Interactive book – Page 8 – iLearn Technology

Kerpoof: Make a StoryBook

April 27, 2010April 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely12 Comments22651 views

What it is: Kerpoof is a website that I use often with my students, I like it so much I have written about it a few times before here and here. Kerpoof has just added a brand new Make a StoryBook tool. Kerpoof’s Make a Storybook is an excellent addition to the already great lineup of Kerpoof tools. Here students can create their own picture and story books. They can use Kerpoof’s backgrounds, props, and characters or draw their own illustrations. Students can write their story in both text boxes and speech bubbles. The interface is extremely user friendly, kids will pick it up in no time! The sidebar has thumbnails of each page that students have created, making it easy to see their progress. Students can save their finished Story Books on their Kerpoof account to share with other students, download the finished Story Book to their computers, or print out their completed stories.

How to integrate Kerpoof’s Make a StoryBook into the classroom: Kerpoof’s Make a StoryBook is a fantastic place for students to “publish” their written work. Students can practice writing fairy tales, poetry, collaborative stories, fables, math based stories, illustrated science journals and non-fiction books. Kerpoof offers the freedom of creativity, students are only limited by their own imaginations. Set up your classroom computers as a publishing center where students can create a finished, published piece of work. Create collaborative class stories using Make a StoryBook on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Print out finished stories and add them to your classroom library for other students to “check out” and read.

Tips: In addition to the new Make a StoryBook, Kerpoof has added another fun activity called Spell a picture. Students can choose a background for their picture and use the letters below to practice spelling words. As they spell, pictures pop up that begin with those letters. As they continue spelling, Kerpoof narrows the pictures down to the one that a student has spelled. For example, when students select “c” pictures of a cow, cat, corn, car, cab, and cap pop up on the scene. As they continue selecting letters, the pictures get more specific and Kerpoof points to the suggested pictures of what has been spelled.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Kerpoof in your classroom.

ePub Bud: ePublish Yourself

April 22, 2010April 26, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments31884 views

What it is: ePub Bud is the YouTube of Children’s eBooks. The site is YouTube-like in that anyone can create and share their own children’s ebooks. The goal of this not-for-profit website is to provide an easy way to find, share, and self-publish children’s ebooks. ePub Bud lets you create an ebook for a small audience, or for the whole world, digitize a real book by mailing in a physical children’s book and having it “digitized” for the iPad, upload an ebook file that you can read on the iPad, or download an eBook (classics and books others have shared). Best of all, everything you do on ePub Bud is completely free!

How to integrate ePub Bud into the classroom: ePublishing is quickly becoming popular and more eReader devices are showing up in the classroom. While there is nothing like holding a paper back book in your hand, their is also nothing like holding a good ebook in your hands. Whatever we can do as teachers to get students reading, I say use it! Use ePub Bud in your classroom to “publish” student stories. The books can be shared with other students, parents, and schools. Publishing an eBook of their own is highly motivating, and will have your students eager to write. With ePub Bud, your students could construct their own text books. Have them create ebooks about what they are learning to share with others.

If you have access to the iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, consider sending in some of the books from your classroom libary to be digitized. Many sites have free ebooks for kids, make them iPad, iPod, or iPhone friendly by uploading them to ePub Bud. You can also search the extensive collection of classic children’s eBooks that are on ePub Bud and download those for students to read. You will find children’s favorites from Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carrol, A.A. Milne, Frances Margaret Fox, Milton Goldsmith, and many, many more.

This is such a neat website and it is really and truly free. You won’t even find advertisements on this site!

Tips: If you send in a book to be digitized, ePub Bud cannot send the original back for copyright purposes.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using ePub Bud in your classroom.

The Stacks

April 6, 2010April 6, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3380 views

What it is: Scholastic has so many fantastic resources for the classroom. There is a new addition to the Scholastic website called The Stacks. The Stacks is currently in BETA but is already packed full of goodies that will have your students excited about reading. The Stacks is a place for students and their friends to connect around reading. The site is geared toward 9 to 15 year old students. Students can check out and discuss the various books that they are reading. This is a great place for students to discover new books that they may enjoy, or to connect over books that they have already read. Most of the books featured in The Stacks have an accompanying website where students can read what other students thought about the book, play related games, and take quizzes. These mini sites are very well done and so engaging. When I was in elementary and middle school, I often wished that my favorite books wouldn’t end. I remember getting toward the last pages of the book and feeling disappointment over having to say goodbye to the characters I had come to love. I would have been ecstatic over the mini websites that kept my favorite characters alive, making the book last and last. Students can also learn more about the authors of their favorite books in The Stacks. Students can play games that are related to the books they are reading. They can choose from arcade games, quizzes and polls, puzzle games, make your own games (including choose your own adventure virtual stories), writing games, ecards, and downloads that can be printed for offline play. Students can create their own profile on The Stacks, allowing them to customize their profile and background.

