Hot Websites January 2007
By Linda Lindroth

It's 2007 and your students will be off to a good start with this month's collection of motivating math resources. January numbers include the 100th day of school for most districts, and always require a concentration on a new number on the calendar - 2007.

BrainPop, Jr.
www.brainpopjr.com

BrainPOP Jr. is a web resource for grades K-3 that covers topics that fit the core content for the primary level. An animated movie starring Annie and Moby is the primary focus of each topic. Categories include Science, Social Studies, Math, Reading, Health and Writing. Within each content area are units on animals, habitats, communities, biographies and holidays to name a few. More and more units are being added weekly. Of particular interest this month is the Math category, where time, money, number sense and geometry units are all ready for instructional use. The following units will also be added to the Math section as they become active on the website: addition and subtraction, calendar, data, fractions, measurement, multiplication and division.

Each of the movie units includes an easy quiz for grades K-1 and a harder quiz for grades 2-3, which can be printed for pencil-paper use or completed online and automatically scored and printed for a student assessment notebook. This is perfect for center time. Each topic has an activity to complete for independent practice, and prompts for a Draw About It, Write About It or Read About It that can be finished online and then printed.

Each video clip lasts from 3-8 minutes and includes a Print Notebook button to print an activity guide for all the notebook questions in the movie. Students are asked to answer questions as they watch a movie and then print their notes for a journal. Special movie features allow for viewing full-screen or with closed captioning - you can even pause for class discussion. Use the Word Wall print-outs with each movie for the words and definitions - there are five for each movie.

Rainforest Maths
www.rainforestmaths.com
This interactive resource is a collection of activities that provides exploration and practice of math skills related to standards. There are more than 800 Flash activities for levels K-6 and scores are kept for many of the games for self-assessment.

I really like the ability to change to a more challenging level from within an activity. For example, in working with number operations, students can just click an icon from within the game to move from problems with two-digit to three-digit or four-digit numbers. Similar icons are available for selecting problems with or without regrouping.

The author is an Australian primary teacher who has compiled an array of instructional games based on generic core content standards to bridge across the levels used in a variety of countries. Categories are Numbers, Algebra, Space (Geometry) and Measurement.

Rainforest Maths uses invented currency with dollars and cents, metric measurement and UK spelling conventions such as metre instead of meter. While this could be confusing for some students, it offers a good opportunity to discuss real-world math and number differences across the globe.

The rainforest theme features many of the animals found in the Australian rainforest as an added bonus. The bright colors and rainforest animals are highly motivating. If a student misses an answer, the instructional help is scaffolded to provide support for students as they try more difficult problems. This is a great find for hundreds of math concepts across the K-6 curriculum.

Flashmaster®-- Tech Spotlight

With the popularity of video games and handhelds, the FlashMaster® is a perfect motivation to support independent student learning of math facts. The 11-ounce device has six learning modes for increasing speed while learning basic math facts. The three-step process is clearly marked on the handheld and the navigation makes it easy for students of all ages to focus on up to nine levels for each math operation. Fact practice can be timed or untimed, random problems or the last 15 missed, or set in Practice, Test, Flashcard or Special Problems. A "See Results" key lets the teacher monitor results for each of the last nine activities.

Visit www.flashmaster.com or call 800-884-3531 for more information and to check on possible school pricing discounts. $49.95.

Linda K. Lindroth is Teaching K-8's technology editor and website coordinator, and a technology resource teacher at Russell Cave Elementary School in Lexington, KY.

January 2007 Volume 37, Number 4