Curriculum-Based Early Learning Site

ABCmouse.com is an exciting site filled with more that 2,000 individual learning activities, geared to early learning experiences! You will find 4 curriculum subject areas with 350 lessons on this interactive site. Reading, Math, The World around us and Art and Colors have activities that engage the young learner.

The Reading Curriculum includes "uppercase and lowercase letter recognition, phonics, recognizing sounds, rhyming word and word families."

The Math Curriculum includes "recognizing and counting numbers 1-100, shapes recognition, the meaning of addition and subtraction."

The World Around Us Curriculum includes "the body and health, sports, plants and animals, weather and seasons, and The Earth, moon, sun and stars."

The Art and Colors Curriculum incorporates drawing and painting, shapes and colors to "create original works of art."

This award-winning site makes learning lots of fun!

What kid doesn't love money? If you want to get a student's attention, just include money in your lesson. And where should you go to get some great lessons that include money? The U.S. Mint!

http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/siteInformation/

This site includes HUNDREDS of K-12 lessons using money as a starting point. I am not just talking about economic or math lessons. They also include geography, history, reading - I even found a first grade lesson teaching the long e sound using a Sacajawea golden dollar! Each lesson tries to teach using lessons that encompass different areas of the curriculum and include all the materials (except for the coins - you have to supply those). So to get a student's attention - try money! (It always works for me...)

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a 100% free, open source, office suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more! You can easily import files from Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and many other formats, and can easily save to Microsoft Office® and other formats when needed. Click here for the FREE download button.

Teachers' Domain

TEACHERS + FREE RESOURCES = AWESOME TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES!

Go to Teachers' Domain and create your FREE (did mention that it's FREE?) account.  Get started by either searching by topic or browsing by your state standards. 

"Teachers' Domain is a free digital media service for educational use from public broadcasting and its partners. You’ll find thousands of media resources, support materials, and tools for classroom lessons, individualized learning programs, and teacher professional learning communities"

Most recently a teacher I work with found a short video clip of the water cycle that she included in her Smart Notebook lesson.  It helped her 2nd grade students grasp the concept of the water cycle in about 30 seconds!

AudioNote Lite App

Audionote Lite is a free app that combines the functionality of a notepad and voice recorder. This app allows you to type notes, record what is being said by the teacher, use a highlighter tool or a drawing tool to create visuals. What a great tool for a student who has trouble remember what the teacher's key points were in class, or if you are in a meeting and don't want to take notes the whole meeting. You can playback the meeting and be reminded of important things.

The Lite version will allow you to record up to 10 minutes of audio per a note and 2 hours total. The full version is $4.99 and also allows you to share notes via email and wifi.

SMART Document Camera 330 with Mixed Reality

Are you one of the lucky few who recently found a black and white cube with your new SMART document camera and wondered, "What in the world is this?" The cube is used with Mixed Reality, which offers an innovative way for you to foster deeper engagement and understanding by enabling your class to interact with 2D, 3D, animated and audio-enriched content.

Click here to watch a video that introduces you to your new treasure!

App Store Rewind 2011

So you were lucky enough to receive an iPod Touch or an iPad 2 for the Holidays!
Check out the App Store for a great review of what the hottest apps were of 2011.
Enjoy and kick back and see what all 2012 will have to offer!