Thanksgiving

apples4teacher.com

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and though I thought I would have great activities planned to teach this already, this website proved me wrong. This website has many useful resources which allow a teacher to go above and beyond when teaching a lesson on Thanksgiving.

This website has much strength as it is geared toward all types of learning styles. The crafts and printable activities are more hands-on, while the readings can be more of an auditory style as they read the text aloud. The website informs the viewers what Thanksgiving is all about, and when it is celebrated each year. Also, this website provides tons of activities which the students and teacher would both enjoy. It also leaves room for higher order thinking; the website shows pictures of two different turkeys, and asks the viewer to find the differences between each turkey. On the other hand, this website has some limitations which could be improved. The website would be more useful if it had some more visuals on the website. This would definitely be more useful to EELs. For example, the website could have some videos and games. These interactive activities would be helpful to the students learning.

The resources provided would be great to use in the classroom and at home. One activity mentioned on the website is the “Thankful Paper Chain” activity. In this activity, the students make a regular paper chain, however they write something they are thankful for on each piece of the chain. This paper chain could be a decoration for the Thanksgiving party in the classroom. Also, another activity mentioned is the Thanksgiving tree. In this activity, the children make hand cut-outs, write something or someone they are thankful for, and then place it as a leaf on the big class tree. If the class had a Thanksgiving party, the students could cook some of the foods listed on the website at home. The class could have a potluck party. Also, the students could read the story listed on the website with their family at home.

Evaluated by: Shaheen Lakhani

holidays.kaboose.com

The Thanksgiving holidays are times for us to reflect and be thankful for the food nature has provided us with. This website is for kids in grades K-6, and it is also very beneficial for the teacher. This website enables kids to explore the history of Thanksgiving, and it also has many games available. However, I don’t think I would use these games in class because they are kind of difficult to get to. With this website, I would put the history section up on the projector and read it out loud using the popcorn method with my students. Then I would have the kids write a summary of what they believe Thanksgiving is and draw a picture, if appropriate for their age level. Obviously if they are younger I might have them draw a picture of the Pilgrims and Indians feasting and tell me what they drew. I like that this website has a list of books teachers can purchase depending on the children’s age level. This makes the teacher’s task really easy if he/she were looking to find an appropriate level book. However, I feel like there are many limitations to this website. The first thing that really bothered me was this annoying ad that pops up every time you click on the page or go into another part of the site. Because of this, I would not have the kids searching the site on their own. The site is also not very appealing to the eye. I don’t think children would really want to read the information, which is why I would choose to do an interactive activity. I think that this website would be good for ELL’s if the activity is interactive because it helps the kids to have a thorough understanding of the reading material before they try and do the lesson part. Overall, I think that this website is okay, but I am sure there are better ones out there.

Evaluated by: Tori Lackey

scholastic.com

This website is an amazing resource for teachers who are working on a Thanksgiving unit and moves beyond the pilgrim and Indians that is typical of most Thanksgiving units. From the main page the teacher is able to direct students to different navigation tabs, including a home tab, voyage of the mayflower, daily life and a teacher resource tab. This website is best for older elementary students, probably grades 3-5.

One thing that is very impressive about this website is that it uses many different modes to display information. Each text also has a speaker, so that the student can listen to the text if they are not able to read or are not proficient in reading. Hearing the information orally might help the student to better process the academic content of the lesson rather than focusing on the correctly reading the text. This will also help ELL students complete homework assignments because they can listen to the text when looking for information. This website is a great resource for the classroom and for homework assignments because they are follow good principles of effective teaching methods. The website displays the information in a variety of ways, including videos, interactive maps and diagrams and photos.

One of the things this website does that is very interesting is allow the students to take a virtual field trip to historic Plymouth. This is a great way to allow the students to feel more connected with the academic content and help them imagine what life was really like for the Pilgrims. These videos will also help scaffold or provide some background knowledge for students who are not used to the American Thanksgiving traditions.

If I were using this resource in my classroom, I would probably start with the link to the voyage of the mayflower. I think I would take the time to also have the students work on a personal narrative where they researched where their family came from and allow them to explore their own immigrant story. I think this would be a great exercise because it would allow students to explore their family past and would allow recently immigrant students to wire about their personal immigration story. This exercise would help the class realize they have something in common with each other.

Evaluated by: Sarah Roddy

You are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving

This is a great website for teaching children about the first Thanksgiving. The student becomes a historian and investigates the first Thanksgiving. The website features two children that walk the student through the investigation. One is a descendant of the Wampanoag people and the other is a descendant of an English colonist. They both have a relative in their family that was at the First Thanksgiving Feast in 1621. The children direct the student through six steps to investigate the First Thanksgiving. There is also a glossary and “Visit the Expert” feature the student can go to at any time to help them with words they do not understand or historical references that are unfamiliar to them. These two resources would be helpful for ELLs who may not be familiar with the Thanksgiving celebration. The resources will give them the support they need for vocabulary and background knowledge they do not know.

The first step is determining which information are facts and which are myths about the first Thanksgiving. The next step shows a letter written by Edward Winslow, a Plymouth colonist who was at the feast, describing the first Thanksgiving. It is written in Old English, but the student can click on a magnifying glass that will translate each line into Modern English for him to read. The website will also read the letter to the student. This feature would be helpful for ELLs.

The next two steps teach the student about the Wampanoag people and then the English Colonists. It teaches the student about the importance of knowing the different cultures and their perspective on a historical event. It also points out the Wampanoag people use Oral History passed down through the generations. A teacher could discuss the differences between the two cultures and what they each brought to the Thanksgiving feast.

The next step is “The Path to 1621” which highlights the events leading up to the first Thanksgiving celebration. It asks the student to be a historian and explore how the Wampanoag and the colonists felt about each other in 1621 by listening to several accounts given by colonists and Wampanoag people. The student learns that history should not be told from the historian’s perspective, but from the perspectives of the people who were part of the event.

