Welcome to Five for Friday for January 18, 2008
Here’s a search engine for students I like http://kids.quintura.com/ . In addition to the typical search box, it has a search cloud floating above. This cloud contains terms that are related to the topic. For example: on a search for Egypt, the following was in the cloud: kings, queens and pharaohs; hieroglyphics, maps, countries,etc… This will help students find ideas that are related to their topic.
If you are looking for a collection of educational websites check out Blue Web’n (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/index.cfm). Brought to you by the AT& T Knowledge Network, it provides sites organized by content areas, subject areas and grade level. It doesn’t attempt to list all of the educational sites, instead it handpicks the best sites. Five to ten are added every month and you can get updates sent to your email.
Also on the AT&T Knowledge Network is Filamentality (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/). This is an easy, structured tool to help you create online activities. There are five types of activities that you can create. Hotlists, scrapbooks, hunts, samplers and webquests are all activities you can create on Filamentality.
Math Playground (http://www.mathplayground.com/computation.html) is a place for students to practice all different types of math problems. From basic computation to word problems there are plenty of activities to choose from. These activities require the Flash player to play. This site was created by Colleen King and has received many awards.
Speaking of math, here’s a site to send kids to if they need a refresher on a math term. A Math’s Dictionary for Kids 2007 (http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/maths/dictionary.html) has an extensive dictionary of math terms. Many of the math terms have interactive activities to go with them.
Bonus: One of my readers, Travis, sent me a link to a mixbook he created about MLK. Check it out! http://www.mixbook.com/books?bid=45403. Mixbook is a site that allows you to create online photobooks.