Friday, April 22, 2011

ReadWriteThink

The International Reading Association (IRA) offers new approaches to teaching literacy, easy ways to stay up to date on the latest research, and opportunities to connect with literacies.

The mission of the International Reading Association (IRA) is to promote reading by continuously advancing the quality of literacy instruction and research worldwide. The Association provides outstanding professional development and supports excellent teaching, critical research, and promotion of the lifetime reading habit.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Learning Games For Kids

Educational games are a great tool for building foundation math and language skills that today's elementary school curriculum requires. These online learning games and songs for kids are fun, teach important skills for preschool and elementary school kids, and most tantalizing for teachers is ... they're FREE. Want educational games that help build skills in math, language, science, social studies, and more? You've come to the right place!

FunSchool .. Fun and Educational Games and Activities

Do you see a common thread with many of our links on this blog? That's right, FUN!

Funschool offers free online educational elementary games for kids (K-8) as well as printable activities, coloring and crafts that will help kids learn and get connected. A worthy site full on interesting things to do and always changing.

Kids Games ... Playing to Educate

Play Kids Games provides free online kids games that are both fun and educational. Aimed at ages pre-K through middle school, Play Kids Games offers kids a safe environment to discover their abilities and learn new skills with interactive and fun computer games. The games build skills in math, logic, memory, vocabulary, alphabet, spelling, geography, computer skills, color identification, shape identification and other various problem solving.
This website's commitment to parents, teachers, and kids, is to connect learning and skill building with a sense of challenge, fun, and self esteem. From the fun of "Alphabet Whack-a-Mole" to the skill building "Math Fact Practice", the hope is that PlayKidsGames.com will be a part of our future generation's ongoing experience and development.

Now teachers can create their own class page and game content for our games! Create vocabulary lists and math problems for pinball or word lists for word search. Your vocabulary lists will automatically show in Word Find as well. It is easy! Just create a login, add your class page detail, and create lists! Your lists will automatically show up in the games!

FunBrain ... Revisited because it is still Fun for your Brain

This is truly a fun place to visit ... from Gr. 2 up to Gr.8, children love this site because it offers a variety of things to do and relevant activities ... they might seem irrelevant to an adult, but to a child, they strike a cord. Encourage your students to visit and enjoy.

Teacher Vision

TeacherVision® is dedicated to helping teachers save time. Find 20,000 pages of classroom-ready lesson plans, printables, and resources.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

21st Century Language Instruction


Educational Origami is a blog , and a wiki, about 21st Century Learning and 21st Century Teaching. This is not just about the integration of technology into the classroom, though this is certainly a critical area. It is about shifting the entire paradigm of education. The world is not as simple as saying teachers are digital immigrants and students digital natives. We have to change how we teach, how we assess, what we teach, when we teach it, where we are teaching it, who we are teaching and with what. Its a tall order, but these are exciting times ... This site will give you a heads-up and support to do what needs to be done in order to prepare our students for opportunities that we don't even know exist yet and develop the skills that we're not quite sure about. - but we have to try to arm the leaders of tomorrow with the skills and tools of tomorrow. This site is fundamentally sound with its pedagogical, cognitive, ICT, methodology, and implementation of good teaching preactices. Go to this site - you won't regret it. Undeniably, one of the best sites on my blog!!


Saturday, April 16, 2011

Cando's Language Arts Resources

Student and Teacher Resources for JK - 6 ... Good fundamentals and basics on this site. Former teacher willing to give extra help to students and fellow teachers.

Revisiting Starfall ... Still Worth It!


Interactive reading practice - with sound.

The Literacy Centre ... Early Childhood Stuff


A collection of early reading games (interactive/web based) for early literacy development (K-1).


Very easy to use and have fun ... for JK/SK students.

Between the Lions ... Hey, it's PBS ... Educational


Collection of activities, interactive web based learning. A must review for K-1 teachers! Some activities and stories are applicable for Grade 2 and 3 classrooms.

BBC ... Educational Sites


Many interactive games and online activities to keep you going for a long, long time. The site is broken up in sections Ages 4-11, Ages 11-16, 16+, Teachers, Parents. It hooks up well with TV programs too.

A site worth checking out again and again.

Into the Book ... Blooming Good Stuff


Into the Book is a reading comprehension resource for K-4 students and teachers. It focusses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing (Bloom's Taxonomy).

Try the online interactive activities, or click below to find out how to get the engaging 15-minute video programs.

Behind the Lesson provides information and teaching resources for each strategy. Watch the 10-minute professional development videos and explore the Web site for lesson plans, video and audio clips, downloads, and more. A great site for administrators, teachers, and students alike.

Literactive ... Learning to Read Can Be Fun

This is a wonderful site for JK/SK and even Gr. 1 teachers to use as a resource for online reading, writing and playing language-based games. Fun for the whole family. You need to register, but everything is FREE ... that's right, FREE. Enjoy

Learn Dolch Words using Online Reading Games


Wow ... this is fun. This site has soooo many games connected to good fundamental language skills that you'll have so much fun playing, you'll forget that it's actually work. The child can play all these activities online and without any frustrating lags or waiting for something to happen.

Student Edition of SMART Notebook


Another beauty brought to you by Mario A. He's a good man with plenty to offer ... visit his blog too and get even more. I keep borrowing from him, but I can't help it, his stuff is worthy of being posted here too.

French Teacher Resource Site


Brought to you by my colleague and friend, Mario A. He's always cutting edge and here's another site for teachers.

Leadership in Language Instruction in Bloom


Principal's need to be instructional leaders ... go to this site and begin to learn. If you don't know the way, how can you show the way?
A great site for teachers who want to learn about 21st Century instruction in language ... reading and writing using Bloom's Taxonomy in a Technological World. Undeniably a wonderful site ... read, learn, download, use!