Group items tagged

Scholastic.com Learning Activities (Grades K-5) Sara Scribner 1/23/10 Overview: I found this website to be very helpful. It has numerous resources for student activities and links to other sites with information and resources for teachers. Ads are present throughout this site, but they do not overwhelm you. Also, on the primary page with learning activities for students there aren't any ads at all. Not only would I use this source in my classroom, but I would recommend it to others. Content: Scholastic, a website for teachers is very credible. Information found on this site is current (updated and links work) and information to contact or learn about the sponsor/author is available. There does not seem to be any hidden agendas on this site. This site is organized according to grade level, K-2 or 3-5, and has activities for both age groups. Its information is consistent/accurate, easy to understand, and organized making it easy to navigate. Another positive aspect of this site is that it has activities for subjects like math, science, language arts, social studies, and Spanish. Design: This site is definitely worth visiting. It's content and links to other useful websites makes it a valuable resource. Content layout is organized and everything is clearly labeled. Graphics provide a glimpse of what each game entails and add appeal to the page/game description. Animations and sounds make one's experience as he plays the games enjoyable and exciting.

Scott Chanthongthip on January 23, 2010 Overview: National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a free website offered online to help teachers us visual aids to teach mathematics. The content is from the Utah State University and is edited by the university. Content is easy to navigate and understand because it focuses on students from K-12. Content: The National Teachers Council of Mathematics five content standards are listed vertically in a grid, while the grades for each of the standards are listed across the top of the grid. Navigation based on the content standard and grade level appropriateness is accessible because of this organization. Teachers just need to find the content standard and line it up with the appropriate grade level. Although the site has a version that it offers to schools many of the virtual manipulatives are easy to use as long as one's computer has JAVA capabilities. There are four different language options for the different virtual manipulatives, so it makes it easy to use in bilingual settings (English, Spanish, French, and Chinese). The main reason for this website is to offer teachers with computer technology to teach manipulation of different math areas when the physical manipulatives are not available. Teachers can also use the site to help explain concept clarity of hard to understand math functions. Design: The initial web page offers a grid of math standards and grade levels from K-12. Teachers can click on the appropriate link and it will lead them to more options on different subjects in the content areas. None of the links are broken for the virtual manipulatives. Design of the website is updated often by the USU. NLVM also allows users to select from four different languages.

Kaci Philpot Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide teachers and students with fun, interactive Math manipulatives online, because manipulatives help students to see visual relationships in Math and help to actively engage students. The website has the following standards for math education; numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis & probability. Each standard has four different age groups to choose from: pre-k through 2, 3 through 5, 6 through 8, and 9 through 12. This website is one of the very few educational websites I have found that is free and clear or useless information and clutter. Content Summary: This website content quality is very high; it has an index chart on the homepage with grade levels and math standards. Each box on the chart is linked to a page of full of various virtual Math manipulatives. If you navigate to the credits page you can see who is in charge of creating what, however it does not provide information about or credibility of those individuals. It also does not have revision dates. But the site is well organized and has very rich content. The manipulatives are an excellent way to get students excited about learning math. Total yeses: 19 Total no's: 2 Total N/A: 3 Design Summary: The homepage of this site is very easy to navigate and understand, but it does not have very strong eye appeal at all. But the manipulatives are very useful and all have clear directions if necessary and all internal and external links work properly. It does not appear to have any outdated content, if Mathematics can even be outdated. My favorite link on this website is the link to the Spanish page. This would be very useful for teachers with ESL students; it helps to ease the language barrier. Total yeses: 22 Total no's: 2 Total N/A: 0

Chelsey Lynch 1/31/11 * Overview: This website is for the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. The intended audience of this site is teachers, and students of all ages. The available resources are a wide array of virtual math manipulatives. This website is extremely useful to teachers because it provides children with a firm grasp on concepts by letting them learn directly through physical objects that enable students to visualize relationships and applications. * Design: This website is attractive and very easy to navigate. The main page of the website contains a large grid system which serves as a menu for the math content area and grade level. All information to contact the sites provider is given, and all the information is current. The instructions for the manipulatives are very easy to follow and the site even provides examples when necessary. This site has adequate graphics, though the music and sounds in games is a little dated and sometimes annoying. * Content: The authors of this site appear to be highly education and experts in this field. The purpose of this site is very clear and the content achieves the intended purpose effectively. This site is extremely interactive, well organized, and easy to navigate. I have personally used this site numerous times and love it. The only things I wish this site contained more of are links to websites that are similar to this or had further information.

