It's hard to know how kids are going to be impacted by this week's natural disaster in southeast Asia. Maybe they were too distracted with Christmas, new toys, and vacation to even notice. Or maybe they saw the videos over and over again on CNN because they happened to be home. On the chance that the subject might come up in a classroom, I offer these two sites for kids, both meant to help them understand how tsunamis happen.
The first - from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who maintain a great site for kids. This information, in storybook format, is based on the tsunamis that hit Hawaii. It explains what a tsunami is and leads the reader through the warning procedure that's in place in countries bordering the Pacific. The illustrations are very kid-friendly. As well as explaining this natural occurance, this might serve to reassure some of those kids who we know are worriers. Tsumani Warning at http://www.fema.gov/kids/tsunami_w.htm.
This next one is from a PBS site. It has a three-part animated clip that shows how the ocean floor can shift causing the water above to do the same and then materialize into a tsunami as it gets closer to shore. This animation can be replayed as you explain how the tsunami happened. The site - Savage Earth-Waves of Destruction found at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/animations/tsunami/index.html
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
new year = new sites
Happy New Year and welcome to 2005 - almost! Here's a site for background information on how the New Year is celebrated around the world. New Year's Traditions at http://mn.essortment.com/newyearsevetr_rllr.htm
Recycle all those Christmas cards while giving your students authentic work with math skills. Careful measuring and folding (and following written directions) will produce the niftiest little boxes - lids and all. Bet they can't make just one! Greeting Card Boxes with directions in .pdf format will automatically download in Adobe Acrobat from http://www.exploratorium.com/math_explorer/greeting_card.pdf.
This might make an interesting reason to reflect and write: have your students compose a Ten Year Letter, to be opened and read in ten years! Content of the letter could be customized according to your own or your students' criteria. And you wouldn't necessarily have to mail them out in ten years - parents could hold them for their children. Details of this project can be found at this very long URL - http://familyfun.go.com/parties/holiday/feature/famf129newyear/famf129newyear2.html
Recycle all those Christmas cards while giving your students authentic work with math skills. Careful measuring and folding (and following written directions) will produce the niftiest little boxes - lids and all. Bet they can't make just one! Greeting Card Boxes with directions in .pdf format will automatically download in Adobe Acrobat from http://www.exploratorium.com/math_explorer/greeting_card.pdf.
This might make an interesting reason to reflect and write: have your students compose a Ten Year Letter, to be opened and read in ten years! Content of the letter could be customized according to your own or your students' criteria. And you wouldn't necessarily have to mail them out in ten years - parents could hold them for their children. Details of this project can be found at this very long URL - http://familyfun.go.com/parties/holiday/feature/famf129newyear/famf129newyear2.html
Sunday, December 12, 2004
we need a little Christmas, right this very minute...
Only two more weeks 'til the Big Day! With that in mind, here are a few of many holiday links online. If you have others to share, please do! Post them as comments below!
Let's start with December holidays in other lands. This link is to the Multi-Cultural Calendar, a project by the Global Schoolhouse folks. Have your students read accounts of celebrations in other lands by the very children who experience them. The calendar is also searchable by month, by holiday and by country - a good resource even when it's not holiday time here! December Holidays can be found at http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/MCC/.
You know how fascinated kids are with other languages? Visit this site for audio files of voices the world over wishing holiday greetings. There's also the written greeting as well. The Voices of Christmas at http://www.holidays.net/christmas/voices.htm. Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! (that's Gaelic...and not found on this site. I got it from Brain Boost - see last post!)
Looking for a new and different Christmas story for your older students? Preview this one - a tale about the origin of Comet and how he happened to become part of Santa's team. It's fiction, I think...The Fifth Reindeer at http://www.soubly.net/Fifth/fifth1.htm.
And here are some stories for the younger set. Elves in Santa's Workshop are making lots of toys and there are stories to go along with each one. Kids can opt to read the story themselves or have it read online to them. There's even an option to print out pages to color. Wait, there's more! Reindeer stories in the Reindeer Barn, Mrs. Claus's stories in the Kitchen...just click around! Stories from The North Pole - http://www.northpole.com/Workshop/. Ho, ho, ho!
At History.org, a historical researcher from Colonial Williamsburg recounts how Christmas was celebrated in colonial Virginia. Interesting that it wasn't a great time for kids! Click http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/xmas/customs.cfm for Colonial Christmas Customs.
Here's a holiday feature where students can design their own TIME For Kids magazine covers. Student choose from pictures posted on the site, compose the headlines (within the space constraints of the online program - using critical thinking!), and write up their own "Top 5" list. Click and the cover magically appears as the student designed it! Print and use the cover as a tie to student writing, having kids write the articles to accompany their headlines! Holiday News Mag-o-Matic available at http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/articles/0,6709,880208,00.html.
