Saturday, March 23, 2013

March Tech Links


“The greater the support that families provide for their children’s learning and educational progress, the more likely that their children will do well in school and continue on with their education.”    
Karen Mapp and Anne Henderson, 2002 A New Wave of Evidence

For Parents:
Reading and Writing with Your Child -Kindergarten to Grade 6 -A Parent Guide
This 24 page guide from Ontario has a wealth of information for parents. It includes ideas on how you can support your child’s learning, reading and writing milestones, literacy tips for parents and online resources to use with your child. It is a PDF file.

For Children:
This is a great site for you child to practice spelling and vocabulary words. You can make your own lists and save them for free! There are a variety of games your child can play to practice the words and your child can take a test of those words as well.

APPS
Grades K-5
 McGraw Hill
We use the McGraw Hill reading series, Treasures. You can search McGraw Hill in the app store and find a variety of apps. Some are very basic like flashcards but others are quite fun such as Grammar Wonderland.  I downloaded the apps for free but I’m not sure if they are free at this time or not.
Text2Pic
I’ve used this app for reviewing vocabulary. The child takes a picture showing the meaning of a vocabulary word and then opens it up in this app. Then the child adds the word and changes the font/color/size and then can add a frame and then saves the image back to the camera roll. Then it’s shared with the class. A definition could also be added. Once you play with this app I’m sure you and your child can come up with other ideas to practice skills in a unique way.
Grades 3-5
Origami
This is a great way for your child to practice following directions. There are 7 lessons in the free version ranging from easy to hard. The app has a written direction for each step and visually shows the step as well.