Saturday, February 9, 2013

February Tech Links


For Parents:
I’ve been using Pinterest for about a year and love it for it’s visual appeal and the great ideas I can find there. I have boards for sight words, apps, reading and other school related topics but I also have boards for new recipes to try, cleaning tips, wedding ideas for my son, and many photography topics. It’s really easy to search for specific topics so if you are looking for lets say a dinosaur themed birthday party idea go there and do a search and you’ll find lots of ideas. There’s also an app for it and it’s free.

5 ways to help your child with reading comprehension-Questions to ask as you read with your child.
APPS
Grades K-5
WWF Together
I think this app will appeal to all ages. My 20 year old daughter enjoyed it and so do I. It’s  from the World Wildlife Fund and it tells the stories of tigers, polar bears, rhinos and more with beautiful photography, music, and interactions. It is the most unique app I’ve seen and it’s free!

Glow Doodle
This app is .99. It’s my favorite app for having the students practice spelling words. If they spell it correctly they get to make it glow. It’s especially cool when we turn off the lights.  I like the simplicity of the app, there’s not a lot of bells and whistles to distract the students.
Popplet Lite
This is an easy to use graphic organizer.  Boxes, background and text colors can be changed, easy to resize and move boxes around. I used it recently to plan a project and found it quite helpful. When it is finished it can be saved as a jpg or emailed as a jpg or pdf.
Grades 3-5
National Geographics Weird But True
My 4th and 5th graders love these books. Random facts about a variety of topics that are weird….but true. This is a free app.