Web Resource for Physical Education: Activity Log

Hello Everyone!

Here is another great internet resource. It's an online activity log website called Get Active Stay Active. It is a website in which a classroom can keep on online log of their physical activity and a journal of their thoughts and feelings related to the activities they are doing. This log can be monitored by the teacher, parents, and students.

This website can be used with many of the older grade levels, but I chose to use it with Grade Five. It meets the following objectives:
Active Living Perspective
Students will be able to:

• participate regularly in physical activity to develop components of fitness and motor abilities
• demonstrate a willingness to participate in a variety of activities from all activity areas
• identify factors that affect choices of physical activity for life
• set and modify goals to develop personal fitness and motor abilities (IL)
• describe how activity affects the body systems and levels of physical fitness
• participate in and describe the benefits of warm-up and cool-down activities
• demonstrate a health-enhancing level of physical fitness

Movement Perspective
Students will be able to:

• use Basic Movement Patterns and Movement Variables to participate in alternative-environment activities

Personal-Social-Cultural Perspective
Students will be able to:

• demonstrate self-confidence while participating in physical activity

I would sign up the class on this website and have each student create a S.M.A.R.T goal about their own personal physical fitness and physical activity. They will then keep track of their progress on the online log and journal. Each week we will look at the logs and evaluate their progress. The students can give each other feedback and tips.

I believe this resource would enhance learning because the students will have an easy and organized way of keeping track of their progress. Since it is online they can record their physical activity and their thoughts and feelings about their activity anywhere and anytime as long as they have access to the internet. If students do not have access to the internet they will have a designated time to use it at the school. Since the teacher and others can also look at and keep track of these logs it encourages students to keep up with it as opposed to something that is just done on paper individually.

Web Resource for Arts Education: Music

Hello All!

I found another great web resource. It's a website called New York Philharmonic Kid Zone. This website contains information on composers, the elements of music, and instruments. It contains many great interactive activities and games in which students can really delve into the topic of music.

This website can be used at any grade level. I chose to use it at a Grade Six level. It would meet the following objectives:
Students will be able to:

• recognize that composers manipulate the elements of music to achieve various effects
• increase the variety of ways they use the elements of music in their own compositions
• recognize the principles of composition in the work of others
• begin to use the principles of composition in their own creations

What I would do with this website is teach the students about how composers create music. How they manipulate their music and different parts of the music to create certain effects. I would then have the students go onto the New York Philharmonic Kid Zone website and go into the Minute Mixer section and create their own compositions. They must then share their compositions with the class and explain why they chose certain elements in their music. Then I would have the rest of the students share their comments. I would have them share things they liked, asked questions, and give ideas of how to improve their compositions.

I think this resource would enhance the learning of students because they would get the chance to create their own pieces of music. This website will be very beneficial to those students who are not very comfortable with music as it allows them to create something with proper musical notes. I also think that having the students share their work and receive feedback on it will give the students a sense of ownership and it will also have them take more of a responsibility for their own learning.

Very cool website, but be careful because it's very easy to spend a lot of time on it! ha ha!

Web Resource for Science: Animals (Hibernation) **Note: This resource fits many subject areas, not just Animals. So check it out! **

Hey Everyone!

The Brain Pop Jr website is fantastic! This website can be used with so many different subject areas. It has great videos that explain so many topics in kid friendly language. The different subjects that appear on this website are Science, Health, Writing (ELA), Reading (ELA), Social Studies, and Math. Other things that this website contains are a word wall, interactive games, a bulletin board, a grown-ups guide, comics, lesson plans, step-by-step explanations on how to do things or how to learn skills, pictures, etc. The only downside to this website is that you have to subscribe to have access to the full website and the subscriptions are quite expensive. However, without a subscription you can still use most of the site, so that's pretty cool and there is a free trial so you can check out what the whole site has to offer for a short time.

Even though this site can be used with many different subject areas I choose to use it for Grade One Science in the Animals unit. It will fit the following objectives:
Explain how animals are adapted to their environments.

2. Explore the ways that animals adapt to their environments.
3. Explain how animals depend on their habitats for their basic needs.
4. Observe, describe, or imitate how animals behave in their natural environments.

I would use this website for a lesson on hibernation. I would show the students the video on the Brain Pop Jr. website and then as a class discuss the video. This discussion would be very interactive and get the students thinking about what hibernation really is. After the discussion I would have the students do a "draw it" activity in which they will draw an animal hibernating.

I believe this resource would be beneficial for the students because they are able to get visual, audio, musical, and kinesthetic explanations of a variety of different topics. This beats the regular direct instruction style of teaching because it reaches a variety of different learning styles. Also, it allows students to construct their own knowledge through discussion, asking questions, and taking part in activities. The teacher is merely a facilitator here rather than a director.

Check out this website! It's awesome!!

