October 25

Websites Worth Sharing: MyOn Alternatives

I know many of you no longer have access to MyON this year. If your students are missing reading online books, here are a few options for them.

Unite for Literacy: https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

This one has the option of having the story read aloud or not and many books have Spanish and Ukrainian print options. Click on the “English” pencil icon on the top left to change to Spanish or Ukrainian and see which books are available in those languages. There is also narration available in MANY languages. Click on the Globe icon at the top to see all of the options.

Loving to Read: Has over 1000 free books for a variety of levels Preschool-Third grade and up. This one does NOT have audio options which is good if you want to transition your students to reading on their own without the audio support. https://loving2read.com/

Epic Books: Epic has over 40,000 books, audiobooks, and learning videos, but it requires that teachers set up an account and can be a bit more complicated to navigate. https://www.getepic.com/educators

Vooks: Animated books in a video format https://www.vooks.com/pages/educators/ . Free for teachers, but you have to create an account and it appears to only work for teachers- so would be a whole class activity. Don’t want to hassle with an account? Check out their Youtube channel which has many of their book videos available. https://www.youtube.com/@VooksStorybooks/featured

Wilbooks: Mostly non-fiction books for Pre-K through 3rd. The interface is a bit clunky (but sure to expand the reader to full screen), and there isn’t an audio option, but this is a good way for students to conduct research like animal reports. Not all resources on this site are free, so stay away from the menu on the side and stick to the one in the middle.  https://www.wilbooks.com/free-resources-free-online-books

Project Gutenberg: These are books in the public domain, so they are older, and the interface is very basic- but there are some wonderful classic stories for more advanced readers like Secret Garden, Treasure Island, and Black Beauty. The free Read and Write toolbar can be used to have these stories read aloud. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/20?sort_order=downloads

Category: Uncategorized, Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 25

Websites Worth Sharing: Phonics Resources

I had a teacher request online phonics resources. This is what I shared with her:

Phonics Hero– Their core curriculum is free for teachers, but you have to create a Teacher account to access this. There is an add-on phonics curriculum

Weblink: https://phonicshero.com/free-for-teachers-new/

Phonics games: https://phonicshero.com/phonics-games/

The paid curriculum- you can get a trial

https://phonicshero.com/no-prep-phonics-lessons/

Teach Your Monster to Read:  https://www.teachyourmonster.org/

PBS Media– search results for ELA/K-2/Reading Foundations

https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/search/?rank_by=recency&selected_facet=subject:1880,2104&selected_facet=media_type:Interactive&selected_facet=grades:K-2

Some samples:

Word Walls- https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/124f0c1d-e1c9-4476-8fec-8403c1fa640d/word-walls/ (on the side you’ll see word walls 2- these are sight words)

Zach and Friends: https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/d83ce154-e598-43d0-bf7a-ee96d200a3fb/zach-and-friends/

Read Write Think– Here are some of their primary interactive activities for phonological awareness: https://www.readwritethink.org/search/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/type/643/grades/796/grades/796/grades/796/grades/796/learning_objectives/788/learning_objectives/788/type/651

Starfall– Most teachers are familiar with this, but I’ll add it as a reminder. https://www.starfall.com/h/ltr-classic/

I know some teachers who use the free version of SplashLearn: https://www.splashlearn.com/features/teachers

Have a favorite of your own to share? Paste a link in the comments below.

Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
May 4

Websites Worth Sharing: 5 for Teacher Appreciation Week

In appreciation for all you do for Kelso kids, here are some tech tools that you might find useful.

https://classroomscreen.com/ – Many of you are already fans, but if you haven’t used it recently, check out some of the upgrades. Make this your home screen or bookmark it so you have it handy.

https://ed.ted.com/ – Student and teacher friendly TED videos. Click on the “Discover” link on the main toolbar. There are collections organized by theme and lesson plans attached to the vidoes. Take a minute to check them out, and I think you’ll enjoy what you find.

https://www.teachingbooks.net/ – Do you use certain books with your students? If you search the book name at this site, you might find some resources you could use including “meet the author” recordings and lesson resources. There is a paid version, but there are still a lot of resources available for free.

https://museumsfordigitallearning.org/ – Museums are a great teaching tool, but the logistics of getting a class of students to a museum can be very challenging. This site provides resources for lessons and activities that are based off of actual museum collections.

https://spinnerwheel.com/  This site provides a customizable spinner tool. If you login with your Google account, you can save your spinners. Here is a video that explains some of the option: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHm0wCbsd5E

Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 25

Website Worth Sharing WPSU Reading Comprehension Interactives

It’s pretty easy to find interactive sites for phonics and decoding skills, but activities that build comprehension skills are harder to find. PBS Media has a collection of sites that address these skills which were created by WPSU. The activities address skills like-
Making Inferences with

Detective’s Notebook

Finding the Main Idea with

the Hamburger Game

Monitoring and Clarifying with Fridge Magnets

Questioning with the Question Cube Game
Sequencing with the Train Game
and the Making Connections Game
You might want to display these on a Smart board or interactive projector or model them for students before giving them the chance to practice on their own. There are built in audio supports that you can’t turn off, so more competent readers might want to mute the activities. Most of the games don’t reward guessing which is a great feature. I found a few errors, but overall, it isn’t bad. It might not take the older students long to figure out that the right answer on the “Fridge Magnets” activity is always the one on the top. Hopefully they’ll fix that soon.
The “Share to Google Classroom” button on the information screen is a handy way to post a link on your Google Classroom. You can connect to all 6 or just one at a time by going to the description page for each game.
Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 4

Website Worth Sharing: Bad News and BBC iReporter

With the election year amping up, it might be good time to develop your students’ information literacy skills.

