A great poetry site for children. See poems on a range of topics and most poems have an audio of the poet reading their poems.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
A great interactive acrostic poem maker. It explains what acrostic poems are when gives helpful hints as children write their own.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
Awesome activity! Interesting to teach in so many contexts: poetry, economy of words, even censorship - a different take on it. Also meshes perfectly with the novel catch 22 and Yosarrian censoring the letters.
"A superb creative writing site to stimulate ideas for opinion pieces, news articles, stories or poems. There is a teachers area with whole class whiteboard resources, and a pupil area where your pupils can write their pieces and print."
Until your students are ready to use their own artistic licence you may want to use this poem template site to get them started. Just input words as prompted to make intriguing poetry.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
"What kinds of questions make for good inquiry-based projects? As we said, they must first be questions that the kids truly care about because they come up with them themselves. In addition, good questions share the following characteristics:
The questions must be answerable. "What is the poem 'Dream Deferred' based on?" is answerable. "Why did Langston Hughes write it?" may be answerable if such information exists, or if the students have some relevant and defensible opinions. "Why did he choose this particular word in line six?" is not answerable because the only person likely to know such a specific answer is Hughes himself, now deceased.
The answer cannot be a simple fact. "In what year was Lincoln killed?" doesn't make for a very compelling project because you can just look it up in any number of books or Web sites. "What factors caused the assassination attempt?" might be a good project because it will require research, interpretation, and analysis.
The answer can't already be known. "What is hip-hop music?" is a bit too straightforward and the kids are not likely to learn much more than they know already. "What musical styles does hip-hop draw from and how?" offers more opportunity for exploration.
The questions must have some objective basis for an answer. "Why is the sky blue?" can be answered through research. "Why did God make the sky blue?" cannot because it is a faith-based question. Both are meaningful, valid, real questions, but the latter isn't appropriate for an inquiry-based project. "What have people said about why God made the sky blue?" might be appropriate. Likewise, "Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?" is ultimately unanswerable in that form because no humans were around to know for sure, but "What do scientists believe was the reason for their extinction?" or "What does the evidence suggest about the cause?" will work. Questions based on value judgments don't work for similar reasons. You can't objectively answer "Is Hamle
"Engineering is the "silent E" in STEM subject areas. While science, mathematics, and technology are often topics of content area lessons, engineering is often ignored. However, engineering is inclusive of all STEM subjects because engineers use science, mathematics, and technology to solve problems. Engineering careers are diverse, spanning many different technologies and disciplines, such as agricultural engineering, aerospace engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and chemical engineering."