Kids.gov Michelle Petty, January 22, 2011 Overview: This website is aimed at students, ages K-8, and educators. For educators, it offers a wide range of information on topics from science, math, social studies, and health. It then access sites that are relevant to the topic selected and gives links to other sites on a variety of topics within each broad category. For students, it offers them a similar experience. They can go to social studies, and then pick current events, maps, natural history, U.S. studies and world studies depending on what they're studying. This site is great because it offers a variety of information under every category. It is easy to navigate and has very reliable and dependable sources to back its information. Content: The site is very easy to navigate; the top has tabs for students' breaking it down for grades k-5, grades 6-8, and educators. At the bottom of the homepage there is a link to an about us which gives information on the site, who maintains it and who provides the information. The Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) out of Pueblo, Colorado, maintains this site and if that weren't enough information it gives a link to the Pueblo site. This site is mainly links to other educational pages, but it is easy to understand and use. It is aimed at all educational branches, and provides educational sites as well as fun game sites. I would use this site in a classroom setting, because it is educational and easy to use. Design: The design of this website is pretty straightforward. It is basic which makes it easy for all ages to use, and all of the links lead to the site promised without advertisements popping up. There isn't a table of content, but it is broken down into such specific categories, that a table of contents is not necessary. The date of last revision is found on the about us tab and is clearly labeled along with who maintains the site and how to contact them. A simple, yet effective site that

Overview: This site offers all kinds of learning for kids from reading.math,writing to health and fun games to help you learn. You learn about art, music and even money. It is a great learning tool for all kids to have access to. Content: The site has many different links that you can visit but organizes them in groups so it is easier to navigate. This site provides all kinds of useful information for kids and educators. Kids can play fun and interactive games for fun learning on all kinds of topics. They can also learn about everday matters like healthy habits. The author is well recognized on the site as well as sponsor. The information is shown in a way that kids can comphrend the material. Design: The homepage is colorful and has pictures. It keeps you interested in learning with its fun graphics. Every link was well laid out and could be found easily for kids. It is frequently revised so the information is up to date.

Emily Hastings Reviewed 2/5/12 Kids.gov Purpose: The purpose of this website is to provide students with links to other educational and governmental websites for kids. Intended Audience: This site is intended for Kindergarten through eighth grade. Available Resources: This site has many resources available. That is what the purpose of this site is, to link you to other useful and educational websites. Overall Review: This website is easy to use, making it worthwhile. The information is presented clearly and simply making it easy to navigate from one link to the other. It also includes a navigation bar and a site map which are both very useful. The links have great information and do not take long to get to. There are no dead ends, and they bring you to what they say they will. This website is a great resource for finding educational sites. Overview: This site has a link for k-5, 6-8, and teachers with endless links to educational sites. It is extremely organized and very helpful when looking for sites. Content: The content of this site is for students in need of educational websites. It is a great resource for that purpose. When clicked on, the link opens quickly and the information is accurate and educational. It has many links for websites of all different subjects. Design: The design of this website isn't very eye catching, but is welcoming because it is so simple to use. You don't need directions on how to use the site. It is very organized and makes looking for these links easy. It provides you with a site map which is a list of everything in the site, which is very useful as well.

Keenan Zimmerman 2/1/2011 Review of: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/ Overview: Busyteachercafe is a site designed to help K-6 teachers come up with ideas. There are printables, strategies, themes, email sections and a store where I'm not sure what exactly you can buy. Most of the sections have useful ideas a teacher can use. The website is very colorful and looks like it is geared more toward 1-3 graders rather than on up to 4th 5th and 6th grade. It is not a very good website both in content and design. It has potential but at the moment it is not a very good site. Content: The content of the website seems very useful but it is very limited. There are few actual lessons or printables in each section. If the website is brand new than in a couple months I might say the website is very good content wise but at the moment the content is rather poor, another strike because we have no idea how old the site or information within the site are. The author of the material is nowhere to be found and even the e-mail section gives no clues as to who you are writing to. Design: The design is the worst part of the website. Although it has easy directions and it is rather easy to find what you are looking for, the site is littered with adds which are annoying and the search option is horrible finding almost nothing on the site when I used it. The search in the store section doesn't seem to come up with anything and because everything on the site is free I'm not sure why a store even exists.

Content: This website contains lots and lots of stuff. It is set up like a classroom and has a reading link, a math link, a playground link, and an arcade link. I think this is more of a game site than an educational one. There are also lots of links to other help sites, but the majority of the links are for advertiser's webpage's, distracting visitors. Design: After looking at it for awhile, I started to feel lost and uninterested because of all the advertisements and the lack of visuals. There are thousands of links for kids to go to, and the actual site doesn't really support a good learning environment. As said above, it's mostly games with reading sections that really looks fun, but if you have to look through the games to get to that section, students will probably never get there on their own. The visual part of this website is interesting. The homepage is pretty boring and filled with links, but the reading and games tabs are designed for younger students. Attribution: The purpose of this site is probably intended to promote learning is fun, but becomes easily more of a distraction with all of the advertisements. I don't think I would promote this site in my classroom without adult supervision because students could so easily be distracted by toys and games.