Web Resource For Health: Fire Safety

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you all had a good week. I have found another great web resource. This website is called Rescue: Fire Safety For Kids. It is an interactive website that contains fire safety information done in a creative, interactive, and fun format. There are quizzes, games, blogs, kid's zone, videos, teacher's zone, parent's zone, and activities. One of the activities that I found pretty neat was the Danger Challenge. You are given the option of taking the challenge in the kitchen or the bedroom. In these rooms you are supposed to find the different fire hazards. I think this is a neat way for kids to learn what things can cause fires. This website falls under the Grade Three Health Curriculum. It meets the following objectives:

Students will identify sources of risk to healthy living

• recognize situations that might be dangerous

  • at home
    

Students will identify sources of support for healthy living

• recognize that the community provides facilities and services to help its citizens enjoy better physical and mental health
  • emergency services (police, firefighters)

Students will describe a decision-making process (CCT, IL)

connect what they already know with what they are learning (IL)

I would use this website as a review of the Fire Safety unit with the students. The students can go on the site and test their knowledge about fire safety. They can watch the videos, take the quizzes, play the games, do the activities. They can even challenge each other in recalling the information. As a teacher I would make sure that the information I taught in the previous lessons coincides with the information presented on this website. This way the students knowledge is being reinforced by yet another source.

I believe that using this website would enhance learning by, as I said above, having the students knowledge reinforced by more than one source. The new way of teaching is moving towards resource based learning, which means that there is no textbook to learn from. We must pull our information from a variety of sources. The students will also see that the information they are learning about in class is indeed used in the real world. Also, the students would have the chance to review the information in an interactive and fun way. My guess is that many of the students would not even realize that they are learning. They would just be having fun.

Web Resource For English Language Arts : Literature Circles

Hello Everyone!

I have found another great website. This website is called is KidsReads.com and is all about children's literature. It contains book reviews, author information, book series, book clubs, audio/podcasts, new books out, teacher section, parent section, and much more!

This would be a great site to use in the classroom as a learning tool. The students can can take part in Literature Circles of different books that are contained on this website. The students are broken up into groups and each group reads a different book according to their reading level. The students can then take part in discussions and reading responses on the the classroom blog. The questions and responses can be based on information they discover on the KidsReads.com website. The questions and responses can talk about the authors of the books, certain things they are reading, the audio/podcasts they listen to, different book series, different writing genres, etc. The students can then respond and talk with each other through the blog. This gives the students a voice and allows them to think critically about the books they are reading. Parents and other students in the school can also get involved in this activity and respond to the students through the blog. The students are also able to construct their own knowledge by searching and finding information on the KidsReads website.
This activity would fit into the Grade 5 Language Arts Curriculum under the following objectives:

Reading

• Orally and silently, read a range of contemporary and classical grade-appropriate texts for enjoyment and information
• Adapt reading process and strategies for different purposes
• Answer inquiry or research questions using a variety of information sources
• Build connections among previous experiences, prior knowledge, and a variety of texts
• Understand a variety of forms and genres
• Support opinions with evidence from text
• Make judgments and draw conclusions

Viewing

• Recognize point of view and biases in visual texts
• Use various visual texts to find information (e.g., the Internet, illustrated print text, television, video)
• Distinguish between fact and opinion

Writing

• Write single and multiple-paragraph compositions
• Provide sufficient details to support main point
• Organize ideas in an appropriate sequence

Representing

• Use graphic organizers (e.g., story map, time line, summary chart) to clarify and shape understanding
• Choose images, words, and sounds appropriate to audience, purpose, and effect

I believe that students will benefit from this activity because they will be constructing their own knowledge by exploring this website. They will also begin to think critically about the books they are reading by asking questions, answering questions, and completing reading responses based on the books and the information found on the KidsReads website. The students would also be learning about many different books at the same time by completing their work on the classroom blog. They would be involved in an online interactive community that can take place both inside and outside the classroom. The students will also learn computer navigation skills, how to pick out important information, and how to take some control over their learning. The teacher in this case would become a facilitator rather than a director.

Be sure to check out this great website!

Web Resource for Math: Telling Time

Hello Everyone!

I found a great interactive website that focuses on telling time. This website has a "Whole Class Clock" in which the teacher can use to teach the students how to tell time. This clock comes in both digital and analogue forms. It also has two games, Stop the Clock and Bang on Time, in which the students can play in order to practice telling time.

This website fits into the curriculum under Math, Grade Two Measurement:Time. The objectives it would cover are:
M-47
solve a variety of problems involving time
M-50
understand the concept of time by using a

1. digital clock - minute

I would use this website by putting up the "Whole Class Clock" up on the data projector and having an interactive lesson on how to teach time using both the digital and analogue clock. This way the students will see the difference between the two clocks and be able to transfer their knowledge between the two. I would show the students how to tell time and how the hands on the clock work. I would then pick a few random times and have the students tell me what time it is. I would then use the games (Stop the Clock and Bang on Time) as things the students could do when they have finished their assignments. They can go onto the computer and play the games in order to practice telling time. This would be a fun and exciting way for the students to learn how to tell time. Chances are they aren't even going to realize that they are learning. I would then extend this topic by having the students create their very own clocks out of paper plates.