The final step is to “Share What You’ve Discovered”. It shows the students different ways that historians share what they have discovered through books, movies, exhibits and demonstrations. It then directs the students to make a presentation of what they have discovered about the First Thanksgiving through their investigation. There are options for the presentations so ELLs can choose the option that they feel most comfortable with.

There is a teacher guide on the website which gives great ideas for classroom activities. It suggests a previewing activity of making a large chart about Thanksgiving with three columns, “What I Think I Know”, “What I Want to Know”, “What I Have Learned”. The students can work in groups to come up with the first two columns. The class then gets together and adds their ideas to one large class chart. The same thing can be done to fill in the “What I Have Learned” column after they have completed the website activities.

This website brings history alive! It allows the student to feel like they are at the first Thanksgiving celebration. The student explores the facts to draw their own conclusions by viewing the event from both the perspective of the Wampanoag people and the English colonists.

Evaluated by: Angie Jones

everythingesl.net

This website was designed to help teachers prepare lesson plans and receives tips on teaching English Language Learners in a classroom. This website was started by Dr. Debbie Zacarian who also has a book on teaching ELLs. She has many lessons for different topics that would help aide an ELL in content-based learning.

The website breaks the lesson plan down to the main points like what the lesson topic is, the proficiency/grade level, the content concepts and skills, the vocabulary needed, and the instructional sequence for different level of ESL students. Although there are different instructional sequences for the two levels, they both start off with reading a book with pictures of the pilgrims and the mayflower. The website even gives suggestions on which book you should read to help with the lesson. The website gives an arts and craft activity that can go along with the Thanksgiving lesson about the Mayflower. For older students and students that are more advanced in English there is a downloadable mini booklet where students can fill in blank spaces about the Mayflower as they are learning the information. There are many different downloadable links to different crafts ideas.

I think this website is very helpful in general not just for the topic of Thanksgiving, but for various topics as well. The website is really helpful in which is not only gives you the instructional sequence for grades 1-4 beginners, but also for advanced ESL students. There are instructions for differentiating instruction for different students, which is highly probable in a general education classroom. I also caught onto the fact that many of the activities in the lesson plan dealt with arts and crafts which is helpful to ELLs. English Language Learners seem to learn best with working with pictures and images along with the content. I think this lesson plan illustrates principles of good teaching because it is pertaining to all students as it gives different ideas you can do for ELLs. The content that is being learned is the same, just the way it is being taught differs.

Evaluated by: Diana Chong

Recycling

Recyclezone.org

I think this website provides some great age appropriate information about waste, recycling and landfills. This website would be great for the middle grades, probably 2-4. I think the website has some great information, but this information is not presented in a verity of ways, making its text inaccessible for some ELL students.

The text is broken up into different sections, including “what is waste,” “where do we put it” and “we’ve got to do it…or else.” I think it is good that the text is broken up into different sections with bold headings. This will help ELLs know when they are moving to a different main idea. I do think the website could use bold words within the text to help ELLs see main points or help them identify the information that is the most important.

I think this website would not be good for ELLs with limited English because there are no graphs or graphic organizers as to the different types of recyclable material, or even what can and can’t be recycled.

I do like the actual material that is covered in the text. For example the text talks about how recycling is more than just reusing something. The text explains how the process to make something new uses more energy than using recycled material to make something new. I like that it explains that there is more to recycling than just saving raw materials, such as tress, it is also about saving energy.

If I were to use this website as a resource in my classroom I would probably use it as an option for the kids to explore but not make the kids use it. For example I would provide them with a list of links with information about recycling. I would have them work in groups and then have them make a list of the environmental benefits to recycling or maybe a pro/con list for recycling.

childrenoftheearth.com

This is a great website that provides animation, text and oral reading for each slide that is played. The website is very informative and helps students learn where aluminum used in soda cans comes from, how it is made and how students can help conserve energy and resources by recycling. The paper link also uses animation, text and readings to help the students learn what items are made of paper and why recycling paper is important for tree conservation. There is then a link that offers an interactive quiz type game that allows the students to test the recycling knowledge.

I think this is a great website for ELLs because the slide shows are narrated so the student can use their oral language comprehension. Then the most important ideas are then reinforced with text so the students know which information in the presentation to attend to. I also think the animations will keep the students focused on the slide show. The game is also a great way to test the students knowledge of what was presented in the slide shows but in a low stress way. The game also has links to back to the slide show if the answer to the question was incorrect.

I think if I were to use this link in my class I would divide the class into two groups. I would have one group work on a presentation about where aluminum comes from and have the other group work a presentation about where paper products come from. I would then have the two groups teach each other about the topic they did not cover. I would then have all the students work together to make a list about why recycling is important. Then as a class project we would work on increasing the frequency that the schools recycle rate and reduce the amount of trash the school produces.

EEK

This website offers a variety of links to environmental facts and information. There are links called critter corner, nature notes, our earth, cool stuff, get a job and teacher pages. One of the cool things about this website is there is also a link to the environmental education for kids in Spanish.

I think the fact that this website offers a Spanish link is great and would be really helpful in developing literacy for ELL students who’s first language is Spanish. The down side to the Spanish link is that the information in each of the six previously listed links are not the same as the English pages.

Although the information in the Spanish and English pages is not the same, this might be a great way for students to work with partners to help translate for the other student. For example, you could pair and English speaker with a Spanish speaker and have the Spanish speaking student translate and help teach the English speaking student and like wise the other way. This activity could help the English speaking student see how hard it is when the teacher is speaking a different language and might foster a since of understanding and patients between the students.

nationalgeographic.co.uk

This is a fun game link, where the students have to sort as much trash as possible in two minutes. The students have to decide if the items are recyclables, compostable or trash. I think this is a fun way for students to practice putting different items in different bins. This really makes students think about if something can be recycled or composted.

This website would be great for ELLs because it is a game and uses pictures of everyday items. The students would not need to have advanced English language skills to learn the concept that some items can be recycled and composted.

