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Quilting Techniques: Math Lesson Plans - Quilting Assistant
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
During Black History month or when learning about western expansion or colonial days, students may enjoy making quilts from fabric or paper and learning about the different patterns used in quilt making. Introduce this activity and have students label the different fractional amounts in the quilt squares. Practice adding fractions by writing the equations generated by making different quilt squares. Hang completed quilts in the classroom or hallway for an interesting display of work with fractions and proportion.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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This Day in History - A&E Television Network
Grades
5 to 12Although the videos are the highlight of this site, there is much more to explore! On the right side bar you will find text boxes to enter ANY date and choose the category. Some examples of categories include Civil War, Cold War, Presidential, Sports, Old West, World War I and II, Entertainment, and several others. On the left side bar there are even more topics and links to explore. Once you click on the subject area, specific "story topics" are provided under the subject. Both of the features on the right and left side of the site display text information, not video clips.
In the Classroom
You can add this in your RSS reader. Why not use the RSS feature to remind you of the day's events? Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. The topics on the left and right side bars make excellent research references.For a classroom-ready activity each day to build understanding of historical events in the context of your students' prior knowledge, also try TeachersFirst's Dates That Matter. Include both links on your teacher web page for instant access by students both in and out of class. Maybe start a class wiki for your own "This Day" collection and assign student groups a day of their own. Add to it from year to year. Or have students write blog responses on class or individual blogs as they choose an event for the day from several sources and react to it.
Comments
Perfect resource for stimulating interest on a variety of topics.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Ellis Island Records - Ellis Island Foundation
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
This would be a great site for your flipped or blended classroom. Engage students by having them do a little research on their family, or some one a parent knows whose family immigrated through Ellis Island. Enhance learning by challenging students to create blogs sharing what their learning and understanding using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links. This blog creator requires no registration.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Who Are the Taleban - BBC
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a means to provide students with background information on who the Taliban is, how they were formed, and what their goals are. This site could be used as a learning center during a unit on modern wars in the Middle East. Have cooperative learning groups explore different sections of the site, with the intentions of summarizing the main parts and teaching it to their classmates via online poster project on the interactive whiteboard. Use an online poster creator, such as Padlet (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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EconEdLink
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free digital lesson plans offered by this website. Useful for any economics class, regardless of age. The site includes standard criteria and images, which are helpful in preparing the lesson for class use.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Facts for Features: Thanksgiving Day 2017 - U.S. Census Bureau
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Choose a statistic your students can estimate then use this site to help develop estimation and number sense--all in a holiday spirit. Gobble, Gobble! Perhaps create an infographic to display your favorite data. An interesting question to ask: what other data would you like to learn from the U.S. census the next time they do one?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Chocolate- All About Chocolate - Field Museum
Grades
4 to 8In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans hosted on this site! Save this site as a favorite to allow for easy retrieval - a creative source for a cultural geography, history or earth science classroom! Use Google Earth, reviewed here, to explore the regions where chocolate grows and find photos to bring these locations to life on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Make natural resources a tasty lesson.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PuzzleMaker - Discovery
Grades
1 to 9In the Classroom
Create your puzzles by following the simple directions. These can be used both online and in print form. You or your students can create games for use on an interactive whiteboard (students highlight the answers in different colors). Have students create their own to challenge classmates! If you have kinesthetic learners or those with weak fine motor skills who have trouble with pencils, the whiteboard is a real help. Make it a center. Build a class collection of student-made games and puzzles for use over and over. Tip: If you take a screenshot of a word search or print it to a pdf, you can save it electronically. Screenshots: Prtscrn key on a Windows machine, then PASTE into a document; Command+shift+4 on a Mac; press both buttons at once on an iPad to save a screenshot to the camera roll.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States - Teaching American History
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
A great resource for the interactive whiteboard or projector, although be aware that you may need to disable your pop-up blocker to get the information to display properly. Challenge students to find other paintings depicting famous events in United States (or another country). Have cooperative learning groups create multimedia presentation about the paintings. Create fictitious blog entries from one character in a painting to another character within another painting at another famous event. What would John F. Kennedy write to Benjamin Franklin?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Annenberg Classroom - NPR/NY Times
