TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jun 16, 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 go to the Featured Sites Archive
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CommonCore Sheets - Common Core Sheets
Grades
2 to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (161), decimals (96), fractions (172), measurement (122), money (157), negative numbers (17), operations (85), order of operations (20), parts of speech (49), primary sources (63), probability (86), sentences (39), time (111), timelines (46), variables (18)
In the Classroom
Find worksheets for every subject to better prepare your students for Common Core standards and testing. Use the sheets to make a formative or even summative assessment for many different topics in math. Use as a review or even practice. Provide this link on your class website for students (and parents) to find extra practice. Printable answer keys come with the worksheets. Allow students to create their own quizzes. Easy to use, grade, and share. Use for gifted students needing some acceleration. Use for extra practice with students struggling with new concepts.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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The Literacy Shed - Rob Smith
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): creative writing (102), descriptive writing (20), expository writing (23), literacy (77), reading comprehension (69), writers workshop (16), writing (300), writing prompts (66)
In the Classroom
The Literacy shed is full of ideas for writing, creating, and improving your student's critical thinking skills. There are lesson plans with explicit instructions for writing. The high quality resources found here can be used as "stand alone" lessons or can be an introduction to a unit. Look to see if there is one to support a unit you already use. Here is an idea: after viewing one of your favorite picture books via video, and completing some of the suggested activities, have students bring in their favorite picture book and create activities similar to those found on The Literacy Shed. They could also create a video either with pictures from the book or by creating their own pictures and narrating the story. Be sure students use proper citation if posting them on TeacherTube, reviewed here, or another online program. Not finding your favorite book on The Literacy Shed? See if you can find a YouTube or Vimeo video and create your own lesson from a model at The Literacy Shed.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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JogLab - JogLab
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): parts of speech (49), sentences (39)
In the Classroom
Introduce acrostic poems with this tool by building one together on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Demonstrate and use the mnemonic tool on a projector or interactive whiteboard to create an easy way for students to remember a sequence of terms or concepts. After the class has used it together, provide a link to this tool on your class website. Have students create their own mnemonics in small groups and vote on the best as a class. Learning support teachers will want to make this a routine tool for their students to use when reviewing for tests.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Map Tales - hackfarm
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): digital storytelling (69), map skills (47), maps (198), timelines (46)
In the Classroom
Create map-based stories in social studies class, showing different places, teaching geography and history together. Assign students in math or family consumer science the role of travel agents to plan vacations, including the costs of the trip. Create stories about historical sites in your local area, including images taken with digital cameras, artifacts from your local historical society, links to newspaper articles, or video/audio interviews of older residents telling about old times. As you study community or landforms in your elementary class, create map-based stories with annotations of a local map, showing examples of landforms and local community landmarks with digital pictures. Allow older students to use the site independently or in small groups. Map-stories are also ideal as a product for individual research projects. Have world language students create maps explaining cultural aspects of the language or the origins of the language. Have students plot a trip or write an imaginary story of their dream trip to Spain, Mexico, France, Germany, etc.. Literature settings can take on new meaning when your students annotate them on a map. Have students map a story using the landmarks of an author's life and/or the locations in his/her novels. Trace the path of a famous person's biography or annotate a famous painter's works, using links to the images from the places shown in landscapes. The "story" of a work of art can include critical analysis, as well. Create a story from anything that has a place. Have students map family trips or important places in family history. Share the maps with parents!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Curriculum Corner - Jill McEldowney and Cathy Henry
Grades
K to 5This site includes advertising.
tag(s): addition (182), back to school (17), behavior (34), biographies (32), charts and graphs (161), commoncore (44), data (119), division (113), elections (64), guided reading (22), literacy (77), magnetism (20), money (157), multiplication (160), narrative (22), organizational skills (54), plants (88), poetry (195), problem solving (150), readers theater (9), reading strategies (23), rocks (37), subtraction (146), time (111), writers workshop (16)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a lesson resource throughout the year. This is a great site to peruse over the summer or use for back to school planning. Use this site to learn more about Common Core. Print the "I Can" checklists for use in student folders as part of your yearly assessment. Send a copy home to parents so that they see the yearly standards and goals for each subject.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sound Bible - SoundBible.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use Sound Bible to find short sound clips for use in presentations, videos, or interactive whiteboard lessons. In primary grades, play sounds as cues for classroom management, such as bird sounds to gather "at the nest" for circle time. Use sound clips as story or journal starter ideas. Play a clip and have students create a story that incorporates that sound. Take your students on an audio tour of the rainforest as you learn about the various animals and sounds. Use this site during units about weather to share sounds from storms, wind, thunder, and more. Explore ocean sounds, animals sounds, etc. Use in world language classes to spark conversations and build vocabulary. Play background sounds during creative writing class. Challenge students to write about how the sounds make them feel. Challenge gifted or digitally-clever students to use these sounds to create an all-audio story to accompany a drawing or image. Use a tool such as Brainshark, -reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OhLife - OhLife, Inc.
