sqworl | literacy sites

sqworl literacy sites

I really like the Sqworl bookmarking site because it is so visual and easy to use. I love Symbaloo for my student page, but Sqworl might be my new Delicious. Its a great way to discover new sites that other teachers have already bookmarked. Check out the link above. Christine

Qwiki

Today we tried another new site on our Symbaloo. Its an online encyclopedia called Qwiki. It uses pictures in the form of slides along with text which is read to you. We typed in a place: our home town, a person: Eve Bunting, and a historical event: The Triangle Shirtwaist fire (we are currently reading about the fire in Uprising) to learn how Qwiki works. I thought it was very easy to use and quite kid friendly. So far we have experimented with Visuwords (online dictionary) Wonderopolis, and Qwiki. I like Visuwords but I was a little disappointed with Wonderopolis. Our district blocks most video so I children couldn't see the video for the wonder of the day. Christine

Using Visuwords with fifth grade

See the color coded "key " at the  bottom of the screen

Visuwords is an online dictionary/thesaurus which gives a visual color coded representation of a word and its relationship to other words. http://www.visuwords.com/ We have tried it out in our new computer lab with great success! First we gathered words that had stumped us when reading together. Each child typed the words into Visuwords during lab time. I made up a worksheet they could record their findings on. Much more interesting way of learning about words than the traditional way: look it up in the dictionary.  I put Visuwords on my Symbaloo. (See previous post.)Christine

Playaways

My students really enjoy using Playaways in the classroom for silent sustained reading time. I get them from my library consortium. Each Playaway comes in a plastic case. Inside is a 2 by 3 inch "tape" of the story. You have to provide your own headsets and battery to run it. The kids like it because its individual...they have total control over the story.I have been reading recently on other blogs about classrooms using Ipods for S.S.R. This is a good alternative if you don't have any Ipods in your school. Christine

Flisti

http://lynnwoods.blogspot.com/2010/12/which-state-has-been-hit-most-by.html
I have been trying to find a way to put a poll on my classroom blog for a while now. This site, http://www.flisti.com/ allows you to make a simple poll and link it to your site. You can also embed the URL but I haven't figured that out yet! I also love that you don't have to sign up for the site.We are studying hurricanes in class this week. I made a simple poll for my fifth graders about which state gets hit the most by hurricanes, with a link to find out the correct answer. Christine

My delicious

http://www.delicious.com/cjken42
If you are interested in sites full of Smartboard lessons for 4th and 5th grade check out my Delicious bookmarks. I have been adding to the account any site I like that has interactive whiteboard lessons.
Christine

Blogging with 5th graders

I recently started blogging with my 5th graders using http://www.kidblog.org/

I did a little research to make sure the site was safe and then I plowed in. I have to say I am impressed with what they have done so far. I have children blogging about: wolves, myths, ponies, the Red Sox, summer vacation and so on.They are commenting on each others blog posts.Some are posting pictures and Youtube videos about what we are learning in class. I have posted a few questions to get them going like: What did you learn from our M.O.S. program, and what was your favorite book we have read so far this year.

We did have to come up with a few rules. Here they are so far:

• Be positive in your comments (if you don't have something nice to say, don't comment)
• Use correct spelling, capitalization  and punctuation. This is not texting with your friends. It is a school site. Proper language is required.
• Make sure someone can learn something from your blogging. This is our purpose - to learn from each other.

They learned what a moderator was (me). This is still a work in progress but so far it has been a success.

Christine





Webquest

I made my first webquest ever! We are reading Dear Rosa Parks in our 5th grade Trophies anthology, so I made a webquest to increase the students' background knowledge about RP.Here is the link http://lynnwoods.blogspot.com/ It includes two websites and a Youtube video. Christine

Glogster website

http://cjken.edu.glogster.com/gr-5-books/ Here is a copy of my glogster. It is like a poster you create. Children could do these as projects. Christine

great website

http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/index.html#4    This is a great site for all things technological if you are a teacher. I have blogged about some of them. Christine

using mosaics in the classroom

Mosaic for Bud, Not Buddy    http://bighugelabs.com/mosaic.php

I used a Flickr (big blue labs) to create this mosaic for a story I read with the 5th graders, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. A mosaic could be used to discuss the narrative elements of a story.The teacher could make the mosaic for class discussion or the students could make them as a classroom project. You could also ask the children to provide text based evidence as to why they chose each picture. Mosaics can also be printed and displayed on a poster board.
Christine