SMART Board Lesson Resources

Every now and then I search the web for resources that I think might be helpful for our teachers. The list below has the sites from this morning's search. Check out the last one on the list. It's an on-line generator for Jeopardy style classroom games.

• http://www.ecarter.k12.mo.us/dept/elementary/fourthgrade/ccrites/etipslesson1.html
• http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/edtech/SB/resources.htm
• http://www.gateschili.org/bbs/teachers.cfm?subpage=19898
• http://www.sblceastconn.org/smartboard.htm
• http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=363
• http://www.kenton.k12.ky.us/SmartBoard/smartlarts.htm
• http://www.coderedsupport.com/jeopardy/

Have you heard a tall tale lately?

I know a good place to read some really great tall tales. Ms. Dhaliwal's students at Emerson Elementary School wrote tall tales. Now they are using SMART Notebook to illustrate their stories. I'm looking forward to printing and reading all of their stories. The little bits and pieces that I have seen so far show that they have good writing skills and very vivid imaginations. SMART Notebook is a great tool for this type of lesson. The graphic resources and tools give kids lots of options to be creative with their stories.

Catastrophic Events

What does a scientist do with all of their research data??? The sixth grade scientists in Andrea Shores class at Dunbar Elementary are presenting their information to the class using the SMART Board and SMART Notebook. After completing their research, each team is reporting on a specific event. Their reports include photos and video clips.

My Favorite Dinosaur

Third grade students at Dunbar Elementary are having their first adventure using laptop computers. They are using the laptops to do Internet research on the dinosaur of their choice. After they find the required information, they are creating a presentation using SMART Notebook which they will present to the class using a SMART Board.

While planning for this activity, I found some great web sites for the students to use for their research:

• http://www.livescience.com/dinosaurs/
• http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/
• http://kids.yahoo.com/dinosaurs
• http://dsc.discovery.com/guides/dinosaur/dinosaur.html
• http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dinosaurs/
• http://www.kidsdinos.com/

The children will work on the project for about 90 minutes one day a week through the end of February. At first, the set-up each day is a little slow. As the students get better starting up the computers and logging in, they have more and more time to do the "fun stuff"--Internet research and creating their presentation.

I like this project because it gives us the opportunity to teach some important (and really boring) technology skills as we work to teach science and language objectives.