These two sites are set up for students to experience on a computer, so you’ll want the Chromebook cart for these. They are both fast paced and engaging, and hopefully students will come away with some skills about how to be better consumers of media. If you choose the BBC iReporter one, be sure students use headphones or ear buds.

 

  • Bad News: Modern, minimalist fake news game has players be the villains. Allow 20 minutes for your students complete this activity. This was designed for ages 14 and up.
    • For more information on how/why this game was developed and more instructional resources, check out their Information Sheet
  • BBC iReporter: Spot real stories, dodge fake news in cheeky media literacy sim.
Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 26

Website Worth Sharing: lalilo

I had a couple of primary teachers highly recommend an early reading skills (phonics, word families, sight words, comprehension) interactive website: https://www.lalilo.com/ When students start out on the site, they complete a placement test which then determines their path, so it’s a nice site for differentiation. After they complete a certain number of activities successfully, they are rewarded with a story.

This would be a great option for your students during your stations or small group activities. Some of the reviews I read mentioned that the initial interface could use more directions, so it might be good to walk the whole class through it using your laptop/projector prior to having them do it on their own. There are a lot of audio supports, so you’ll want headphones available. There are also opportunities for students to speak, but the Chromebook microphones should work fine for that part.

This site is free for teachers (there is a fee for school or districtwide use). If you want to take a look from a student point of view, you can check out my class to give it a try.

Start at https://www.lalilo.com/
Click on the Log In Option,
Choose “Student” and enter school code BVINQC
Start with the Mrs. Sargent Class and choose a student (it doesn’t matter which one.)

If you like it, it’s pretty quick to set up a class. Just go back to the start and Login as a teacher and follow the prompts. Once logged in as a teacher, you have a “Student View” option that allows you to demonstrate it without logging in as a student.

Here is an intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1_jdpg_LqU
And more in depth “how-to” if you want to get started with it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XxFZDuwBxc

Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 18

Storytime with Ryan and Craig

 

If you’re looking for a fun read-aloud site, you might want to visit https://www.ryanandcraig.com/read-alouds . There are currently several Christmas stories available on their site, but they have a lot of other options. Ryan and Craig give a fun introduction and then read the book aloud, showing the actual images. This site is not storing their videos on YouTube, so that means students are able to view the videos independently on their Chromebooks. Thanks goes to Sheryl Forsman for sharing this and testing out the Chromebook option.

If you’re using Google Classroom you can add a link as an assignment or use the “Material” option making it easy for students to find it.  If you’d like some accountability, post a Question asking your students which book they listened to and what they liked about it, then post a link to the site or a particular read aloud story to the Question by using the “link” option.

Using SeeSaw? Create an activity that includes the link to the site, and ask them to use the Drawing tool to draw a picture from the story.

Want to keep it simple? Just bookmark the site in your Class Google account or post it to your eBoard so students can access it anytime.

Do the teachers in your school love this so much that they want to add it to the Chromebook Launch Page? (The page the comes up when students click on the Home icon on their Chrome Browser) Just email me and let me know and I can add it.

Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 20

Website Worth Sharing: Storytime from Space

This storytime website has a different twist. The stories are read by astronauts while they are in the International Space Station. It’s especially fun to watch Kate Rubins read Rosie Revere, Engineer while her hair floats around her head. The stories are mostly space related and will fit well with the upcoming 5th grade FOSS kit.

http://storytimefromspace.com/library/

It looks like this website is a work in progress as many of the activity guide links just say “Coming Soon”.

Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 20

Website Worth Sharing: Instructables

You may already be familiar with the Instructables site http://www.instructables.com/teachers/ but I’m sharing just in case you aren’t as it’s an amazing repository of instructions for a huge variety of projects. Teachers and Students can access premium memberships for free: http://www.instructables.com/teachers/#free-premium  (kids can login with their Google accounts.)

You can use this as an instructional reading exercise and have students create something using the directions (paper crafts work well- perfect activity for right before spring break). The incorporation of images and videos along with the text make it a perfect multimedia resource. Some of the instructions include YouTube videos, which will be blocked for students, but many house their videos on Vimeo which can be viewed with the Chromebooks and most have step by step illustrated instructions in addition to or instead of videos, so most instructions are fine without them. It’s a great way to address this standard .

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7
Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

Kids can even make and submit their own instructables or enter one of the contests http://www.instructables.com/contest/ . There is even an instructable on how to make an instructable. https://www.instructables.com/class/How-to-Write-an-Instructable-Class/ This is a great technical writing activity and if they submit it to the website, they are satisfying the standard that mentions publishing with technology.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.2
Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.6-8.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.

*I found a cool example of a teacher using this site in conjuction with the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind if any of you read that book with your students.

Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 7

Websites Worth Sharing: Ambient Sounds

I know some of you like to play background music during reading or working time. You might want to think about experimenting with using Ambient sounds also.

Some studies have found that ambient sounds improve student concentration or mood. There are several websites that provide Ambient sound alternatives that allow you to create your own “mix” of sounds. If too many kids are taking bathroom breaks, you may want to turn down the water sounds and increase the other types of sounds ;). These also might be fun to play during certain read alouds to add “atmosphere.”

https://asoftmurmur.com/

https://www.noisli.com/

https://www.moodil.com/

http://soundrown.com/

 

Category: Website Worth Sharing | LEAVE A COMMENT