Overview The purpose of this website is to help kids interact with math and reading. The intended audience is K-8. My overall impression of the website is that is very beneficial and a good free website for students to practice math and reading, whereas with other websites you have to pay to use the website. Content The only thing that I would critique on this website is having other links that would be appropriate and have to do with reading and math. But other than that, I would highly recommend this website. Design I think that everything is up to date but there is no for sure way to tell on the website, there is the copy right that does say 2013 but there is no one hundred percent way to tell if it has all been updated. So this is one thing that I would change on the design for the website.

Trevor Montgomery For this resource, we see another website that in a way, tricks students into thinking they are just playing games by giving them subject related activities. With the subjects of math and reading, students having interactive games, books and comics and even more fun links, without thinking they are doing much work. Through the "Funbrain" arcade, students can also complete activities and must pass obstacles to get through an interactive game board. If they do not successfully complete an activity, they will not be able to get past their current location, but will feel challenged to get through each activity and will most likely attempt multiple times until mastery of the activity. The great thing about this website is that students can also use codes to pick up where they left off on the game board so that they do not have to start over each time they log on (with their parents' permission of course). From grades 1st through 8th, there is a great variability from subjects, and students who are feeling extra brave might even try a level of difficulty higher than their current grade level. As someone who used this website in school when he was in elementary school, I can say that this resource is extremely effective and I think that students will come back to it time and time again. Navigating the website is easy enough. If you type in www.funbrain.com in the url box, you will be directed to the site. From here, you can choose to use the math arcade, reading, fun arcade, playground, and all games tabs, as well as books & comics and more fun activities. This website is specifically directed towards the audience of students in grades 1st through 8th, so as a teacher you can trust it to be safe and student-friendly.

Alexis Lunberg: February 1, 2011 The purpose of this site is to help children with their reading by using interactive games and guided reading. The intended audience would be for low level readers like kindergarten through third grade. The site also has a few things for teachers to use so teachers are also an intended audience. The website offers interactive games and guided reading stories for the children. The website also provides literacy worksheets, lesson plans, and reading software for teachers. Overall the design and content of the website is good, but could use improvement. Content The viewer is easily able to see the intended audience for the site and it provide quite a bit of information about the creator. It even gives a link for his blog if the viewer wants to learn more about him. The site is up to date and outdated information is no longer on the site. The information is effective and there are reviews on the site that praise the website. The site would be good for small children because it is easy to understand and has interactive games. Design The design of this website could use some work on the home page. The homepage isn't very appealing and the visitor can't tell what the sites title is right away. Also the site does not clearly identify the sponsor and the copyright date on the website. Another problem with the design of the website is that the view doesn't know when the last time the site was updated. The website also has beneficial things about it. One of the good things about the websites design is that it is easy to navigate. It takes less than three steps to get where you want. The site also uses good graphics and is effective in several different browsers. The overall design of the site could use some work but it is usable and worth visiting.

Roy, the tale of the singing ZebraOverview- This website is very cute! It is such a good idea to get young children involved. The audience is young grades such as k-2. The website is all about reading. I thought it was a really cool way to get kids to read in a different way. The interactive reading games and guided readings would really help those kids just learning to read. Although the site may be a little busy for the little ones to navigate with a little teacher help they would get a lot out of it.  Content-  At first look this website looks like it is easy to use and looks fun for kids. The author of the website is clearly defined, you can access his blog and look at investors and contact him personally. Which would be great if any teachers had questions. The website looks current although it does not have any current dates or update dates. The links work great within the website. The content in the website is great, all of the spelling is right and the information is helpful. The site would be very helpful for young children. Design- When opening this website it loads quickly and looks very appealing. Although the home page is not clearly labeled you can tell that you are there. There is a clear index at the top of the page telling you where you can go. Which makes the navigation in the site great. The use of media is great! They have moving pictures, which is very appealing to young children. The site looks current although there is no current date. But everything in the cite looks wonderful and would be great for kids to navigate. 