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): creative writing (102), journals (13)
In the Classroom
OhLife is a great site to motivate your students to write more. It can be a journal of their learning experiences, their life, or both. Daily email prompts can be sent to the students at the end of the day for WILT: What I Learned Today. Use a classroom account and have students take turns reflecting on the school day. If registering students individually, read tips for safely managing email registrations here. Provide students a private opportunity to reflect on their day. Students can share individual posts or create a summary of their reflections when comfortable. Have students "dig" back through their entries to write personal memoirs. Posts are always private, but you can share the text on a blog or social networking site with the download option. Create a class "book" highlighting some favorite lessons, funny stories, field trips, photos, and more. Share the book with the class at the end of the year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shape Rotate - Sums Math
Grades
4 to 6In the Classroom
Use Shape Rotate on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to review and practice degrees and rotation of angles. Discuss different strategies for choosing degrees of rotation within a pattern. Use this site as a model and have students create their own pattern and rotations for other students to solve.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Climate Commons - Earth Journalism Network
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): climate (87), climate change (44)
In the Classroom
Use the data and geotagged stories to understand more about climate change. Create multimedia (podcast, video, blog, wiki, etc.) or conventional products (poster or bulletin board) to explain the basics of climate change. Click on different dots on the map to view specific stories that are being published there. Compare the tone and substance of the different articles found in each of the areas. Are there certain regions that are more skeptical (or less) about this issue? Have students select a story to research in terms of its local implications at that location, such as a story about fracking in the Marcellus Shale region. Civics/government classes can use this site to trace political issues, news, and related policy initiatives related to climate change.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quotesome - Quotesome.com
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): famous people (15), quotations (16), writing prompts (66)
In the Classroom
Use the site to have a quote of the day (or week) for your interactive whiteboard, projector, or class web page. Share the site with students to use when in need of a quote for classroom projects or writing ideas. Find writing prompt quotes based on a search term. In literature or social studies classes, look at the list of quotes by an author or famous person. Invite students to create online posters (or traditional bulletin boards) about the author/person using selected quotes. Have students or groups collect ideas and findings using Padlet, reviewed here. The Padlet application creates free, online bulletin boards of "sticky notes." Create a whole class account to collect your favorite quotes throughout the year. You will find that certain quotes will recall entire class discussions! For ready-made quotes for your class bulletin boards, don't miss TeachersFirst's Bulletin Board Hangups.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World War 2 Pictures in Color - WebCurl, Inc.
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1930s (8), 1940s (9), hitler (8), images (165), world war 2 (128)
In the Classroom
View images on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as primary sources for World War 2 information. Share a few images a day during your unit about the war. Use these online images to show WWII veterans and spark conversations in face to face interviews. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a World War 2 event, soldier, or Commander after viewing and discussing the site's images. Be sure to discuss acceptable use policies and how to give credit when using images found on the Internet. To find Creative Commons images for student projects (with credit, of course), try Compfight, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Question Generator - Department of Education, Victoria
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): questioning (23)
In the Classroom
Use the Question Generator along with any fiction or nonfiction reading to help your students think more deeply. Use as a starting point in research projects. With the Common Core State Standards and their focus on close reading, rigor, and critical thinking, this is the perfect tool to use to make sure you are challenging your students. Introduce students to this tool when they need to create essential questions for their research, or when developing questions for their literature circle group. Learning support students can gain practice thinking beyond the "facts" by creating and talking through their own questions. Before you start, generate a list of key words from the unit: terms such as arachnids or homeostasis or names of historic figures, so they can then insert the terms into the question starters from the generator. Your interactive whiteboard or projector would be an ideal place to generate some questions together before turning students loose to generate some of their own. Be sure to record/save the list of questions you create on a class wiki or blog-- or even on old fashioned butcher paper as students go off to resolve them. Revisit the questions late in the unit to see which are still unresolved. Ask the class which question would make the best essay question on the final "test." Maybe allow them to choose their own? In world language classes, these simple questions could lead to practice with dialog.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Writer Igniter - Gabriela Pereira
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): creative writing (102), writers workshop (16), writing prompts (66)
In the Classroom
Engage students using the Writer Igniter for any creative writing assignment or to help them think about story patterns as you brainstorm as a class to generate a story outline. Click shuffle and let the fun begin! Use the Igniter for all members of a class to begin with the same scenario or allow students to shuffle their own story starter. Have students use Page Flip-Flap (reviewed here) to turn their Word documents, PDFs, and images into an online book. There is even a page-turning effect! Share articles from Writer Igniter to teach writing skills, or assign students to read and share information from articles with classmates. World language students could write tales in their new language.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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3D Toad - TechTol Imaging
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1700s (11), body systems (44), chemicals (26), civil war (115), coral (15), dance (22), dental health (18), dissection (9), elements (32), fossils (40), rocks (37)
In the Classroom
Use 3D Toad as a visual glossary on classroom computers. Have students visit this "visual glossary" center to explore objects and new vocabulary that they are learning. View and examine objects together on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Choose an area/topic that relates to what you are learning about in class. Have each student choose an object from that area to observe and explore to heighten observation skills. Challenge students to create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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