Just found out about a really good vocabulary site for those learning English. It’s called Learning Chocolate and if you click on the logo you can visit it yourself!

Learning Chocolate

I’ve been checking out some Thanksgiving websites and I think I’ve found some good ones.

I like this first one because Scholastic has provided a tool whereby kids can put a word in to find its definition; also, if you click on the speaker a natural voice will read the text aloud.

National Geographic has a nice website for kids who can read, as there is no read aloud option. It’s worth a peak.

A third site explains about girls on the Mayflower. Check it out.

This website challenges the student to be the historian to find out what the facts and details were of the first Thanksgiving. Some of the site offers a read aloud function.

Investigating the First Thanksgiving

Reading Digg this morning, I happened across this article: http://digg.com/d319loI

This will make for an interesting discussion for class today!

Need to get inspired? Check out this list!

http://linkli.st/lindargeorge/90QLJ

Using an image editor (we use Image Blender), we use different tools to change the photos. I will then have the 5th graders take the first 20 or so questions on this “test”.

I will show this example of pictures from Pics4Learning:

And that using copy, cut, and paste I created this:

Next week they have to create their own. I will post the best ones!

Litteractive is a good site for beginning readers. I just did several of the activities and I thought they moved along easily for the kindergartner and were interesting enough to hold their attention. I will be trying it out with them soon!

This special holiday may not be circled on your calendar, but some of us look forward to it every year! I’ve been gathering resources that I can use next Friday, September 19, for the Big Day!

First show them this pirate movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzpByR3MvI

A pirate button: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/partykit/pirate_button.jpg

Get  pirate name: http://blogthings.com/piratenamegenerator/

Play Compound Words Walk the Plank: http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/other/compound/interactive/compound.htm

Place Value Pirates: http://www.mrnussbaum.com/placevaluepirates1.htm

Pirate Numbers: http://www.ictgames.com/piratenumbers2.html

Brain Pop Movie (if you are a subscriber): http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/freemovies/pirates/preview.weml

Thanks, mmkrill! Just heard on Twitter that Brainpop is opening its digital citizenship movies to non-subscribers! Great news! Thank you, Brainpop!

We will be participating in Jenuinetech’s awesome Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs project. This will involve reading the book to your class. I went to the library and was nervous that the book had already been taken out but then, she found it! Phew! However, I found someone reading it online to his niece here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olO73t4kf9E so that’s a good alternative if you can’t get your hands on the book.

Next, I set out to find the trailer. Due to bandwidth issues and the fact that the trailer was pretty well buried on the site, it took me just a few minutes to realize that this would never work. It was so choppy that I could not follow the story. Then I remembered youtube. Sure enough, a couple of versions of the trailer are available. I will use this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP9wtdwgeok

For our discussion, we will use this pdf: Worksheet and others that Jen Wagner has created especially for this project. Looking forward to the weather report Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!