Overview: Fuel the Brain is a math website which provides games for students at different learning levels. This site is mainly geared towards lower grades including K, 1, 2 and 3. This site seems really fun upon first glance. Not only are there games for children, there are also printable worksheets for teachers and parents. Teacher guides and articles are also available.  Content: This website offers games that cover counting, numbers, operations, algebraic thinking and geometry. These games would be ideal for young children. The website has minimal advertising. The author information is available under the 'About' link and the contact information is available under the link labeled 'Contact'. The copyright is not available. Design: Fuel the Brain's homepage is very colorful and attractive to younger children. However, older students would not appeal to this website. At the top of the homepage the links are provided clearly for easy navigation. 

Courtney Lovell February 2, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this site is for teachers to have free lesson plan templates. The intended audience is educators teaching grades K-6. Available resources are multiple lesson plans for general subjects in elementary school. I think that this site will be very useful. As a future educator I will use this site to my benefit. Content: The content to this site is great. I am quick to determine the general information of the site and know who the intended audience is. The authors and sponsor are clearly identifiable. There is a contact us tab that is easy to access. The links on this site are working properly and beneficial to the audience. The information quality is fantastic. The site is lacking the revision date information. Design: The website design is also good. The homepage downloads efficiently and is attractive. You can tell where you are immediately while you are on the site. The copyright date is clearly labeled and the table of contents. The site is easy to navigate although there are not directions available for the user. The multimedia use is working properly. This site is definitely worth visiting if you are a elementary teacher.

Virtual manipulatives for mathematics

Overview: The purpose of this site is to educate kids about the U.S. Government. On the home page it asks for a specific audience in which you belong to: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. My impression of this site is that it is kid oriented, fun and educational to use, and also easy to navigate. It is a Government website and was updated last in May 2010, and then February of 2009. I focused on the 3-5 grader part of the website Content: The content is fun and informational about our Government. The information is cut up into different sections and aspects of the Government, from "Our Nation" to "Symbols of our Country" The content is fact driven but has a high value in my opinion because it also has games and activities. Design: The design of the site is very easy to follow and clearly states everything a student would need to know. The homepage is attractive and cartoon-like so it easily grabs the attention of the younger grades. The site is organized into different sections that are very focused on the different aspects of U.S. Government

Dr. Arlys has put together a bunch of sites that are great activities for children to do in math, literacy, and science

K-3 SmartBoard Sites created by SmartBoard 1. Click on an Activity 2. Click on Download this Lesson Activity **It will download it to your computer and it will open the lesson on the SmartBoard

Courtney Lovell February 2, 2012 Overview: The purpose of this site is to provide lesson plans to elementary educators. It covers all of the basic subjects in elementary school and could be useful to future elementary teachers. Content: This site is lacking some important qualities, such as there is no information about the author on the site. Also the site does not have revision dates. The information quality of this site is superb. The site is well organized and easy to get around. The information appears to be accurate on this site and similar to information on other sites. This could be good tool to use as a future elementary educator. Design: The homepage of this site has a strong eye appeal. As the audience you can easily tell where you are and there is a table of contents available on the homepage. The homepage is lacking information about the provider and the copyright date. This site is easy to navigate and downloads efficiently. It also has useful information that can help elementary educators.

David D Castle 2/7/12 Overview: The site provides access to worksheets for K-12 teachers but requires a subscription to access the majority of the content. There are links to other sites for free worksheets, but access is limited without a subscription. Though at a cost, the site appears to be worthwhile. You can generate your own worksheets within the site, as well as upload pictures, submit artwork, and play brain-training games. Content: The site covers almost every subject and provides worksheets for all of them. The purpose is clear, and a subscription can be purchased directly from the homepage. The site looks professional but isn't clearly organized. It has copyright information and a 'contact us' button, but doesn't say exactly who the site creator is. Design: Without subscribing, the site doesn't provide sufficient information to make it worth visiting. It does provide links to free sites and gives you a pretty clear idea about what the site contains, but it overly organized. The directions to subscribing are clear, it appears professional, and it offers multiple resources.

Website Evaluation submitted by email

Sarah Skinner on January 22, 2010 Overview The purpose of this website is to allow teacher to find literacy web resources. There are a variety of different links available for primary grade teachers that are beneficial to their students and their learning. You can learn about some favorite books and authors and also retrieve lesson plans that use the tips provided on this page. My impression on this site sit that it's very useful. There are many links available that can be used as a teacher. Content It is very easy to determine the basic content of the site and the intended audience is clear. The author is not on this site and no information is available about the site so it is unclear if they are qualified to give out this information. The sponsor is not clear as well and there is no contact link to ask questions to the sponsor. The latest revision date is available. It is very out of date. The last time this site was revised was in 2007. Links all still work. The purpose of this site is clearly informational. The content seems to be complete and well organized. It offers information related to my needs. The content seems to be not bias. There is no interactivity that increases its value but does have a lot of useful information that is consistent with similar sources. The grammar and spelling are correct throughout the page as well. Design The homepage downloaded efficiently, but the homepage is very plain and not very attractive. The page tells you where you are. There is a clear index at the top of the page that leads you to many other links. There is no sponsor provided that is clear. There is not information for contacting the sponsor and there is no copyright date provided that is easy to determine. It is very easy to navigate around the website. There are directions to help you where to find information. The links to other pages are appropriate. The graphics fit well with the information that is being provided. I have only tried Internet Explorer a