This website is not good for academic content because it does not really teach anything. The teacher would have to first cover the concept of recycling, composting as well as what items can be placed in each of these categories. If I were using this link in my class I would use it as an option during free time. If we had a class computer I would leave this link open during free time so the students could practice the academic concept or recycling in a no pressure, fun, and relaxing way.

Evaluated by: Sarah Roddy

Butterfly Life Cycle Links

KLRU.org

This website is based off the local PBS television station and provides many different resources for children’s activities. The main website in general has many activities and topics that they describe. There is even a kid’s tab with informational videos.

There is a specific section of the website dedicated to butterflies and their life cycles. The first pdf file is a basic overview of how a teacher should conduct the whole lesson on the butterfly life cycle. There is a very important topic that this website covers and that is the participation of parents. There is a sample letter that should be sent home to allow parents to know what their child will be learning and doing. There are a total of 6 lessons that the teacher will have to cover and each lesson has more detail on directions in other pdf files. Each lesson covers a specific topic along with a hands-on activity to help assist learning the content needed. Each lesson plan is very organized in describing what the objectives are, the materials needed, as well as the dialogue the teacher can use. There are worksheets attached at the end that students can work on while learning the lesson.

I think this is a very good website that is content based on the butterfly life cycle. Content is clearly covered because the activities are teaching the content and the worksheets are reviewing the content that had been learned. There is a vocabulary sheet that provides definitions of some important terms dealing with the butterfly life cycle. There are some possible areas of limitation especially for the teacher because the lessons are so set that the teacher may feel like they don’t play a major role in teaching the children. The teacher should be able to freely customize the given lesson plans to fit their classroom.

Evaluated by: Diana Chong

Butterfly Webquest

This website is a guided project for 1^st graders to learn about the butterfly life cycle. It was created by a 1^st grade teacher in Massachusetts. It is designed so that the students use the website to guide them through several activities which teach them about the butterfly life cycle. The website provides explicit directions to the students. It starts with an introduction which tells the students the 4 stages of the butterfly life cycle that they will be learning about. Next it informs the students of the tasks that they will complete during the project. Then the process is described in detail that the students will follow while working on the project. The process specifies that the teacher will assign partners for the students to work in pairs on the project.

Task one directs the students to click on links to different websites where they will read about and see photographs of the 4 stages of the butterfly life cycle. The website provides questions for the students to discuss with their partner when they visit each link. The final website they visit has a sheet illustrating the butterfly life cycle which they print out and color individually.

Task two consists of four art projects, each one representing a stage of the life cycle. The student is required to read the directions from the website and each complete their own art projects.

In task three the partners are to discuss what they have learned. There are questions to guide their discussion. After their discussion, each student writes four things that he has learned.

The website also provides an evaluation for the students to view, that shows the specific objectives that they will be evaluated on. In addition, there are books listed that are available for the students to read with the reading grade level included. There are also additional websites that the students can visit to learn more about the butterfly life cycle.

I think this website is a great resource for teachers and students to learn about the butterfly life cycle. It provides a complete lesson plan with clear objectives, explicit directions, multiple resources for learning the material, several different ways for the students to demonstrate their understanding of the material, and criteria to evaluate student performance.

The teacher can use large group instruction to begin the project by asking children to share with the class things that they already know about butterflies and their life cycle. The teacher can then read a book to the class about the life cycle. Next the teacher can assign partners and explain the process of the project.

One limitation of the project is that few classrooms have enough computers for all of the partners to be on the website at the same time. The teacher would need to set up stations in the classroom with a station for each task. Then the teacher would divide the partners into three groups and they would rotate to each station to complete the tasks.

This website allows the students to work together in small groups and take responsibility for reading the directions and completing each task. It provides the students with the experience of using the internet to learn about the life cycle. It requires them to demonstrate their understanding of the concept through art work, group discussion, and writing. The teacher could conclude the project by directing a class discussion where she asks each group to share their answer to one of the questions that they discussed with their partner.

This project would be successful with ELL’s because it gives them the opportunity to work together with another student and practice communicating in English. The teacher can pair the ELL with a native speaker that can scaffold their discussions as needed. This project also allows ELL’s to demonstrate their understanding of the project through art work, where they can feel successful regardless of their English language proficiency. It also requires them to express their understanding through writing, but they are given support from their partner if they need it.

The teacher could also ask each group to use the evaluation on the website to complete a self-evaluation. Then the teacher could conduct her own evaluation and compare the two evaluations with each group.

By using this website as a resource for teaching the butterfly life cycle, a teacher can provide an experience where the students take co-ownership in learning the subject.

Evaluated by: Angela Jones

Billybear4kids.com

This website allows me to believe that I can become a great teacher if I have sources like this one. It includes various activities a teacher can use in and outside of the classroom to build the students understanding about the life cycle of a butterfly. I have so many ideas from this website, so I hope I get to teach about the life cycle one day in my classroom.

The website has many resources for critical thinking. First off, after teaching you the basic information of the life cycle of a butterfly, it consists of various activities the students can work on to build their knowledge. The website included butterfly flashcards in which you can tell what kind of a butterfly you are observing. This would give the students an idea of the different types of butterflies. Another activity which orders higher level thinking is the section which compares butterflies and moths. The students would really have to use their knowledge to differentiate between the two.

Strength of the website is that it consists of various engaging activities. Many of the activities relate to the students life; like the butterfly themed birthday. This way, they would be more engaged in learning about the life cycle since it is relating to them and they are having fun with the topic. However, although the website has much strength, it could improve. The website would be better if it had a video to show the life cycle of a butterfly. This way, the students could better visualize it to understand it better.

The resources on this website could be used both in class, and for homework. One creative way to use it in class would be to have a butterfly themed party with the resources given on the website. For the party, the teacher could set up a few stations consisting of different activities. For example, one station could be set up to read about butterflies. Another could be for worksheets, crosswords, and flashcards, while another station could be to make window butterflies. Of course, all of these resources are found on the website. This activity would use different teaching strategies; hands-on, audio, visual, etc. For homework, the students could do some of the activities at their home computer. They could also use the resource on the website, “butterflies in my garden,” to figure out which flowers they see butterflies on. The previous activity stated is definitely a higher level thinking activity.

