Website Wednesday

It’s time for the last Website Wednesday of 2009! Here are some of the best websites I’ve looked at recently that you can really use.

The Last Snowman Standing Game is a non-techie approach to helping your students practice their addition and subtraction facts. Download a pdf file with the gameboard, directions, ideas for differentiation and more.

Think Math is another fabulous math resource from Harcourt School Publishers. Math activities, organized by grade level, are available for number sense, data analysis, probability, measurement, and more.

Readability is a great tool to help filter out website clutter. With the simple click of a button, the website you want to view can go from cluttered and hard to read, to clean and easy to read. You can even change the font style and size, as well as the margins of the webpage. Why would you want to do this? It cuts through the images and ads, letting the reader focus on what’s really important – the text. The tool might be particularly helpful for students who are easily distracted by too many images or links. You might also find it handy when you want to share the information on a page with students, but ads on it contain material inappropriate for young children.

The Busy Teacher’s Cafe is a great resource site! You can find printable activities for ELA and math, appropriate for a variety of grade levels. Links are also included to online activities and lesson plans for science and social studies topics, as well as seasonal themes. You’ll also want to take a peek at the items listed under the Teacher Resource section. You can find information on teaching strategies, classroom resources, and more. So much can be found at this site that it takes some time to explore, but it’s worth it. You might want to sign up for the free newsletter while you’re there, look for the link at the bottom of their page.

Now for a little something extra… Those of you who are techie, and like to play with new “toys,” might want to check out Glogster EDU. It’s a free, interesting, and interactive way to present material to students, and it’s getting a considerable amount of attention and hype in the edtech world. Here’s an example of a Glogster I found online: Life Cycles. (FYI, that one is not from the EDU site, but the regular Glogster, which has a variety of topics, not all educational, and some questionable for viewing by young children.)

Intrigued? Take a minute and a half to view this video on Glogster EDU.

It’s worth noting that it is a little time consuming to create one of these. So, while it’s definitely possible for our older elementary students to create one on their own, or with a partner, I’m just not sure it’s worth the time that it takes. If you try it, or have your kids try it, drop me a note and let me know how it works out. I’m curious if you think it’s really worth it.

Want to know even more? Here’s a detailed tutorial on Glogster EDU: