Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I saw this on Google+ today and thought it was too cool not to share... watch the Chicago River being turned green!  I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day!

Santa Tracker

Did you know that Google has a Santa Tracker?  Now obviously, Santa isn't out and about yet, however, Google's awesome Santa Tracker comes complete with a cool holiday village that similar to an Advent Calendar you can explore something new about The North Pole on a daily basis.  This would be fun to share with your students now, then possibly post on your website for them to track Santa on the big day.   I hope you and your students enjoy it as much as I do!  Click here to visit the Santa Tracker now!

Santa Fun with Google

While you’re counting down for Santa’s departure around the world, look no further than the +Google Maps Pegman for a skydive headfirst into 6 cities. Santa Maps Dive is built for Chrome using WebGL and a location detection API, so you can say you went “Skydiving in Chrome” when your friends asked what you did for the holidays.   This would look beyond awesome on a SMART Board too!   When I tried it, I learned it was a lot easier to skydive and gather gifts with the keyboard arrows instead of the mouse.   Good luck!

Head to g.co/santamapsdive to sharpen your skydiving skills.

Holiday Fun on ABCYa!

It's the most wonderful time... of the year... 

Good thing I'm typing and not singing!    I wanted to share some of the fun games that ABCYa! has for winter holidays that would be great stations for students, or even better on the SMARTBoard.  Click on the title to be taken to the game.

100 SNOWBALLS - WINTER FUN FOR KIDS

Children love to play in the snow! 100 Snowballs is an interactive activity that gives children the opportunity to have fun by clicking and dragging snowballs around a winter scene. Children can create anything they imagine as long as it only uses 100 snowballs! This activity works well in the classroom on an interactive whiteboard.

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3,4,5

BALL ORNAMENTS PUZZLE

Ball Ornaments Puzzle is a fun winter holiday activity. Kids must find as many ornaments as possible by locating matches to the example ornaments shown. The game is over when all 150 ornaments have been found or when the time has run out. Points are awarded by how quickly ornaments are found.

Recommended for Grades: 4,5

SUGAR, SUGAR - CHRISTMAS

The Christmas edition of Sugar, Sugar is a challenging logic puzzle with a physics twist and a holiday theme. Each level of the game is a puzzle that requires planning and strategy. The goal is to draw lines with your mouse to get sugar into the cups. You must fill each cup until the number reads zero. Kids and adults will enjoy it!

Recommended for Grades: 4,5

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS - MATH FACT FUN

It's time to put up the Christmas lights! But wait! Before you can put up the Christmas lights, you must correctly answer as many math problems as you can in one minute. You can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication or division facts. The more math problems you solve correctly, the more lights you will be given to decorate your house!

Recommended for Grades: 1,2,3,4,5

MAKE A SNOWMAN

Fun for all ages! Children click and drag different shapes to make a snowman. Kindergarten to second grade students learn and practice valuable mouse manipulation techniques. Have Fun!

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3,4,5

CHRISTMAS TREE FUN

Christmas Tree Fun is a holiday activity for children. The activity guides children through a series of steps to decorate a Christmas Tree, put a surprise in a gift box, and then finally place the tree in a wintery scene. Children can design and place several trees in their scene along with different surprises and gift boxes. Finally, they can visit their scene and try to remember what they put in each box!

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3

MAKE A GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Make a Gingerbread House is a holiday computer activity for early elementary age children. Kids learn and practice valuable mouse manipulation techniques while clicking and dragging. Students will also exercise visual spatial skills while positioning the different pieces. Projects can also be saved and printed.

Recommended for Grades: K,1,2,3

HANUKKAH CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ABCya's Hanukkah Crossword Puzzle is a fun and interactive way for kids to test their knowledge of Hanukkah vocabulary words and facts.  The crossword puzzle can be played on the computer or by printing on paper.  The interactive version of the puzzle includes a hint feature, fun animations, and an intuitive interface to making navigating the clues and answers simple.

Recommended for Grades: 3,4,5

Interactive Advent Calendars

The season of Advent is always filled with eagerness and expectancy. Build some of that anticipation into your school day by allowing students to unlock a new secret on the advent calendar each day.  Use these advent calendars with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or set them up as a quick center activity that students can visit.  Use the advent calendars that reveal a story to practice looking for foreshadowing clues, using context clues to guess what will happen next, or as story starters for students own stories.  The Christmas around the world advent calendars are wonderful for teaching students some of the history of Christmas and the way that other cultures celebrate the familiar holiday.

Tips: Each of these advent calendars has some fun goodies and hidden surprises, find the one that best fits your classroom needs.

French Carols Calendar

Click on a new present each day to hear French School Children sing a new Christmas Carol.

Advent Calendar Games

This advent calendar has fun little games and activities to play each day.  The games and activities are quick and easy to complete, building mouse and keyboard skills.  This advent calendar would be a good one for the classroom computers as a center activity.

Christmas Around the World

This is a fun way for students to test their knowledge and learn about the ways that Christmas is celebrated all around the world.  As an extension, plot the places around the world that they are learning about on a world map.  

Bach Advent Calendar

Each day your students can listen to a story about Bach or music

The National Museum of Liverpool

The National Museum of Liverpool has an advent calendar that reveals a piece of art from the museum each day.

The Dirt Dirt

The Dirt Dirt advent calendar is purely fun, each day click on a number and an animation will be added to the tree.

Polar Express Advent Calendar

The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

I know many classrooms are studying fall and some classes are even heading to the pumpkin patch!  Check out this video of the life cycle of a pumpkin!

Memorial Day Fun!

Are you looking for a fun way to teach your students about Memorial Day this weekend?  For many students, Memorial Day merely marks the beginning of summer fun. This year, introduce them to the true meaning of the holiday, and provide them with a glimpse into the lives of the men and women it honors.

On their site they have an Internet Treasure Hunt plus Web-based activities for learning about and celebrating Memorial Day!    Click here to be taken to an internet treasure hunt from Education World that I created into a google doc for you to print off and use.

I hope everyone enjoys the long holiday weekend!

Happy Earth Day!

As you know, Monday is Earth Day.  If you are looking for a fun way for your class to participate, check out the Earth Day Network's official website by clicking here.  They also have some amazing classroom resources by clicking here.  I always encouraged my students to go out and do something to help change the world - and of course - they had to write about it.   Happy Earth Day!

Did you know that this is my 100th post?  Pretty wild!  If you have any suggestions or ideas you'd like me to cover, please feel free to let me know!