Last, here's an online version of that favorite Christmas story, The Night Before Christmas. There's a page for each section of the story with arrows for kids to advance from one page to the next. Too bad the link to have the story read aloud is broken. Victorian illustrations accompany each page.....hey, they look oddly like the ones that were in my Little Golden Book version way back when! The Night Before Christmas at http://www.childrenstory.com/christmas/b41.html.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!
Let's start with December holidays in other lands. This link is to the Multi-Cultural Calendar, a project by the Global Schoolhouse folks. Have your students read accounts of celebrations in other lands by the very children who experience them. The calendar is also searchable by month, by holiday and by country - a good resource even when it's not holiday time here! December Holidays can be found at http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/MCC/.
You know how fascinated kids are with other languages? Visit this site for audio files of voices the world over wishing holiday greetings. There's also the written greeting as well. The Voices of Christmas at http://www.holidays.net/christmas/voices.htm. Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! (that's Gaelic...and not found on this site. I got it from Brain Boost - see last post!)
Looking for a new and different Christmas story for your older students? Preview this one - a tale about the origin of Comet and how he happened to become part of Santa's team. It's fiction, I think...The Fifth Reindeer at http://www.soubly.net/Fifth/fifth1.htm.
And here are some stories for the younger set. Elves in Santa's Workshop are making lots of toys and there are stories to go along with each one. Kids can opt to read the story themselves or have it read online to them. There's even an option to print out pages to color. Wait, there's more! Reindeer stories in the Reindeer Barn, Mrs. Claus's stories in the Kitchen...just click around! Stories from The North Pole - http://www.northpole.com/Workshop/. Ho, ho, ho!
At History.org, a historical researcher from Colonial Williamsburg recounts how Christmas was celebrated in colonial Virginia. Interesting that it wasn't a great time for kids! Click http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/xmas/customs.cfm for Colonial Christmas Customs.
Here's a holiday feature where students can design their own TIME For Kids magazine covers. Student choose from pictures posted on the site, compose the headlines (within the space constraints of the online program - using critical thinking!), and write up their own "Top 5" list. Click and the cover magically appears as the student designed it! Print and use the cover as a tie to student writing, having kids write the articles to accompany their headlines! Holiday News Mag-o-Matic available at http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/articles/0,6709,880208,00.html.
Last, here's an online version of that favorite Christmas story, The Night Before Christmas. There's a page for each section of the story with arrows for kids to advance from one page to the next. Too bad the link to have the story read aloud is broken. Victorian illustrations accompany each page.....hey, they look oddly like the ones that were in my Little Golden Book version way back when! The Night Before Christmas at http://www.childrenstory.com/christmas/b41.html.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
science & nature, reading games, and A.I.
The BBC sponsors this website about all things natural. Some of the information is specific to Great Britain - like facts about hedgehogs and ladybirds! But there's enough that's common to our area to make it a worthwhile investigation, especially if you have a class of budding naturalists! Great information at Science and Nature at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/.
Did you know there's a teacher from Rye who's in Antartica now with this team of researchers collecting and sending data that tells about the "bottom of the world?" This site is pretty technical but it's really interesting and there are activities and information that could be adapted to an elementary level. If you're studying polar regions or cold places, this site may be helpful. And the photographs are great. Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic at http://tea.rice.edu/index.html
Here's a site of basic "skill and drill" type phonics activities, but beginning readers will love them. There are different early/emergent reading levels represented with short stories that stress individual phonetic elements or word attack skills. Long and short vowels, blends, digraphs, compound words - and more. All within the context of games, plays, songs, even a smattering of nonfiction. Give the kids headphones when they work at Starfall at http://www.starfall.com/.
This one's really eerie. Billed as the "no search search engine," the site says it uses totally artificial intelligence to answer questions posed. Type in a question and it gives you websites that provide the answer. I've tried a few times to stump it and so far have had no luck. Truly bizarre. Brain Boost at http://www.brainboost.com/. Let me know if you find a question it can't answer.
Did you know there's a teacher from Rye who's in Antartica now with this team of researchers collecting and sending data that tells about the "bottom of the world?" This site is pretty technical but it's really interesting and there are activities and information that could be adapted to an elementary level. If you're studying polar regions or cold places, this site may be helpful. And the photographs are great. Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic at http://tea.rice.edu/index.html
Here's a site of basic "skill and drill" type phonics activities, but beginning readers will love them. There are different early/emergent reading levels represented with short stories that stress individual phonetic elements or word attack skills. Long and short vowels, blends, digraphs, compound words - and more. All within the context of games, plays, songs, even a smattering of nonfiction. Give the kids headphones when they work at Starfall at http://www.starfall.com/.
This one's really eerie. Billed as the "no search search engine," the site says it uses totally artificial intelligence to answer questions posed. Type in a question and it gives you websites that provide the answer. I've tried a few times to stump it and so far have had no luck. Truly bizarre. Brain Boost at http://www.brainboost.com/. Let me know if you find a question it can't answer.
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