The images on the website, plus the activities, would really assist second language learners in learning the life cycle of a butterfly. The website illustrates principles of good teaching and effective methodological practices. It appeals to all of the learning strategies. For example, it consists of pictures, readings, crafts, online games, puzzles, etc. Also, they have activities which are meaningful to the students.

Overall, I believe this website is filled with numerous activities which can be used in various aspects. Students who will learn about the butterfly life cycle will be young, and this website is geared toward young children. If I am to teach about the life cycle of a butterfly, I will definitely use this website. It allows the teacher to become very creative while using the resources as well.

Evaluated by: Shaheen Lakhani

Kidsbutterfly.org

While many teachers may find it difficult to demonstrate the life of a butterfly in a fun and engaging way, this website is an awesome site dedicated to butterflies. This website is specifically for a teacher who is in need of a fun lesson for children grades 3-5. The Home page of this site gives you many options in a Menu bar on the left. These options include pictures of the life cycle, a photograph gallery of all kinds of butterflies, and frequently asked questions and answers about butterflies and moths.

In my opinion, this website is very insightful for new teachers because it gives you all the tools needed to educate your students. However, the best feature of this site is the lesson plan added under the Teaching and Learning Tools section. After clicking on this option in the menu bar you will see a lot of new options appear. If you click on the choice titled The Life Cycle of a Butterfly, you are presented with a great lesson plan that actively engages the students and checks the students comprehension. It begins by listing all the materials you are going to need, and then starts with a description of what you will do in the lesson. First you will read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to your students. After this you will take out the four laminated pictures of the butterflies life cycle (these are already prepared) and explain the four stages a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly as you show your students the pictures. I really like this activity because it gives the student’s a visual image of what is happening to the caterpillar as it grows. Now to actively engage the students in the learning process you will have them act out the life of a butterfly. To do this you will have them demonstrate each stage with their bodies. For example, in the first stage the caterpillar is an egg, so the students might sit on the floor with their knees tucked in to represent they are an egg. By doing this activity you are able to check every students understanding of the life cycle at the same time. I think this is also great for students who may have ADD or ADHD becomes it gets them physically involved. This activity is also really good for ELL’s because it enables them to demonstrate what they know in a fun way and with low pressure. These students, who may be struggling with oral or written language, will not feel the pressure of the entire class as they do this activity. The children can come up with their own unique way to express what a butterfly looks like in a particular stage. Finally you give the student’s the four pictures of the life cycle and have them color in the pictures, and depending on the age, have them write or copy what happens during the four stages. I really like that this activity is flexible, and it checks to make sure the student’s really understand the concept on an individual level. This activity also enables you to vary the difficulty and engage students of all language levels. Because the pictures are the same as the laminated ones, the children will already be familiar with them and the repetition will help them store the images in their long-term memory.

In conclusion, I found this website to be very useful for helping young kids understand the concept of the life of a butterfly. While there are many upsides to this website there is one limitation. The only negative thing about this website is that it is strictly specific to butterflies. If a teacher wanted to know about other insects he/she would not find help from this website.

Evaluated by: Tori Lackey

Thebutterflysite.com

This website offers a variety of different information and activities relating to the butterfly life cycle for elementary age students, probably 2-5 grade. Under the Life cycle link, the student comes to a web page that is has a general overview of the four stages of the butterfly life cycle. As the student continues to scroll down the page each stage is explained further with bold headings and pictures beside the text to illustrate what the text is explaining. Then during the last two stages, the pupa stage and the adult butterfly stage, the website has time a time lapsed video that shows how the caterpillar forms the chrysalis, as well as how the adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. At the bottom of the page there are additional links to coloring pages, information on different species of butterflies, and the migration pattern of the monarch butterfly.

There are several things that this website does that I though would be helpful for ELL students. First the layout of the information follows a very logical progression and is organized in a way that is progressive as the student scrolls down the page, making navigation optimal. I also like how the text and information is supported with living photos, meaning the pictures are of real eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterfly. I think the real photos make the text more relatable. Also the use of subtitles makes sure the important information is accessible to ELL students that might not understand the vocabulary used in the main text. One feature of the website that I think is extremely valuable to students is the animation of how the butterfly forms the chrysalis. I think the video is helpful because this stage of the lifecycle is very complex, and the video will illustrate what the text is describing. This is the same reason I think the second video is a great tool for ELL students, because it helps show the complex process of the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis.

Although I think this website is a great resource for ELL students learning about the butterfly life cycle, I think there are some aspects where the website falls short. I think this website could be better if key words within each section of the text had been bolded. Such as “Butterfly eggs are usually laid on the leaves of plants…” I am also somewhat disappointed with the links to activities at the bottom of the website. I wish there was some kind of labeling/matching activity rather than just coloring pages. Although I think the activities fall short, the link to the migration website is a great segway into connecting a science concept to geography, seasons, as well as measurements (distance traveled, time elapsed, etc).

If I were using this resource in my classroom I would probably use it as a primary source for information, letting the students work in groups to read the text about each of the four stages, as well as watch the videos that accompany stages three and four. I would then have the students split up into four groups, where the would prepare a poster about the stage, including what the organism looks like, where they are located, what they are doing and how long they are in this stage. I would then have the students put together each poster to form a time line of the life cycle of the butterfly. I would also get a butterfly habitat for the classroom so the students could watch first hand the process they just read about online. I would then probably segway into a geography lesson that would explain the migration pattern of the monarch butterflies, focusing on season, temperature, climate as well as land features, such as rivers, lakes and mountains and how they are shown on maps.