How to integrate The Stacks into the classroom: The Stacks will have your good readers excited to read more, and your reluctant readers enthusiastic about reading. Allow your students to use The Stacks to find new reading material, and to interact with other students about the books they are reading. Many of the activities would make nice extensions to your curriculum. The choose your own adventure game would be fun to play as a whole class on the interactive whiteboard. If you have clickers (student response systems) have your students vote on the choices throughout the story. The writing games will lead your students through a variety of writing exercises teaching them how to build a story, write a report, write journal entries, and create their own comics. The Stacks has some great offline activities for your classroom. Print out crosswords, connect the dots, coloring pages, word searches, calendars, trading cards, and more. All of the printables tie in directly to the books students are reading. This is a FUN social media site centered around reading and books. The books are familiar and popular reads for students and should create a reading buzz in your classroom.

Tips: The Stacks does not require a login unless students want to create a profile. When students register for The Stacks, they are not asked for any personal information or email, making it appropriate for even elementary students.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using The Stacks in your classroom.

My Hippo Has the Hiccups

March 27, 2010March 27, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment5607 views

What it is: In honor of national poetry month (April), Kenn Nesbitt is offering his book “My Hippo Has the Hiccups” as a free ebook. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I just opened a “happy spring” present! If you aren’t familiar with Kenn Nesbitt, he writes poetry that hooks kids and makes them instant fans of poetry. It is funny and engaging for readers of all ages. The ebook is available to view online or to download (can you believe it?!).

How to integrate My Hippo Has the Hiccups into the classroom: This ebook is a winner no matter what age group you teach. You can read the poems as a class using an interactive whiteboard or a projector connected computer. Because you can download the ebook, it would also be a wonderful addition to your classroom library on the classroom computers. Students can visit classroom computers with My Hippo Has the Hiccups as a poetry inspiration station. Invite your students to create their own silly Kenn Nesbitt inspired poetry. Make a class book of the silly poems and post them as a class ebook on Issuu.

Tips: You have to have the Zino Reader installed to view this ebook, it is a simple click and download.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using My Hippo Has the Hiccups in your classroom.

Heifer International: Game for Change

March 22, 2010Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3868 views

What it is: Heifer International works with communities to end hunger, poverty, and care for the earth. Heifer International does not give hand-outs, they offer hand ups. Transforming lives of hunger and poverty, into sustained lives of hope. Using gifts of livestock and training, Heifer International helps families improve nutrition and generate sustainable income. I have written about a program that Heifer International has before, called Read to Feed. I highly recommend that you take a look at the Read to Feed program if you haven’t seen it before. Heifer International has partnered with BeaconFire and ForgeFX to create an interactive 3D game that teaches students about hunger and poverty in a virtual world. Through Heifer International: Game for Change, students will learn about real world conditions of poverty and how communities can create sustainable solutions. Through game play, students will learn about sustainable options for help. In the game, students take on the role of a 12 year old Nepalese girl in a village that struggles with poverty and hunger. There are four tasks/missions that students must complete in the current (beta) version of the game. Each task offers an activity that teaches a core principle. One example is a task where students learn about deforestation that makes it more difficult to collect firewood used to cook dinner. The lessons in the game mirror real-life happenings in Nepal with Heifer International’s partners. The game is currently in Beta version and the creators are asking for suggestions here.

How to integrate Heifer International: Game for Change into the classroom: Heifer International: Game for Change is an excellent way to offer your students global education, awareness, and encourage them to action. Students will learn important lessons about issues like poverty and environmental degradation in a real, hands on, manner. Start out with a geography lesson, encouraging students to find Nepal on a map or globe. Use Google Earth or Scribble Maps to put a place marker on Nepal and a place marker where they live. Talk with students about issues of poverty and hunger, exploring the Heifer International site for students where they can watch videos, do experiments, and play games. Next, allow your students to step into the story by taking the role of a Nepalese girl living in an impoverished village. Students should work to complete all 4 tasks in the game and keep a journal (online or off) of their thoughts as they complete the game. Was it hard to find food, wood, water? There are a lot of lessons packed in here, from geography and social studies, to reading and following directions and character education.