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to help students explore the branches of government in action as they address a "hot topic." Have groups of students listen to real broadcasts and analyze the issues as examples of the constitutional concepts you are studying. Make this link available from your teacher web page while studying the Constitution, the branches of government, and many other social studies topics. Use your interactive whiteboard or projection screen to share a video or audio clip to spark discussion on an issue or activate your lesson. Then, divide your class into teams and have a class debate about the issue. Have students prepare a pro/con wiki using links to the primary sources to support their position or create their own podcast commentaries with support for their opinions.Comments
Too many resources to even summarize. I can't wait to share this resource. CONSTITUTION ON SEPT. 17.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Map of Historic Philadelphia in the Late 18th century - Teaching American History.org
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
This site is ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector, and can help students visually imagine the world of 1776 Philadelphia and America's Founding Fathers. Use it to illustrate narratives about the Continental Congress, the writing of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution or to give students a "you are there" feeling when talking about the American Revolution. If you choose to have students "take the tour" on their own, have them work with a partner to write up a script for a tour guide to use and record the "best" one for your class podcast this month.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kids Know Your Rights - American Library Association
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Share this pdf on an interactive whiteboard or projector as part of a class discussion (great for reading comprehension in the content areas, too!). Then allow students to use it and other resources for a class debate on the pros and cons of intellectual freedom. The consitution will come to life in a context students care about.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame - National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Share the videos, interviews, and more on your interactive whiteboard or projector. As baseball season begins, have cooperative learning groups explore different elements of this site. Have the groups prepare a multi-media production. Perhaps a video clip of their own!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Baseball and Jackie Robinson - The Library of Congress
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this lesson plan with your secondary students to combine history, research using primary sources, and baseball. Then have students use a tool like Zotero, reviewed here, to organize, cite, and share the resources they find. With Zotero, students can form and work in groups.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Thinkport - Maryland Public Television and John Hopkins University
Grades
2 to 12In the Classroom
Use these tools for any subject area and for any content. Be sure to look at the sample activities that are great to use as is or can stimulate thinking into your own projects. Use the timeline as an introduction to the first year by discussing their summer activities, major events in a students life, inventions or technology that made a difference in their life, events in their favorite book, and more. To understand content in perspective, create a timeline to be sure students understand why some events happen at particular times. For example, our understanding about biology greatly changes after the invention of the microscope. A great sample activity to Create your own Museum is the celebration of neighborhoods which can create a greater understanding about different people. Create a museum for each different kind of biome that showcases what would be found there. Create a museum for a time period in history but created by a specific group of people. View each of the museums and note the differences in what is portrayed using the lens of that various segment of the population. Create writings or blog posts portraying the differences in the museums and why these differences exist. Even young students can make a simple timeline of their own life of the life cycle of a butterfly to build the concept of linear representation of time.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Classroom Jeopardy - superteachtools.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use this great resource to create Jeopardy games for any content area. This resource is perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard or projector with a student emcee. Use for vocabulary/terms, identifying parts of anything, and reviewing for any curriculum topic. Use as an opener to a unit to determine what students already know. Play as a review game to assist learning for all students. Encourage students to create the clues and answers to their own Jeopardy review games as a creative way to review and reinforce. Learning support teachers may want to have students create review games together.You or your students can copy and paste the HTML code for any game on your web page, wiki, or blog for easy access to any Flash Jeopardy Game.
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REFORMA - UCLA
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Familiarize students with this site and what the REFORMA goals are: The goals of REFORMA include: Development of Spanish-language and Latino-oriented library collections, Recruitment of bilingual, multicultural library personnel, Promotion of public awareness of libraries and librarianship among Latinos, Advocacy on behalf of the information needs of the Latino community, and Liaison to other professional organizations. Then have them investigate your school library and local libraries to see if they meet those goals. If some of the goals are not being met, there is an opportunity for community service.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Bookemon - Bookemon, Inc.
Grades
K to 12After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire book online, either among an audience of "just my friends" or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books on a class or school web page, wiki, or blog. The easiest option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully-public option to create learning materials for classes to access year to year for at-home review or reading practice.
This site requires a simple registration. Teachers can set up an edCenter for their school or class in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions "In the Classroom" below and in our sample book! Newer mobile device options include players to view your books on iPads and more.