Evaluated by: Sarah Roddy

Fun Literacy Websites for Kids

1. Paw Park- Kangaroo Confusion Game

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/pawpark/pawpark.html

The link I will be evaluating for blog 3 will be the paw park game on the Gamer Goo website. Basically how this game works is that you have different kangaroos wearing t-shirts bearing capitalized and lower cased letters. The objective of the game is to have the capital form of the letter match with its lower case counterpart, or vice-versa. So at the start of the game, you are given a kangaroo with a letter on its shirt and you have to match it with the correct lower or capital letter. You are given four different answer choices to choose from and you must choose the right one to advance. This is a type of game that helps English language learners learn the alphabet and the lower and capital forms of the letters. It is a great way to practice recognizing the letters and it also sounds out the letter for the learner to hear, so they know how to properly say the letter. The game also provides colorful, playful images that are fun, but appear to be geared more towards children starting to learn their first language. There is also music that is cheerful and gives a fun atmosphere, and a narrator that helps explain the rules of the game and gives guidance. It is definitely a fun way to learn the alphabet while getting good practice, so it is a worthy try for anyone starting to learn the English Language. This is one of many games that English Language Learners can play to get the practice they need while having fun play them. Included in this game are word/letter recognition, pronunciation, and introduction to spelling and writing.

Evaluated by Samuel Martinez

2. Giggle Poetry: The #1 Fun Poetry Site for Kids on the Web

http://www.gigglepoetry.com

I remember growing up and in school, I would always here my friends talk about how they didn't like poetry because it was so hard! I can recall to my first few poem assignments back in elementary school. We did a Japanese haiku poem sometime during 4th or 5th grade and I thought it was a lot of fun! But some of my other friends didn't... Even when I was taking literature classes here at UT, I would hear my fellow peers talk about how they didn't like poetry either!

Giggle poetry is a nice site for children who are learning to write poems and want to publish something online. They offer a HUGE selection of student-written poems from all grade levels in elementary school You have students from first grade to fifth grade submitting poems. I find this to be a good resource for other students to read poems and gain inspiration. Since they are written by students, ELL's and native English speakers will have that comprehensible input (i+1). They'll be able to identify more with what poems are about if they are the same age as the author.

The website is very easy to navigate and has THOUSANDS of poems – from many everyday topics like teachers and principals to excuses to school activities to homework and much more. All the topics can be easily related to students of all ages.

In addition, it has interviews with professional writers and poets where students can learn about what it's like to be a poet. What others' inspirations are and just information about their childhood experiences. There are also a lot of fun activities and games that do with poems. They have these fun things called fill-in-the-blank poems, where there is a poem with words missing and users can add in whatever words they like.

I think it's a great website to help upcoming poem writers. It provides a lot of information and examples on writing poems. Also, it's very colorful and cartoon oriented, so it caters to children of all ages.

Evaluated by Thaison Nguyen

Literary Games

Match beginning sounds

Paw Park: Sassy Seals: http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/pawpark3/pawpark3.html

Paw Park is a game site from GameGoo containing all different types of games and activities to help improve on or practice differnet aspects of literacy. What I like about this particular website is how it is geared directly toward children. There are bright colors, fun animals, animations, voices, etc. The game I am focusing on is called Sassy Seals. When you first click into the game, it starts right away stating a word. There is a dad seal and a son seal it looks like. The dad says a word. Next to them sits a huge teacup with five big fish on top. The whole point of this game is to match BEGINNING sounds of words. After the initial word is stated, the five fish then each state a word. Only one is the correct match, and begins with the same sound as the word the daddy seal gives. It is a little bit of a challenge, because they give some words that are similar, or even rhyme the initial word, but are not the correct answer. However, the dad is wearing a hat that says “Replay” so that the children are allowed to replay over and over the initial word that they must find a match for. Also, simply scrolling over any of the fish causes them to also repeat their words. The site is highly motivating, as it encourages kids to get a certain amount of fish in the cup. Each time they choose an answer, the little seal tosses a worm at the fish they chose. If the answer is incorrect, he says “Try Again” and nothing happens. But if the answer is correct, the blue fish turns a pretty orange and yellow color and drops into the cup. This gives kids a fun and obtainable goal. They are having fun and working on their literacy skills without even knowing it. I love that this really hope the children to focus on only the beginning sound. They improve not only their listening skills, but even their ability to sound out words themselves. They develop phonemic awareness, grasping the ability to sound out each and every part of a word, rather than just trying to memorize what a word looks like or guess how it sounds. When learning a new language or even developing a first language, it is critical to know how each and every letter sounds. This is something I constantly worked on with my tutee.

Evaluated by: Kayla Acosta

Spelling Bee

http://www.quia.com/pop/13123.html

This website in my honest opinion is not very good at all. This is a simple game that does not have much depth to it. A child will sit at his desk and chose between two words to see which one is spelled correctly and if the child gets the answer correct he is only awarded a point. The website has nothing to keep the child’s attention and is very dull. If you really want to take your time to become a better speller there are much better ways, but this way is definitely not the best. If a teacher would like to use this website to his or her advantage they would have to do a lot of setting up and this might not be worth their time. Also I did not see any way of choosing a difficulty level which would seem pretty ridiculous if you are trying to improve your 1^st graders spelling skills. I do not like this website at all and I do not recommended using it.

Evaluated by: Michael Dang

http://www.ictgames.com/dinosaurwordsrepeat.html

This game is great. It helps with pronunciation and reading. You have to match the word you have heard to the corresponding word underneath the egg. I think boys especially would respond positively to this game because the graphics are dinosaurs and eggs. I think this game, however, is very minimalist and only requires two aspects of language learning. This game will be very beneficial to phonology though. It is a great pedagogical tool for listening and reading!

Evaluated by: Kater Hoffner

Spelling City

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Practice spelling the words in your word bank.

The objective of the Spelling City is to improve on spelling skills. I found that the Spelling City website not only improves spelling, but reinforces a student’s understanding of the word as well. The website creates games for the student to play that involve synonyms, antonyms, and sentence creation which help the student with semantics and really grasping the concept. Through word scrambles, word searches, hang man, and other related activities, the students are presented with the word in several ways, letting them explore the proper arrangement of the letters.