I believe that using this resource would benefit the students because by putting a clock up onto the data projector it makes the clock life size and really easy for the students to see. It would be much better than just having a small clock up at the front. It is also good because the students will be able to see the difference between the digital and analogue clocks. Again, having a life size image is way better than bringing in a very small clock which would be hard to see. I believe that having a visual of the clocks, talking about it, and having the students figure out the times will reach a variety of the learning styles in the classroom. Teaching the lesson this way would reach the verbal/linguistic learners, the kinesthetic learners, and the visual learners.

I also feel that having the students get the chance to use the computers to play the games would be a great way for them to practice telling time. Using the computers is more exciting than just having a clock to play with. The students would play the games and not even realize that they are learning. They would be learning time telling skills as well as computer skills. From my experiences during internship, I found that when the students got the chance to use technology they learned and retained the information much better.

Web Resource for Social Studies: Communities Around the World

Hello Everyone!

I was searching around for some good Grade 3 Social Studies websites based on Communities Around the World and I came across one put out by National Geographic. It is a super cool, interactive website that contains information, stories, videos, games, and activities about people and animals all over the world. Many of the stories, videos, and activities talk about the different cultures/communities around the world and what their lives are like, including traditions, celebrations, the food they eat, the games they play, etc.

This fits into the curriculum for Grade 3 Social Studies under Interdependence Communities Around the World:

Knowledge Objectives
The students will know that language, celebrations and games are integral to a community.
Skills/Abilities Objectives
The students will be able to identify and compare some components of various communities.
Attitudes/Values Objectives
The students will appreciate that communities have differences and similarities.

I would have the students use this website and possibly a couple of other websites to research and learn about different communities around the world and what they do for traditions and celebrations. They will be able to read information, see pictures, and watch videos about what different cultures/communities around the world do. I would then have the students share with the class what they learned. Once the class has learned that there are many different traditions and celebrations that communities around the world do, we would talk about the differences and similarities amongst the communities/cultures. We can compare those traditions and celebrations to the ones that we do here in Canada. To wrap up this topic I would have the students create as a class a new celebration that combines many of the elements they discovered from the many cultures around the world such as food, dance, music, clothing, etc.

I believe that using the National Geographic website would benefit the students because it is a reliable resource and contains a lot of factual information. This website is also very interactive in the sense that the students can see many pictures, watch videos, and even listen to interviews with many different people from many cultures/communities around the world. Through these pictures, videos, and interviews the students can get a better insight to these different cultures/communities than they would have got from a book. Therefore, the students will gain a better appreciation of these cultures/communities.

Web Resource for Science: Energy Conservation

Hello Everyone!

I found a great website called Getwise.org that can be used with students in order to learn about energy conservation. This website contains a house tour, games, and kit items all having to do with conserving energy. This fits into the Saskatchewan Curriculum under Grade 4 and Grade 5 Science. For Grade 4 it fits under the Optional Unit of Electricity and Magnetism. It meets the following objectives:

Students will be able to:
1. Recognize that electricity is a form of energy.
3. Identify ways in which electricity is used.
5. Suggest ways in which energy can be conserved.

For Grade 5 it fits under the core unit of Heat. It meets the following objectives:

Students will be able to:
2. Describe the transfer of heat energy.
2. Identify methods of heat conservation in buildings.

I would use this website as part of a computer centre during "Science Centres". This way only a small group of students will need computers at a time and most classrooms have a few computers right in the room. I would start off by creating a case study about a family that wastes energy or does not use energy wisely. I would then have the students read this case study and then go onto the Getwise.org website and take the house tour and search around the website for needed information. With the information that the students find, I would have them create an action plan for the family in the case study to help them use energy more wisely.

I believe that using this web resource would enhance the students learning because it makes the lesson more student centred. The students are deciding what information is important and they using that information to construct their own knowledge. It also teaches the students computer navigation skills. They must find their own way through the website in order to pick out appropriate information. I believe that this activity will give the students a sense of ownership since they are the ones doing the "teaching" and learning. The teacher is there only as a guide for this activity.

I hope that you find this web resource helpful!
Jade

Hello!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Jade and I am in my last year of an Elementary Education After Degree program. I just finished interning in a Grade 5 classroom. It went great!

I am really looking forward to learning about the various ways that I can integrate technology into my teaching and classroom. I believe that this world is ever changing and becoming more and more computer based. I think using technology in the classroom will enhance the learning of the students.