Interactive-Road to the Whitehouse

Scholastic has done it again!  Here is an amazing resource that reminds me of an infographic, except that it is interactive.  As you scroll down the page, the "campaign vehicle" drives down the road and pop-ups appear that explain each step from the Campaign Kickoff to the Inauguration.  

Quizizz

Do you like Kahoot?  I LOVE Kahoot, but I was running into an issue (especially with math) with my kids running out of time before they could select an answer.  Kahoot has a maximum time limit of 120 seconds.  Now, one suggestion that the help desk at Kahoot suggests is to make a copy of each question and insert it BEFORE the scored question.  This is a bit much for me, so I decided to look into some alternatives.  Quizizz has become my new favorite.  Quizizz has a bank of member-created assessments, but it has features that Kahoot lacks.  First of all, you can set the time limit to 15 minutes.  Second of all, it is self-paced.  Students move on to the next question once they answer the one they are currently on.  Finally, you can create quiz and give it as homework with a window of time to complete the quiz.  

Do students need an account?  Nope! Just like with Kahoot, students go to the site and enter the code to play :)

Kiddle Search Engine

Kiddle is a safe and kid-friendly visual search engine powered by Google.  This is a much better alternative to "Googling" for our younger students.

Post-It Speech and Thought Bubbles

Sometimes when we are reading a book in class with great illustrations, I'll put a post-it with a speech or thought bubble in the book so that the students can infer what the character is thinking or saying.  I made some templates...feel free to use them :)

Speech Bubble https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SsbSy9Hn82cmI4ZW1pYlBxSFU/view?usp=sharing

Thought Bubble  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7SsbSy9Hn82LTJFRkR3czFRSGM/view?usp=sharing

Science Snacks

We all know that students learn best when they combine "hands-on" with "minds-on" activities.  Sometimes, however, planning those hands-on experiences can be daunting.  Exploratorium takes the work out of planning simple science experiments.  These science "snacks" are organized by standards, topics, and alphabetically.

Analogies

Research supports the importance of being able to make comparisons with sound reasoning.  An article on Teachervision articulates this point. Listed below are three free apps for learners to begin practicing with analogies.

The user of this app will begin to build their understanding of relationships between concepts (words, shapes, etc.) 64 total analogies are included with this free app.

A 2nd version of the above mentioned app.

This version of the analogy app focuses on word analogies.

Pick-A-Path

Pick-A-Path

The Pick-A-Path app is an app that has been created by the NCTM.  The user chooses a path through different operations with the goal of reaching the target total.  This is great for building mathematical and reasoning skills.  As the levels go up, the game increases in difficulty.