This is a valuable resource for students, parents, and teachers because it allows them to input their own spelling words without limiting them to activities the teacher has provided. Students are able to work at their own pace which provides a less threatening environment because students can practice their semantics, sentence structure, and reinforce their spelling in a more autonomous atmosphere—something that is always great for ELLs.

Evaluated by: Karynna Garcia

Spelling Activities

Our group visited websites that help students with spelling.

1. Spelling City
www.spellingcity.com


Spelling city can be used for any age group. I think it could be very useful when studying for a spelling test. The site will test a student after they enter their spelling words. During the test they can click a button and the computer will say the word by itself and in a sentence. I think that is very helpful because the student will know how the word sounds and how to use it in a sentence. There is also a place on the website that will help you learn the words. It will say each letter of the word and then the word in a sentence. This technique can be helpful when a student is having trouble spelling certain words. The website also has a link for activities and games. All the activities and games can be played with the student’s spelling words. I really like this website because I use to have trouble spelling words. I would have found it fun and interesting to play games with my spelling words instead of writing them and trying to memorize them. This website is also very useful because any student in any grade can use it. It is all centered on the student’s spelling words. I would recommend this website to any student especially to a student who is struggling with spelling

Evaluated by: Ashley Chumchal

2. a. Academic Skill Builders: Spelling Bee
www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/spelling-bees/

This website has many tools to use in all areas of a child’s learning. Academic Skill Builders are online educational video games that offer a powerful approach to learning basic math, language arts, vocabulary, and thinking skills.

The spelling activity the website has is great for individuals or multi-players. The website even gives you the NCTM standard strand in case a teacher wants to use it in her classroom for children who are working toward a specific goal. The standard for this game is: Spell correctly high-frequency and commonly misspelled words appropriate to grade level. The object of the game is for students to build beehives by correctly spelling the given computer-voiced words. Whoever builds the highest beehive in the time allowed wins. 1-4 players can play at once. The computer calls out a word and the students must choose the letters and spell it correctly, if they choose the wrong letter, the bee will not add it to the beehive. After an allotted amount of time, whoever has the most words wins. It then gives the students their statistics including their accuracy rate and any word they missed.

I think one of the best things about this activity is the children can play together or alone. The games on the website are also arcade type games which hold a child’s interest while teaching them things at the same time. The website offers numerous spelling games and other games in different areas of learning as well. The games are also research based so you know the children are getting the most out of their time playing the games. Teachers can bring this website into their classrooms with the confidence that their curriculum is being strengthened in regards to state standards. Addressing these standards, in turn, prepares students for the high-stakes, standardized tests that are ever present in elementary education.

The only problem I found with this game was you cannot choose a grade level for the words so using it with younger kids maybe a little difficult because the words are a little more advanced, probably aimed at 3rd grade.
**This was Calli’s first one but since I(Yire) put them all together late, she had to do it again. T.T But I(Yire) decided post both because she introduces her first activity very well.

2. b. Everyday Spelling
www.everydayspelling.com

Everyday Spelling is a website created by the book publisher, Pearson. The website is an online workplace for teachers, parents, and students. The publishers, Pearson Scott Foresman's mission is to provide the very best educational materials in the world. The user can choose a spelling list from grade 1 to grade 8. It is also nice that the website offers different ways of downloading the lists so that it will be compatible for your computer. Under each grade you can find the 25 most frequently misspelled words, audiotape scripts, and spelling strategies. The audiotape scripts have several different lessons under each category. This could help students who are ELLs to hear the words along with seeing them. All of the tips the website provides are backed by research which means they should be useful in the classroom. The only downside I saw for the website is it seems to be more focused on teachers and parents rather than the children. If it had some games for children centered on the spelling words, it would be more useful to the children.
Evaluated by: Callista Young

3. Kids Spell
http://www.kidsspell.com/

Kidsspell.com is a great resource for teaching spelling. It is absolutely free and provides fun ways to improve students spelling. The activities provided will significantly improve student’s ability to learn and retain spelling words. The website provides over six thousand words to practice so it is very useful for many different students depending on the level they are at. You cans select from one of the spelling lists provided or you can create your own. Custom spelling lists can be saved and linked to and from a classroom website. This is great and convenient for teachers. This list can then be used with one or more students to practice current spelling words. All the games and activities on this website will use your own spelling list, reinforcing what is being taught in the classroom. Or you can utilize the compiled series of over four hundred spelling lists. These lists begin with lesson one which is age appropriate for ages six or seven and progress through lesson four hundred and twelve which progress to ages fifteen to eighteen years old. There are numerous activities that if all competing the 412 lessons will take approximately ten years if completed at a pace of one per week. The spelling games have been designed to improve spelling abilities in a fun engaging way that students will love.
Evaluated by: Jennifer Porton

4. Stellar Speller
http://www.candlelightstories.com/games/stellar-speller/

This website helps students with first grade level spelling. There is a fun game that allows them to guess and spell the name of the picture. When the player guesses wrong or uses hints, he does not get any points that raise the power. He is allowed to use hint that reveals the letter one at a time. After clicking the hint once, the first letter is shown. If he keeps clicking, more letters are written. When I get frustrated with certain words, hints help me. This website is a stress-free game website.  After going through once, the player can do it over again and again until he becomes familiar with all the words. Even though there are only little more than 25words, this website can be used for a one-time class activity. This could be a fun activity where a teacher pull out and play with students or test them. And also a good application for this website would be teachers making an activity similar to this website where they prepare pictures and students guess the word. By playing this type of spelling game, students will be more interested in learning because it is fun.
Evaluated by: Yire Lee

Grammar and Writing

These sights are designed to help children with their grammar and writing skills.

