End of the Year Technology Activities

Listed below are websites to assist you with fun end of the year projects and activities.

Math- Thinking Blocks

• If you haven't visited this site yet, it is a must.  Thinking Blocks' colorful bar diagrams engages students while solving problems.  Students can chose the operation and degree of difficulty.

Reading- Into the Book

• Into the Book has highly engaging activities centered around reading strategies.

Writing- Wordle

• Have your class create individual wordles.  Wordles are a collage of words.  The more a word appears, the larger the word will be in the collage.  Students can write down a sentence describing each student in class, once the students receives his/her list of sentences, he/she will type them into the wordle and create their own personalized word collage.
• Tagul.com is also a site that create wordles, but requires a login.  Tagul allows the creator to manipulate the image created by the words.
• *Thank you Pinterest for the pin-spiration

Social Studies- Google Earth

• Through satellite images, students navigate their way through terrain and 3D buildings.   Have your students explore their world and space then report back to the class about they discovered.  If you can't access Google Earth, Google Maps works as well.  

Computer Science- Code.org

• Code.org is a great way to introduce code writing to students.  The site has different activities based on age and experience.  My third graders have really enjoyed this site all year.

If know of a great site please share below in the comment box.
Sarah

A Couple Websites Worth A Closer Look

A Couple Websites Worth A Closer Look

I am always looking for new and better educational websites to incorporate into my class. 
Here are two ( one paid, one free) that I find to be effective and user friendly.

1. IXL   www.ixl.com 

• IXL is a subscription website. Our school is looking at purchasing for grades all next year. 
• On this site you set up individual student accounts. 
  

• This allows each student to practice approximately 250 Math skills and 150 Language Arts skills. 
  

• Each standard has 100 practice questions. 
  

• The teacher has access to multiple reports that show mastery, usage, areas of difficulty and time spent on each standard. 
  
• The students receive badges when they have mastered a standard.
  
  
  

2.  Quill   www.quill.org   

  

• Quill is a daily language practice site. 
• You sign up for an account (free) and create a class. 
• Then you can assign a short passage to students. 
• Each lesson addresses a specific CCS by grade level. 
• Each lesson contains errors that the students must fix. 
• The passage is then corrected and students receive their score. 

Mary Cullen

Using Guided Access On Your Ipad

What is Guided Access? 

• Guided access is a tool on your ipad that lets the teacher restrict the use of the ipad to one app. 
• Guided access requires a passcode to start and exit, therefore requiring the student to stay in the app until released by the teacher. 
• Guided access works well in small groups, but can be labor intensive when used whole class or if students need to use more than one app during one lesson. 
• Guided access should be put in place ahead of time to limit the down time while the teacher sets it up.

How to Use Guided Access:

1. Go to Settings  

2. Go to "General" 

     Select  "Accessibility"

3. Select "Guided Access"

4. You will be prompted to enter a 4 digit code.

    Chose something you can easily remember and do not share with students.

    Also, choose the "accessibility Shortcut" button so you can use the tripe-click shortcut. 

                              

5. Launch the app you want to restrict the students to using that session.

    Here I chose the app " Opposites"

6. Triple click the home button to start the guided access session.

7. Use your finger to draw a circle around the feature(s) you want to disable. 

A box will appear that you can resize as you wish.

Here I disabled the exit button. This keeps students in app until you reenter passcode.

Push start and you are ready to go. 

7. Now when you want to exit the app you triple-click the home button, put in passcode and you touch "end in the upper left corner. 

I use this in my class in small groups, as putting in passcode for all 36 students can take a while. However, it is very effective for keeping students in one app, especially for the more savvy upper graders who may want to exit and use another app without the teacher seeing. 

Mary Cullen