I hope you had a restful, if not rather rainy, summer break. New adventures, new ideas, and new friends are on the horizon for the 2018-2019 school year.
As we focus on our goals for the year, I wanted to share some resources related to literacy in all its forms. As the availability of technology becomes greater and greater, I hope these resources will be useful to your classroom.
Epic! - I first learned about this ebook resource while taking the iPads in Education course from Eduspire. There is also a wonderful iPad app. In place of a library card from your local library, this can help supplement and provide a variety of reading material for kids.
Smithsonian TweenTribune - This website provides the same non-fiction news article at 3 different levels. Differentiate for your kids and their needs while still exposing them to the same topic - hurricanes in Hawaii, AR trips to Scotland, pirates in Denmark.
Free Rice - At any level, have kids build vocabulary while playing a game and giving to the less fortunate. Free Rice tests their vocabulary knowledge and for each right answer, gives ten grains of rice to the World Hunger Program. Would be helpful to SAT scores, too!
The Most Dangerous Writing App - This website would be great for building fluency. You set a timer and have to keep typing for that amount of time. If you stop typing for more than 3 seconds, it deletes everything. The bar across the top shows their progress. It turns red if you stop typing too long as a warning.
Enjoy your long weekend and stay dry!
