TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Aug 29, 2021
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Virtual Manipulatives - Toy Theater
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
If you teach elementary math, this site is a must-have to include with your bookmarked sites. Include manipulatives from this site with blended learning and remote teaching lessons to provide students opportunities to explore and practice math content. Include a link to manipulatives and other student sites using Symbaloo, reviewed here, and share with students as a resource for practicing math concepts. Items to include might be instructional videos, online games, and other practice activities. Add manipulatives within a learning system such as Curipod, reviewed here, to create a complete online lesson that has opportunities for students to share and discuss their learning. Encourage students to share their findings by creating a screen recording using Free Screen Recorder Online, reviewed here. Ask students to conduct a math talk as a response to a teacher prompt after having the opportunity to explore and interact with the virtual manipulatives.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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PictureStem Project - Tamara Moore, Kristina Tank, and Elizabeth Gajdzik
Grades
K to 3In the Classroom
Enjoy these free, high-quality STEM units to use in your elementary classroom. As you teach lessons found on this site, enhance learning using a portfolio-creation tool like Seesaw, reviewed here, to share student work and reflections. Upload images of student projects then use Seesaw to add video reflections, students' written responses, and more. Share Seesaw portfolios with parents during parent/teacher conferences to demonstrate student learning. If you are unable to use the complete units in your classroom, be sure to look through the many lessons to "mine" for shorter activities that work in your teaching situation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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K-3 STEM Foundations - Life Science - BioEd Online
Grades
K to 4In the Classroom
Reduce your planning time with these free lessons to use when teaching life science concepts in your classroom. Instead of printing worksheets for students, use a digital tool like Duck Soup, reviewed here, to scan the worksheet and create a digital activity. This tool allows students to "write" on worksheets digitally instead of using paper and pencil. Duck Soup includes features for allowing students to retry and submit work and also allows you to set a deadline for work submission. Enhance student learning by using Flip, reviewed here, to create video response questions for your students. Use the questions provided with the lesson units to challenge student thinking, then ask them to respond in Flip.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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STEM Resource Finder - The Concord Consortium
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Be sure to bookmark this site as a resource for many interactives and activities for teaching STEM topics. Place students in cooperative groups to complete activities or share ideas from this site for science fair projects. Ask students to share their research and projects and extend their learning using a tool like bulb, reviewed here. bulb offers a variety of options for building a personalized webpage without knowledge of coding.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Curious George STEM Collection - PBS Kids
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Take advantage of these free lessons and videos to add to your current STEM teaching resources. Ask students to blog about their experiences as a substitution for handwritten journals using a tool like Seesaw, reviewed here. This tool makes blogging easy, even for the youngest students. To enhance learning for students, take pictures of class activities, then have students annotate images using Image Annotator, reviewed here, and Voxer, reviewed here. Use Voxer for students to extend their learning by adding a voice recording of their understanding of science and math concepts learned during lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Robotics Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use these robotics resources during National Robotics Month (April) or any time of the year. If you are just getting started with Makerspace, and looking for some new resources, check out these sites!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Siemens STEM Day - Siemens Foundation and Discovery Education
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for STEM activities and support throughout the year. Reduce your planning time by using the free lessons available on the site. Before starting activities, have students create a word cloud of terms they know using a site such as Word Clouds for Kids, reviewed here, for younger students, or WordClouds, reviewed here, for older students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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STEM Careers Coalition - Discovery Education
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans and interactives. This site is excellent for enrichment; consider using the lessons with gifted students for independent learning or as project ideas for math and science fairs. Enhance student learning and classroom technology use by challenging students to make a multimedia presentation demonstrating ideas from this site using Sway, reviewed here. Sway creates unique multimedia projects using text, images, and media. Change the look of your Sway using the Mood and Remix tools to change the color palette, layout, and fonts. Challenge students to find photos or diagrams about what they learned (legally permitted to be reproduced), and then narrate and annotate the photo with essential information. Use a tool such as Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use it: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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City Technology - The City College of New York
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Use this site as part of any unit about force, motion, or energy. Have student groups create the different projects found on the site, and share their creations with classmates. Have students upload a photo they took of their project, and add voice bubbles to explain what they learned using a tool such as Phrase.it, reviewed here. Have students create projects found on City Technology, then host your own Science Fair!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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CurriConnects Book List - Solar System and Space - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Include this booklist as you count down to a unit on space so each student can do some personal exploration - and sharing with the class during the unit. Reading a book or two independently will help them will build "prior knowledge" and personal connections with the science concepts and give them more experience to bring to class discussions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Free Online Science Games - Sheppard Software
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site for use throughout the year with science lessons. Nearly all activities would work well on your projector or interactive whiteboard. For Example, use the Cell Games (including animal, plant, and bacterial cells) to introduce and explore parts of cells. Create a link on classroom computers or use on laptop carts for students to explore on their own. Simple online coloring science activities require no reading. Share this site on your school website with parents for exploration and reinforcement at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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