealing with proper punctuation can be used effectively on the SMART Board. However, Punctuation Campground does not require any keyboard input, it's easy to navigate, and it provides great feedback and reference material to help both the student and the teacher.
In the activity, a sentence is presented for the student. The student then has to determine what punctuation to add to the sentence to make it correct.
To enter the punctuation, students touch where they want to enter some punctuation and then they touch on the punctuation types listed below the sentence. If they need to move the cursor, they can touch on arrows to place the cursor exactly where they want.
The activity has a hint button that shows where punctuation needs to go but does not tell the student what punctuation is required. Also, below the activity are links to a glossary where students can learn when to use the correct punctuation.
I really like this activity and it can be used at almost any grade level.
Why not test your punctuation prowess before using in the classroom.
Sharing Is Caring!
October 02, 2009
Smartboards and Food and Water Donations
Can using your SMART Board help end hunger? That's an interesting question and the answer is that we call all do our part to help in this world crisis.
However, one organization called FreeRice has a fun website that, along with your SMART Board, involves you in the process of donating food to people in need.
The FreeRice website tests your knowledge of various subjects including Vocabulary, Grammar, Foreign Language, Geography, Art, Chemistry, and Mathematics.
For every correct answer you get, FreeRice will donate 10 grains of rice on your behalf to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP).
FreeRice does not make any money from this. "FreeRice is a website
committed to the cause of ending hunger around the world. It is run
entirely for free and at no profit. All money (100%) raised by the site
goes to the UN World Food Program to help feed the hungry. Sponsors
make all payments to the UN World Food Program directly"
Another, more dubious, website called FreePoverty claims to donate cups of water on your behalf based on how well you can locate various places on a world map. The website works great on the SMART Board and the kids will love seeing how many cups of water they can donate.
With this being said, I cannot find any legitimate sources that verify that this site is actually donating any water. Despite this fact, it's a fun challenge for the kids and maybe you can use the donation amounts that kids accumulate and create your own donation program within your school.
For example, for every cup of water that the children score, the school will donate 1 cent toward world hunger. The school could run a week-long challenge with the classrooms on who can accumulate more cups of water. At the end of the week, the school makes a donation on behalf of the classrooms that participated. Not only would this be fun and educational, it would help teach children about social responsibility.
Both of these sites offer a unique and engaging way to test your knowledge. I enjoy both sites and I highly recommend them for use in the classroom. You can find out more about both of these website by going to their FAQ (frequently asked questions) page.
Sharing Is Caring!
September 22, 2009
SMARTBoards and WordAhead Vocabulary Review
The WordAhead site allows you to choose from hundreds of words to review in video format. Each video uses graphics, text, and audio to describe the word, give it's definition, and present the word in various contextual situations to provide a deeper understanding of the word. You can also view the videos in fullscreen which is great for displaying on the SMARTBoard.
Perhaps what impresses me the most is that WordAhead is promoting the idea of students making their own videos and uploading them to their Video section. If the video passes the review process it will be incorporated into the list of words in the Study Room. This really sounds like a great project to do with your students and I think that using Smart Notebook would be a great tool to use in creating the videos.
The WordAhead site has an extensive YouTube Channel and they also allow you to embed vocabulary videos in your blog (see below).
Sharing Is Caring!
September 18, 2009
SMART Boards and ReadWriteThink Interactive Student Materials
One of the best websites for finding K-12 Language Arts lesson plans and high quality web-based activities is ReadWriteThink.
On their site, they also have a section called Student Materials which contains a great library of interactive activities. When you click on the activity name, you go to a page that links to the activity and provides a list of lesson plans that utilize the interactive resource.
Most of the activities require data input since they focus on writing skills. These activities are still extremely useful to present and use on the SMART Board although you'll probably require an actual keyboard to enter in the data.
The Student Materials section contains some very good activities that do not require keyboard input except to enter in the student or teacher name at the beginning.
ABC Match
ABC Match is a game that has students practice letter-recognition fluency while honing their memories. Students match initial letters with pictures, playing either with a timer or without.Construct-a-Word
Using Construct-a-Word, students generate words by adding a beginning letter or blend to a word ending. This engaging tool helps students with letter-sound correspondence.Picture Match
Picture Match is a matching game that reinforces the concept of beginning-letter and short- and long-vowel sounds by prompting students to identify a series of pictures and match them to the first letter or the vowel in the words they represent.
Enjoy these great activities and remember...
Sharing is Caring!
September 02, 2009
SMARTBoards and Interactive Reading for K-5
I would like to share with you a collection of interactive stories for students aged 5 to 10 that was gathered together by the Oak Street Elementary School in Plattsburgh, NY. This is a fantastic example of how a school can provide easy access to wonderful interactive sites that work great on the SMART Board.
I really had a lot of fun going through all of the links. I only found one or two links that were not active anymore.
