Week 7

Kid Pix has been around for a long time; I have ignored it because I thought it was just for small kids. But after going through the Atomic Learning lessons I think I’d like to create a few lessons with it. Liked many of the backgrounds and the read aloud tool in small kids mode could be used in some interesting ways. It’s easy to use and would be a good tool to publish student work. Seems as if it would be easy for a teacher to manage and students to use – intuitive.

I have used Read Write Think and Thinkfinity in the past but had forgotten (or perhaps not explored it thoroughly). Really liked that neither required a password etc. Loved the student interactives. Both sites had a polished look and were easy to use; think that will appeal to students and teachers. Tried the Construct A Word game for younger students and was impressed with the look and speed of it. Also, tried the persuasion map which was basically a step by step writing prompt. This would really give a boost to students who have difficulty starting a writing project and staying focused. Found a character map in a story map and a great kid friendly definition of character.

These two sites are a treasure trove for teachers. There are webinars, lesson plans, PowerPoints, and even handouts are supplied. I played a flag game on Thinkfinity. Click links on a beautiful picture of a flag, read a passage, and answer questions correctly to collect stars for flag a flag of your own. All this free of charge. Below is a podcast about the Babymouse series – found on Thinkfinity widgets.

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/podcast-episodes/podcast/babymouse-extravaganza-30555.html


The words in my Wordle project are thoughts about what a library should provide for its patrons.



I went on two scavenger hunts in TerraClues. Definitely want to share this with the teachers on our campus if they don’t know about it already. Our students could benefit from this.

Teachers plan their own lessons for the labs. We have used the portable computer lab in the library. I was so impressed by Read Write Think and Thinkfinity and will definitely use many (and share) lesson plans that I found. The interactive writing prompts would be great for the teachers to use in the computer lab or with the portable lab. They should make writing so much easier for our students who struggle with it. There were soooo many great writing aids on these two sites – can’t wait to share. I will use Kid Pix. Not so sure about TerraClues – need to work with it more. Might be able to make a scavenger hunt based on a book we read.