As an extension activity, students could create VoiceThreads or Animoto videos about Heifer International. Tie in the Read to Feed program so that your students can get hands on with Heifer International. Use their completed VoiceThreads or Animoto videos as “advertisements” for the Read to Feed program.

If your students are anything like mine, they will have definite opinions about the game. Why not take advantage of that, and have them offer suggestions and praise that can be used by the creators? Have students craft their ideas and send them here.

Tips: If you haven’t signed up for the Read to Feed program, it is an outstanding program. It includes free DVD, leaders guide, poster, storybook (Beatrice’s Goat), brochures, bookmarks, student rewards, and standard based curriculum. Get your students excited about reading and involved in their global community, it is never too early to get your students thinking about others!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Heifer International: Game for Change in your classroom.

Grammaropolis

March 16, 2010March 23, 2010Kelly Tenkely4 Comments6772 views

What it is: Grammaropolis is a fun find that helps students learn the parts of speech. In Grammaropolis, all of the characters are a different part of speech. Students will “meet” Adverb, Linking Verb, Pronoun, Adjective, Preposition, Slang, Noun, Conjunction, Interjection, and Action Verb. Each character is personified with personalities inspired by their grammatical roles in a sentence. The characters interact with each other the same way that parts of speech interact in a sentence, brilliant! Each character has a character card that tells a story about them. Students can watch short Grammaropolis videos starring the characters (parts of speech) that live there. Students can take Grammaropolis quizzes, complete word sorts, and color the characters of Grammaropolis in an online coloring book in the games section. Students will enjoy the fun Grammaropolis song featuring all of the characters of Grammaropolis. Coming soon, students will be able to read a book series starring the Grammaropolis characters.

How to integrate Grammaropolis into the classroom: Visual learners will absolutely love this site that personifies the parts of speech. All learners will appreciate the stories about the parts of speech. We learn best through story. Story gives us a framework for our understanding of new concepts and helps us to use those new concepts. Grammar is often a subject that is taught purely through memorization of rules and drill and skill exercises. This makes it difficult for students to really understand grammar. Grammaropolis is an excellent solution to this problem. Use the Grammaropolis character cards to introduce students to new parts of speech. Watch the videos and listen to the song as a class to delve deeper into the character traits that each part of speech has. The books on Grammaropolis are coming soon, while students await these, why not encourage your students to write their own stories that include the characters of Grammaropolis? Do you have older students that could use a parts of speech refresher? Have them create stories using the characters for younger students. The characters have already been developed for them! Print out the character cards and post them around the classroom. This will help your visual learners, when you talk about “Pronoun” they will be able to associate it with a character and story. Set up the Grammaropolis games on classroom computers as a literacy center that students can visit to practice their understanding of the parts of speech.

Tips: Grammaropolis is currently holding a contest. Helping Verb is lost, students can draw what they think Helping Verb should look like. Submissions will be accepted until March 31, 2010 (so start this contest with your students today!). Five finalists will be posted on the Grammaropolis blog on April 7 with a winner announced April 22. The winner will recieve a gift pack, there character drawn by a professional and added to the Grammaropolis team, and receive a 20″x30″ poster featuring their character singed by the Powerhouse animators that make the Grammaropolis videos. The winning character will debut in Action Verb’s book in the book series.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Grammaropolis in your classroom.

National Geographic Young Explorer

March 4, 2010March 4, 2010Kelly Tenkely10 Comments6324 views

What it is: National Geographic has fantastic resources for the classroom. Their Young Explorer online content is not to be missed in the primary classroom. This is an online magazine specifically for kindergarten and first grade student (I think second grade students would also benefit). The site lets students listen and read the latest stories from National Geographic Young Explorer. The photographs are breath taking and the reading is very accessible to beginning readers and English language learners. Each portion of the text has a speaker next to it that allows students to listen to the text. Click on the “More Issues” button to access past issues. In the “For Teachers” section, you will find print versions of the teacher’s guides complete with lesson plans, discussion questions, accompanying worksheets, and more. There is a very helpful story planner that gives you upcoming themes. These may be helpful when planning upcoming lessons.

How to integrate National Geographic Young Explorer into the classroom: It can be hard to find quality, accessible informational reading for primary students. National Geographic has solved this problem with Young Explorer. I am amazed that National Geographic is offering these online for free! Struggling readers can listen to the text read to them and read along. English language learners receive support for their reading of the text. The photographs and images are nothing less than excellent. The teacher materials that are included will help you to utilize the magazines and stories effectively.