This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
SKIP the profile and friends areas to get to the book creator to play with the tools a bit. Before you get too involved, create an edCenter to minimize advertising and create books in your own teacher-friendly class environment. Use the edCenter to register students and establish privacy settings for your class. No student emails are required.On the Create Books page, choose from using a blank book, starting from a file, or using a template. Choose "school" to see projects from other classes or a sample created by you or a student team working in advance along with you. Explore ready-made themes (seasonal, topical, etc.) or use "open theme." Choose book dimensions (match layout shape to any uploaded files, such as PowerPoint slides). Enter settings and description of your book (editable later), including who is allowed to "see" it: everyone, just friends, or private. Again choose a "theme" - more of a category where Bookemon will list your completed book. A logical option is "school." Experiment with tools to upload files (within file limits), add images, add text, etc. Written help is offered as you go, but there is no video demo. SAVE often. Turn margins on to avoid chopping content. To share the book, you must "publish" it (i.e. finalize).
Once published, locate the book under "My Books" and use options to share (by email--and see the URL to copy from there), "Make a new edition" to create a new version--also useful for treating the original as a template for later books), Post to Other Sites offers embed codes. The BEST option is to click the book COVER which opens a new window without ads or "stuff," and copy the ADDRESS of that window to paste into email, etc. You can also mark that clean window view as a Favorite on a classroom computer!
Use your edCenter settings to manage social networking features. This will avoid the "public" Bookemon features such as opportunities to share address books, use social tools such as Facebook to share your books, etc. Teacher-controlled edCenter accounts are probably the easiest option for managing within school policies.
With younger students, have them begin their work in PowerPoint then upload for whole-class books. See an example, created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors . The example is full of ideas for classroom use from Kindergarten to high school, including science concept tales, poetry books, general writing, math problem solve-its, and more. ANY grade can use this tool, depending on the amount of direction by the teacher. (By the way, the correct answer to the problem in the sample book is c. 27.) Another idea: have students create personalized books for their parents or grandparents for special occasions (Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Grandparent's Day).
Use the mobile device features offered in your BYOD classroom to make and share books, PDF's, and more. Tip: Use this site for a guided introduction to social networking as a class, an excellent teaching opportunity for digital citizenship in the context of a project.
This is one of the best creative tools for gifted students to go above and beyond regular curriculum. Don't let the "juvenile" appearance fool you. Even older students can write and include images to create and share books of any length. Any independent research or writing project can become an interactive book. Even advanced science experiments and lab reports can be shared online using this tool. Once you have one book, you can use that as a template for others. Inspire your gifted students to create literary magazine or even a personal online "portfolio" of writing, artwork, or photography presented in interactive book form.
Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log in (NO email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
Comments
This is one of my all time favorite creative tools. Very versatile. Great for making "buddy books" or for teacher-created learning "books." Make one as a whole class to summarize a science unit in primary grades. I even use it personally to make fee online "gifts" for children I know. I did purchase one print version, and it looked great.Thinking, PA, Grades: 5 - 10
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PocketMod - PocketMod.com
Grades
K to 12See a sample PocketMod checklist, notes, and calendar booklet (with a separate page of folding directions) and one made from a PDF of the Pennsylvania Science and Technology Standards, converted using the free downloadable software.
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In the Classroom
Go to PocketMod and follow the simple drag-and-drop visual screen to create the PocketMod from their many organizer options. Print and fold (NO Acrobat Reader required). More skilled users should consider downloading the free "PDF to PocketMod" converter that will take any pdf document and format it to the small, foldable format. If you have handouts in pdf format or can make them from your scanner/copier, you can make ANYTHING into a PocketMod. The converter assumes you have Acrobat Reader.Have students design their own study guides before a chapter test or maintain a project checklist to be submitted along with the completed project to build better organizational skills. Warning: Students will quickly learn that PocketMod is a great way to make CHEAT SHEETS. Be forewarned of student cleverness!
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Daytum - Ryan Case and Nicholas Feltron
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Some of the best data to collect is anything that is a habit: types of drinks students drink at home, hours watching TV/playing games/doing homework, meals/fast food, etc. Use the site to collect data from other students or classes for a Math, Social Studies, or Psychology class. Use Daytum for a Science class by counting animals at a feeder, recycling efforts, amount of paper used in the classroom, days of rain/no rain, etc. Anything that can be counted can be used by Daytum! Be sure to identify students who will be counters and recorders of the data.Before using Daytum, be sure to follow the directions on the How To page. Be sure to decide the goal first and the data to be collected. Having an idea of the kind of data to be collected as well as how it will be displayed is necessary before using. This tool is best used as a class activity rather than creating individual accounts. Create a class account and use a class computer or computer attached to a projector or whiteboard to collect data as students enter the room. Set up the parameters of the data to be collected (or enlist the help of an ambitious student.)
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