Privacy Playground

 

What it is: Privacy Playground- The First Adventure of the Three Cyber Pigs is a game designed for ages 8-10. In the game, the Cyber Pigs play on their favorite website and encounter marketing ploys, spam, and a close encounter with an unfriendly wolf. (Think the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf in cyber space.)

How to integrate Privacy Playground into the classroom: The purpose of the Privacy Playground game is to teach kids how to spot online marketing strategies, protect their personal information and avoid online predators. This is a great game to use in the classroom to reinforce Internet safety. Use this game before students use the Internet extensively in class. Play the game throughout the year to remind students of important Internet safety rules.

Tips: The teacher’s guide explains how to play the game, gives background information on the issues of online marketing, spam, and children’s privacy and also provides activities and handouts for use in the classroom.

 

 

Pod’s Mission

 

 

What it is: Pod’s Mission is dedicated to teaching kids science in a fun, interactive environment. Topics include bones, electricity, and solids and liquids.

How to integrate Pod’s Mission into your science classroom: Set up classroom computers during science time as an interactive learning center. Students can begin a unit by exploring on Pod’s Mission, as practice during a unit, or as a culminating activity at the end of the unit.

Tips: Visit the teacher guide for a site overview, curriculum relevance, lesson plans (online and offline), classroom activities, and printable worksheets.

 

 

Max’s Math Adventures

 

 

What it is: Max’s Math Adventures teaches students math skills (kindergarten-second grade) through fun adventures. Skills include shapes, counting to 30, comparing and ordering, linear measurement, whole number addition, sorting and classifying, patterns, addition, subtraction, equal parts (fractions), counting to 100, size comparison, estimation up to 100, time, money, adding 2-digit numbers, simple graphing, number patterns, and concrete multiplication.

How to integrate Max’s Math Adventures into your math curriculum: Set up a math adventure as a center during math time. Use a projector and use a math adventure as an opening to a math unit. Work through the adventure as a class before the new skill is taught.

Tips: Be sure to check out the teachers guide for some great tips on using the site in your classroom!

 

 

Clifford Interactive Story Books

 

 

What it is: Clifford Interactive Story Books features Scholastic’s Clifford the Big Red Dog in four interactive books and four fun games. The games include concentration, make a word, letter match, and sound match.

How to integrate Clifford Interactive Story Books into your classroom: Use Clifford for beginning and emergent readers. Early readers can practice phonemic awareness and phonics skills as they actively listen to words read aloud and select which words to include in their book. Set up the Clifford site as a reading center.

Tips: Find lessons to use with Clifford on the Teacher’s Guide page. Lessons include beginning consonant sounds, letter recognition, short vowels, and long vowels.

 

 

Disney’s Surfswell Island

What it is: Disney’s Surfswell Island is a fun interactive island where students learn about internet safety with Disney characters. Students go on an Indiana Jones type adventure with Mickey Mouse and friends around Surfswell Island to learn internet safety.

How to integrate Disney’s Surfswell Island into the classroom: Before using the Internet in your classroom, make sure your students know the rules of the Internet. Disney’s Surfswell Island is just the place to learn and practice the rules of the Internet. When students complete the challenges of Surfswell Island, they will be able to print out a certificate of completion.

Tips: Use this site several times throughout the year to keep the rules of the Internet fresh in students minds. Be sure to check out the teachers guide for this site!

imbee.com

 

 

What it is: Social networking is now school networking! Imbee allows teachers to extend their classroom beyond four walls and onto the Internet. Establish class blogs and promote online interaction and collaboration. Teachers and Parents can work together closely to guide and teach about social responsibility online while increasing classroom learning.

How to integrate imbee.com into your classroom: Use imbee as a platform for your students to publish their work. This will give students a sense of audience and act as a motivator for students. Students can collaborate on projects and help edit each others work. This is a wonderful tool for teaching students Internet safety and responsibility in a safe, controlled environment.

Tips: Visit imbee.com/teacher for lesson plans, a teacher tour, and to find answers to questions you may have about imbee. The creators of imbee are very open and willing to take teacher suggestions and implement them in new imbee versions.

 

 

Ed Heads

 

 

 

What it is: Ed Heads has various interactive science activities including Simple Machines where students learn about simple and compound machines (lever, pulley, wedge, screw, inclined plane, wheel, axle, and gear); Ed Heads Weather activities where students learn how to report and predict weather; Ed Head Compound Machine where students learn how forces and simple machines work together; and Ed Heads Virtual Knee Surgery.

How to integrate Ed Heads into your science curriculum: Use these interactive activities as a lab in your science class. Ed Heads will create unique, education web experiences that make hard to teach concepts understandable using the interactivity of the Internet.

Tips: Use the Ed Heads teacher guides and lesson plans to enhance your science curriculum.

 

 

Zoho

 

What it is: Zoho is a free office productivity suite. Zoho Writer is an online word processor with collaboration features. There is no download or install, just sign up to start creating documents. Zoho Sheet is an online spreadsheet application where students can create and share spreadsheets on the web. Zoho Show is an online presentation tool to create, edit, publish and show presentations. Zoho Notebook allows you to create, aggregate, and collaborate on content online. Zoho Planner is an online organizer to maintain your todo’s, reminders, notes, and attachments. Zoho Meeting allows for desktop sharing, web conferencing, online meetings, and remote assistance.

How to integrate Zoho into your classroom: Zoho is an amazing tool. Use in place of office suites that require expensive licensing. What is helpful for the classroom is the ability for students to collaborate on projects. Students can begin a project at school and easily access it later at home.

Tips: Sign up requires an email address, if your students do not have an email address, set up a special email account just for Zoho (you can set up one email address that all students use, as long as they have different usernames this shouldn’t be a problem.)

 

 

Try Science

 

 

What it is: Try Science is an interactive websites where students can explore science through various online experiments, field trips, and adventures. There are so many units covered by this site (too many to list here!)

How to integrate Try Science into the science curriculum: Use Try Science to perform one of the activities as a demonstration or in a group. Use the ready made presentations with your whole class (this works well with a projection system). Make science fun with a Try Science game of Survivor. Expand your science curriculum with Try Science online experiments.

Tips: Be sure to visit this teacher page for a wealth of information and ideas for integrating Try Science into your classroom. Try Science also offers wonderful ideas for connecting with parents for more science at home.

 

 

I Know That Science

 

 

What it is: I Know That Science is a collection of games and activities that will teach and encourage students kindergarten through sixth grade in their science knowledge. Activities include, a science lab where students can explore the universe, matching animals and their habitats, energy and forces, optics, underwater expeditions where students can learn about ocean creatures and more.

How to integrate I Know That Science into your science curriculum: Use I Know That Science activities to introduce a new unit, students can construct their own knowledge on a new topic. These activities can also be used as an expansion to your current curriculum.

Tips: I Know That has some advertisements on its site, these can be removed by purchasing a subscription. I use the sites advertisements to teach my students about how to spot ads on a website and to teach why some sites have ads. Check out the teachers guide for each game and activity for some great ideas.