To use these sites, you'll also need a good speaker system hooked up to your computer (or Smartboard) so the students can hear the story.
If you receive updates from Teachers Love SMART Boards via email, it only takes a few seconds to forward the email to other teachers in your school that may have an interest in the information. If you don't already subscribe to Teachers Love SMART Boards via email, you can enter your email address below and then click Subscribe.
Let's make this year the year of...
Sharing is Caring!
May 12, 2009
SMART Boards and a Message from the Mayor of SpellingCity
I recently received a message from the Mayor of SpellingCity about some of the changes they've made to their already beautiful community. I definitely rate SpellingCity one of the best places to live if you want to practice your spelling.
SpellingCity recently won the honor of being "SMART Board Ready" as they've revamped all of their activities to work by touching or dragging objects. They're also in the process of revising all their games so they can be displayed in full-screen!
Check out what SpellingCity offers when people come to visit:
- Over 42,000 spelling words and ten spelling games!
- A REAL person who says each vocabulary word and sentence
- Free home pages for teachers and parents so they can save their lists.
- How To Videos to explain to teachers and parents how to use SpellingCity.com.
- A free forum and newsletter with more spelling resources!
- A REAL person who says each vocabulary word and sentence
- Free home pages for teachers and parents so they can save their lists.
- How To Videos to explain to teachers and parents how to use SpellingCity.com.
- A free forum and newsletter with more spelling resources!
- Ten spelling and vocabulary games to play online or to print.
After taking the online spelling test, students can print out a report, retake the entire test, or get tested only on spelling words that they got wrong the first time.
TeachMe spells and displays the word in ways that stimulate memory for visual and verbal learners.
Printable Games include WordSearch, UnScramble, WhichWord?, Sentence UnScramble and MissingLetter.
Printable Handwriting Worksheets
for combined spelling and handwriting practice can be created from any
saved list (this feature only works if the list is saved). Choices
includes three sizes of lines, capitals or small letters, script or
cursive, and with directional arrows on or off. How cool is that?
Teachers: try our new SpellingCity Parent Newsletter, available as PDFs for you to print and send home with your students' spelling word lists.
Here's a link to a fun tourist destination called MatchIt. You can display this site in full screen so it's more engaging when using the SMART Board.
I was very excited to take a trip back to SpellingCity and see all the wonderful improvements. Teachers, please let your students know that SpellingCity is a wonderful vacation destination during the Summer.
Sharing is Caring!
March 19, 2009
SMARTBoards and Studying in a "Flash"
Here's a wonderful resource for your SMART Board called Flashcard DB. This site allows teachers to build a set of flash cards in a matter of a few minutes or use one of the thousands pre-made flashcards. I actually created an account (optional if you want to build your own set of flashcards) and built my first set of literary review flashcards in under five minutes.
Once you've chosen the flashcard set you wish to use, you can go through the flashcards in review mode or study mode. If you go through in study mode, you're given a cool feedback page showing how many questions you answered correctly.
The flashcards work great on a SMART Board and provide teachers with another powerful new tool for the classroom. I should also mention that FlashcardDB allows you to print your flashcards and even formats the print page to make it very easy to cut the cards into even pieces.
A great way to start building a flashcard library is to have your students create their own set of flashcards. This would be such a great homework assignment and students are a lot more engaged in the learning process when they take a more active role in it. Once the students create a set of flashcards, you can export and import their work into your account in a few easy steps or just bookmark the links to their set of flashcards. Flashcard DB really makes exporting and importing the flashcard data easy!
Once again, don't forget to share this resource with the other teachers in your school. It's a winner!
Another big thanks to Mr. Byrne over at Free Technology for Teachers for sharing this wonderful resource with his readers!
Sharing is Caring!
March 18, 2009
SMART Boards and an Amazing ESL Website
Sometimes I get frustrated when I find great websites for the SMART Board but they're blanketed in advertisements. To me it's very sad when people develop wonderful learning activities to share but feel it's okay to place huge advertisements on the same page that children will be using.
One solution is to find websites developed by educators who simply want to help students learn as opposed to making $50 a month through annoying product placement.
This morning I found a great website called Lauri's ESL Website developed by an educator with 35 years experience teaching ESL. Here name is Lauri Fried-Lee from the City College of San Francisco. Her website contains a wealth of ESL resources and most all of them work great on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. I was especially impressed with the Listening Activities section of her website.
Pictured below are screenshots of two separate listening activities. In the first one, students click to hear a short conversation and then they answer a few questions about what they just heard. The second activity has students listen to a sentence and then place the correct picture in the box corresponding the word they hear in the sentence.
Pictured below are screenshots of two separate listening activities. In the first one, students click to hear a short conversation and then they answer a few questions about what they just heard. The second activity has students listen to a sentence and then place the correct picture in the box corresponding the word they hear in the sentence.
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! If you like Lauri's website, why not send her a thank you email to let her know!
Sharing is Caring!
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