Sara Scribner 1/23/10 Overview: This website called Beeswax is meant for elementary students to inform them of current events in a fun, interactive way. It is a new website so the creators are still looking for feedback to improve the site, but it is a great tool for students to learn about current happenings in the world. Currently it is only updated twice a week, but for elementary students I believe this to be sufficient. Content: Information presented on this website is high quality. Its purpose, to present news, is clear, complete, easily understood, and is interactive. Contact and sponsor information are current and available. There might be potential bias on this site however because of its sponsor, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The amount of information offered on this site is sufficient, but the teacher would need some background knowledge about the event. An advantage to this site is that it is free of advertisements. Design: Beeswax communicates the news in a fun, interactive way and is aided by graphics that you click on to see the related story. It has a unique organization that is effective yet appealing. Sounds also accompany your actions as you navigate the site.

David May 1/23/11 This site is very educational. Great information with a reliable source. Too much advertising the museums. Overview: The website of the Smithsonian museum with a fun educational spin. The site has a few games with animations that are well put together. The games have good images and great animations that put complex things in simpler terms like comparing a planet size with a beach ball compared to a golf ball. The site overly advertised visiting the actual place too much. Everything that was clicked on encouraged visiting and it got very tiresome very quickly. Content: The site is very easy to navigate and find what one is looking for. There is a constant sidebar with information about where you are and what things are easiest to link to.. They list the curator of the museum who is in charge of the content on the website. The copyright of the website is 2010 which shows recent content on the website. There is an informational theme to the site, but the clear objective of this site is to get visitors to the museum. Design: The website is very well put together. It is impressive with the amount of graphics and page design that they put in effect on the site. The problem is that if users don't have the latest flash player they will have to download it and go through the download process. If this is for students the schools might restrict the ability to download the software. The website other than over advertisement is good for information and reliable for what one is looking for.

Laura Rice 2/5/12 Overview: The purpose of this website is to expand educational knowledge and resources for education. The intended audience ranges from educators, families, and students. This website provides many resources for public use. The educators are provided with resources for field trips, professional development organizations, lesson plans, resource library, and online events. For families the website provides information about what is available at the Smithsonian, time you can spend together as a family, and events families can do together. The students are also provided with information about the Smithsonian, topic they can explore, secrets of the Smithsonian, and events available for kids. This website is a great source to a variety of people. The links to each page provide a lot of information useful to educators, families, and students. Content: The website is extremely useful to all types of people from educator, families, and students. Teachers have access to lesson plans for all subject areas ranging from K-12th grade. Teachers are also provided information about taking a field trip to the Smithsonian and the programs it has to offer students. The tab for educators also has a link to online events that are taking place. For families the website contains different activities the Smithsonian has to offer as well as activity sheets for children. Students are provided with events at the Smithsonian that may interest them, as well as topic they may enjoy to see there. Overall the content is very educational and centered around what the Smithsonian can offer to others, and also provides lesson plans that could help educators in their future career. Design: The overall design is easy to understand and information is extremely easy to access. Tabs clearly identify the intended audience from educators, families, and students. Under each tab there are others that provide information useful to each age group. At the bottom of the page ther

Whitney Lindt Purpose: I think that the purpose of this website is to make a website available that teachers could send their younger students to. This website makes it a fun way for students to learn and it also gives them time on the computer which they need to move up in school. Overview: This site has great links that teachers can use in their classroom and with some direction could actually send their students to and students could probably easily navigate this sight. There are many activities for the children that would make learning fun and keep the younger students' interest while the teacher is teaching them how to navigate a computer or just about any subject because this website goes over almost every subject in some way. Content: The content of this site is very useful especially with the younger students in grade school because it is easy to navigate through and teachers would be able to tell their students where to go and the students would be able to do it themselves. The other thing that I really like about this website is it has links to sites that could help students learn and then it has sites that students could just go for fun such as coloring pages. All of the links off of the homepage of the website would serve great use in the classroom and just for parents to send their kids to without having to worry about the safety of the internet. Design: This site is easy to navigate because the table of contents is in alphabetical order. All of the links from the home page work extremely well and one can navigate through this site quickly.