Clean Up Your Grammar: http://www.missmaggie.org/scholastic/cleanup_eng_launcher.html

“Clean up Your Grammar” is an online game from the site “Maggie’s Earth Adventures, LPC.” The mission of this website is to help children learn about real life environmental problems. They state that “learners respond best to integrated material presented in meaningful situations.” With this particular game, “Clean up Your Grammar,” students “recycle the trash that washes up on the shore by dropping the words in the right bin.” If the children make any mistakes the beach becomes dirty with litter.

The goal of the game is to recycle 10 pieces of trash. Each piece of trash has a word on it that’s either a noun or a verb. The children have to click on the words and drag them into their correct recycle bin. The recycle bins are labeled “Nouns” and “Verbs.” The game has a lot of sound effects and there are two different levels to choose from. If a child makes a mistake and puts a word in the wrong recycle bin, the game makes a noise and puts a big ‘X’ and the word ‘incorrect.’ The trash that the word was attached to then gets thrown on the beach.

Some of the strengths of this game are that it’s enjoyable to do and provides children with some information on the environment. It also teaches them an important difference between verbs and nouns. However, this game would be restricted to a very limited age group and some very specific words are continually recycled within the game. It would not be long before children master both levels and are ready to move on to something else.

I also think this would be a good game to use when teaching the specific concepts of verbs and nouns and I would probably use it in my classroom as a fun way to solidify those ideas. But children would definitely need some background information on what verbs and nouns are before playing. This game is also relatively applicable and useful for multiliteracy classrooms because there are visuals to help children with the concepts. Nevertheless, children would need to have a basic understanding of the difference between verbs and nouns and would need to know and understand the vocabulary words used in the game.

Overall, I think this is a useful game for solidifying the concept of verbs and nouns. Children should enjoy playing it and feel good about keeping the beach clean. The game can also teach them how important it is to recycle and they will hopefully be able to apply this in their own life. It would have been a great game to play during class on Earth Day this past week, or in a unit focused on educating children about environmental issues.

(Evaluated by Clare Cryar)

Toon University: http://www.toonuniversity.com/aol/aol_language_k2.asp

Toon University is an online activities website geared towards elementary age students, more specifically 1st & 2nd graders. This page offers 5 online games/activities students can play around with for fun, while learning at the same time. The focus of this site is to improve language arts skills and each game focuses on a specific area of content.

On the main page there are 5 links you can click on that take you to the game of your choice. The five focus areas are opposites, alphabetizing, inferences, punctuation & capitalization and abbreviations. I played all the games and they are fun and easy to use. These games can be used by teachers or parents because they are educational. Another great thing about this page is it can be used by students who are learning English because it is basic and not too challenging. ESL students who need help in these content areas will greatly improve their knowledge of language arts. These lessons teach necessary skills to speak and write in English and through repetitive practice they will grow as English speakers. Once they master one activity they can move on to the next and have a new area to focus on, and so on.

Some cons of this website are the limitations of the main page and rest of the website. There is not a lot of room to grow besides these 5 activities unless you want to pay to be a member. Kids may get bored or move on to the next language arts level and therefore move on from this site. Another con is some of the games don’t provide feedback or the correct answers so students who aren’t at the level of these activities may need teacher or parent supervision. Also some of the links lead you to other parts of this website rather than the activities main page. Though this site has some flaws its purpose is accomplished through the activities it offers.

As a teacher I would use this website during free time. If my class is working in the computer lab and students finish their work early I would allow them to play on this type website. It may not be used for a main assignment but more of a review type situation. I think it would be great for parents to use with their children at home if they are struggling or need extra practice. In classrooms, if students work on these activities alone, they won’t feel the pressure of getting the answers wrong in front of everyone which will build their confidence. As an ESL teacher you could play this game as a class or in groups which will work on comprehensible input and output from the teacher, students and website.

Overall this website is simple and beneficial for students. It helps to build a stronger foundation for reading and grammar while engaging kids in fun activities. I would suggest this site to anyone who is looking for an internet based interaction for students’, parents or teachers. Also if you do decide to become a member ($99.95 yearly, discount for students and teachers) there are a ton of resources and activities for all ages. Parents, teachers, and students will love the opportunities to learn, teach and grow because of Toon University. They offer activities for the subjects of math, reading, social studies, and science for Pre-K to 6th grade level students. Also they have a teacher store and toonbooks. If you are truly interested in this website they even offer a free 10-day trial. Check it out!

(Evaluated by Marissa Rosenstein)

Bitsize: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/writing/

Bitesize is a website where children can practice their English, math, and writing skills. It is really easy to navigate, with links that lead the children right to the different activity choices. This is a great resource for students who are English speakers or ELL students. It Explains why writing is important for children to be able to communicate, and then gives multiple kinds of writing styles that may be used. This would be very helpful in the classroom or for children to use at home, because it not only helps with how to form sentences, but also how to write letters, instructions, arguments, comments, leaflets, and story planning. Allowing students to practice different types of writing will help them in the future when they are writing for different purposes. This is an extremely hands on website. For each type of writing the students can play a game, read about important information on each type of writing, watch a video about it, or take a quiz over the subject. This gives them information and practice in multiple ways, which is one of the main strengths of the website. I would not say that there are any downfalls to it, and I will for sure use it when I become a teacher. I could use this website for home work assignments, and have the children practice playing the games and learning about each type of writing style, have them take the quiz, and then have a writing assignment in class using the different styles of writing. I would recommend this website for children who are ELL learners and English speakers for all the subjects that it offers, not only English.

(Evaluated by Micah Morgan)

Arcademic Skill Builders: http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

This site has different subjects that the kids can build their academic skills on. The different subjects that they have are: Mathematics, Language Arts and Geography. Children get to play different kinds of games that will test how well they are doing on those subjects. Each game is a race against either the computer or another player and there are also some timed individual games. At the end of each game, the children are shown what they missed while they were playing the game. This site can be really fun and they have an option that once all the children are logged in they can all compete against each other.

