Technology in Your Classroom : Hot Websites :
Hot Websites April 2005
By Linda Lindroth
Spring is here – and with it comes great opportunities for enriching your curriculum
All of your students will enjoy this month's collection of web resources. Whether you are preparing for Earth Day or looking for a creative lesson for Poetry Month, these are great picks for your curriculum.
Turn Your Students Into Well-Versed Poets
www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson262.shtml
With Poetry Month in April, this collection of Rhyme Time Lessons from Education World is an excellent starting point for a comprehensive poetry unit. After browsing these 20 lesson plans, be sure to click on the link to National Poetry Month to learn more about this year's 10th celebration of poetry with the theme, "10 Years, 10 Cities."
Try the "Laugh and a Half" lesson to find funny poems – or write your own. You can also let your older students create a "P is for Poetry" rhyming ABC book for the kindergarten class. There are even directions to "Make a Poetry Quilt" for primary students.
When your students finish their poetry, check out the Poetry Rubrics links or use one of the publishing links for publishing student work. This well-organized resource has it all!
For Kids Only Earth Science Enterprise
kids.earth.nasa.gov
NASA has compiled a great kids site for earth science with interactive games and lessons on People, Air, Land, Water and Natural Hazards. The comprehensive Teacher Guides offer hundreds of pages (in pdf format) with complete lesson plans, student worksheets and activity pages. Each earth science topic includes diagrams, experiments, interactive games to reinforce the concepts, and background information from NASA.
Hot Links. In addition to the earth topics, there are dozens of great science links. Check out the Ask the Experts and Activities and Games links.
Games. The Games link is sure to be part of your students' favorites. Here students can play "What on Earth?" to try their luck with Earth trivia. Or, they can learn about the hydrological cycle as they navigate in Droplet and the Water Cycle. There are nine challenging games in all.
America's Story
www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi
It's never too late to learn more about American History – so give your students the opportunity to show off what they know about U.S. presidents and our fifty states with this collection of stories and games from the Library of Congress.
Along with the rich collection of facts and stories about America is an extensive collection of photographs from the Library of Congress archives. The pictures help illustrate the factual content and even provide a visual game of "What's wrong with this picture?"
The games make it easy to engage students in researching the stories for hidden elements. Follow up Presidents' Day with President's Scavenger Hunt and Dynamite Presidents game selections under the Meet Amazing Americans section. Each game sends students to the stories to answer questions or locate photos while they learn more about American History.
Micrograms/Flexplay -- Tech Spotlight
Technology really is moving into the 21st Century – and it's better than science fiction! Here are two examples:
I recently went to my school mailbox and found a CD-ROM from Micrograms with seven fully working network licensed programs ready to pop into any and all computers in my building FREE for the next 90 days. No return envelope, no hassle, because the installation simply expires in 90 days. Want to reactivate? Just purchase a stand-alone or network license for the programs you want to keep. Teachers will be seeing more of this type of promotion.
I also just read an advertisement for Flexplay, the 48-hour, no-return dvd movie. The new DVD technology lets you watch your favorite movies, anytime, without returning the DVD. When 48 hours are up, a special chemical in the DVD puts the Flexplay into "self-destruct" mode. When the disc color changes from red to black, it no longer plays. With this type of technology, it's becoming easier and easier to preview materials to determine if they are a good fit for your curriculum.
Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching K-8. She is also a Technology Resource Teacher in a K-5 computer lab in Lexington, KY.