Read and discuss Young Explorer stories as a class using a projector or interactive whiteboard. Teach your students how to read informational text, and the comprehension strategies that will help them to understand what they are reading. Set up Young Explorer on the classroom computers as a reading center for students to visit during reading time. Take a look at the Young Explorer archives to see if any of the past issues will support the learning you are doing in the classroom.

Tips: In the “For Teachers” section, you will find a link to interactive whiteboard content. This is a link to National Geographic’s premium content that can be found on Promethean Planet. These flipcharts are fantastic and include a teachers guide, printable blackline masters, teaching notes, and offline materials.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using National Geographic Young Explorer in your classroom.

A Lifetime of Color

February 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely8 Comments4275 views

What it is: A Lifetime of Color is a fun interactive environment where students can learn about, and study, art and artists. in these “Art Edventures”, students will discover how great artists made their famous works and learn tips and techniques for create their own masterpieces. A Lifetime of Color is split into activities for primary and intermediate students. In the primary section, students will learn about line and shape, landscapes, color, architecture, industrial design, and portraits. In the intermediate section, students will learn about the history of art, the art of crime detection, Leonardo, color theory, architecture, design and portraits. In the study section of the Lifetime of Color site, students can explore a timeline, artists, and access a glossary. The activities section includes technique demos, projects, and featured artists. The lesson plans are cross curricular, combining art with science, social studies, math, and reading.

How to integrate A Lifetime of Color into the classroom: One of the saddest developments to come out of the budget crisis is the cutting of the arts from education. The arts are so important to learning and development. Art asks students to think differently, creatively, innovatively. Art is a necessary focus in education. A Lifetime of Color is an excellent site to integrate art into a variety of subjects. With ideas for the science, social studies, math, and reading classroom, there are no excuses for not infusing your classroom with art. The activities lead and guide students to look at the world in new ways, to consider detail, and to interpret what they are viewing. This is an excellent site for the art classroom but has activities that will easily extend and enrich any classroom. Use the activities with the whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector or set up A Lifetime of Color as a center on your classroom computers for students to visit.

Tips: Make sure to take a look at the lesson plans for your grade level, there are some fantastic ideas for introducing art to your curriculum.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using A Lifetime of Color in your classroom.

Science Storybooks

February 18, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments6269 views

What it is: Science S torybooks is a great collection of online animated picture books that help teach science in a way that is fun and engaging. There are a lot of animated books to choose from with topics such as applied sciences (electrons, light, etc.), the Universe Cycle (planets, constellations, etc.), Plate Tectonic Cycle (lavas, earthquakes, etc.), Rock Cycle (gems, dinosaurs, etc.), Water Cycle (clouds, weather, etc.), and the Life Cycle (organisms, human biology, plants, the natural environment). The books don’t just tell about science, they take students on a science journey using story. This makes the reading more accessible and student friendly than your typical science book. There are also some very entertaining science songs. I particularly enjoyed the Electricity song…but then I get a kick out of things like this (I think the kids will, too!).

How to integrate Science Storybooks into the classroom: These animated Science Storybooks are the perfect way to introduce your students to new science concepts. They will give just enough information to leave your students wanting to explore some more. The books can be read as a whole class using a projector or interactive whiteboard, or set up as a center on your classroom computers.

I have a group of fifth graders this year who are convinced that they are the cast of High School Musical, they are constantly breaking out in song (it is really something, they all join in and know the words to any song). I have a feeling that my fifth graders would really get into the songs on Storybooks, singing along karaoke style. If it helps them to learn new science concepts, I can’t think of anything better!

Science Storybooks may inspire your students to come up with their own science storybooks. Students could create science storybooks as a slide show, in Animoto, Kerpoof, Shidonni, Storybird, and a host of other sites. As part of the science fair projects, students could create a story to accompany the project that would explain the science involved. And for my fifth grade musical cast, they just may want to come up with their own science song using Myna, Audacity, or Garageband.

Tips: There are some additional science lessons and worksheets for each topic of science, you can use these in conjunction with the stories as needed.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Science Storybooks in your classroom.

Winter Olympic Shidonni Lesson

February 16, 2010Kelly Tenkely15 Comments3989 views

What it is: The Winter Olympics is here! There is so much learning to be done. In my computer lab, my students will be completing the following assignment using Shidonni and various Olympic websites for research. I have created a Weebly site as a research landing page for students.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the Winter Olympics 2010 as a learning event in your classroom.