This site can be really fun for the children who do well on the site. However, for the children whose minds are not as quick to be able to answer the questions fast enough to win, then it could have a negative effect on them. They can feel like they are not as smart as the children who always win the race because they are very quick with their answers. As for ESL learners I think that this would be extremely difficult for them because they won’t be able to think as fast as the other students who are native English speakers. So they wont be as motivated to try to win the games because they will most likely feel like the native English speakers will win anyway so there is no point in putting up much effort. The games are very fun; the individual games will be less pressure for the child to come up with the answers against anther peer but there will still be pressure to come up with the answer fast enough to have a high school. The timed games are much easier for a ESL learner because the only person who is going to see their score is the student.

(Evaluated by Candyce Pace)

Literacy Games/Activities for Improving Vocabulary

The links below are ones that are useful for increasing a child's vocabulary through fun games! Growing a child's vocabulary is a very important to help with learning literacy skills. These websites will help students to understand the meanings of important vocabulary words and much more!

1. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/wordfamily/

The Family Word Sort is an excellent online resource to teach children different vocabulary words and word families. It is an excellent game where the children are given a vocabulary word and they have to choose which word family it falls under. The user begins by clicking on a vowel to begin a word sort with words in that vowel family. Then, they are given 28 words to sort into four different word families. Once the user has completed the chart, he/she can print off their word charts.I think this activity is helpful because it is a great activity for beginning or struggling readers. The vocabulary words it includes are short, simple words that children can sound out or break apart easily. This activity allows the children to visual see the differences and similarities among the vocabulary words they have to sort. Once they have completed the activity, they can check themselves by making sure they put the words in the correct categories. If they had made a mistake by accident, they can easily move the vocabulary word to its correct word family.

The only negative thing I don’t like about this activity is that whenever the user is finished with all the words, it doesn’t check to make sure they put the words in their correct word family. I would advise to have an adult present when a child is using this resource to monitor the child’s choices and make sure they are putting the words in the correct word family.

By: Amy Yarbrough

2.http://www.funbrain.com/words.html

As we have discussed multiple times, it is extremely important for children to have a simple but strong phonemic and literary foundation before learning to read. The website I found, www.funbrain.com, deals with these basic concepts. One the site, there are numerous literacy games to help development in many areas. The game “Word Confusion” helps children differentiate between certain words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. A question sample from this game is “Put plastic in the correct recycle bin or been?” They must select the correct choice and then they can move on the next question. This helps with word differentiation and vocabulary skills as well. Another game, “Scramble-Saurus” gives children the option to pick their own skill level and category. If they chose the “dinosaur” category, they would be given scrambled words pertaining to dinosaurs and would be given chances to unscramble hopefully ending with the correct conclusion. This will require some higher thinking skills and will help immensely with spelling and vocabulary. The game “What’s the Word” will again give children the option to pick the level they are comfortable with and the category they are interested in. This game will show a picture and they will have to select the word that best describes it (this game is multiple choice). Again, this game is an excellent way to improve children’s vocabulary skills. I believe that this site in a great resource for teachers of kindergarten through first grade that will help children develop skills they need to be successful readers!

By : Alyssa Sacco

3. http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/flip-chip-30031.html

Flip-a-Chip is a game on the website “Read Write Think.” This is an effective and fun game to build vocabulary comprehension skills for ELL students. Although the website says the game is intended for 6^th-8^th graders, I think students as young as 4th grade could use this website. Flip-a-Chip gives a fill in the blank story, and students click on a chip to “flip” it until the appropriate root word + suffix comes up to fill in the blank. This is a good activity because it shows students how to put together affixes and roots to form significant and appropriate vocabulary words. It also promotes the use of context clues, which is an important skill for children to acquire. I would use this activity in an ELL classroom because it teaches them how to create meaningful words that are different from how they are formed in the Spanish language. I would utilize this resource by having them do the fill in the blank story, read it out loud, and then create their own words to make a story. This would give them several opportunities to develop their English language proficiency.

By: D’Anna Siciliano

4. http://www.fekids.com/kln/games/wordjungle/

Word Jungle is a wonderful website to help students truly comprehend vocabulary words. It not only helps the students, but it is incorporated into a game format so students will have fun while learning. Vocabulary is key in reading so the students will understand what they are reading. The game is really easy once you learn the instructions. It is an interactive game where the child plays as a character of a monkey. At the top of the page a question appears such as what word means “to send a ball through the air towards a basket?” Then on the side there are several words that the answer could be and the child picks an answer. If the student gets it right then the monkey goes through an obstacle without falling. This game is so helpful with vocabulary because it asks students what words are similar and sometimes it gives the definition and the student has to pick the right word. The game is intended for 3^rd graders, but I think this could be great for ELL’s. This game helps students get to know vocabulary while mixing things up so that the student really understand the meaning for words. This game really is helpful for improving vocabulary skills. Vocabulary is so important for literacy skills and this game will help!

By: Stephanie Nguyen

5. http://www.janbrett.com/games/hedgies_alphabet_game/intro.html

In Hedgie's Alphabet, there is a vocabulary game in which there are five or six different words in a word bank and different pictures with blanks next to them. The target of the game is to match up the vocabulary words to each of the pictures, accurately. Once the first level is completed, then you can move on to the next level, in which the level of vocabulary increases in difficulty. This activity/game is great for vocabulary development, because students can read the vocabulary word and then see pictures that can activate background knowledge and lead them to make connections between the two. This game also has a great feature in which "Hedgie" the hedgehog reads out the vocabulary word that matches the picture when you scroll your mouse over it. This is helpful because when a student may be struggling between a word or two, this feature can give them the answer. Also, even though the student may hear the word, they too have to read the word so that they can make a connection between the oral word and written word, so they still have to practice their reading skills. However, the best way to use this feature is to check for accuracy, rather than just look for the right answer. The downside to this feature in the game is that students may abuse this feature and instead of making educated guesses for words they are unsure of, they simply just scroll over the picture for the answer. Overall, this is a fun way for students to develop their vocabulary, if used properly.

By: Noura Wakim