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Feature Column: Technology That Makes Phonics Fun
Featured Author:
Kelly Tenkely
Kelly Tenkely graduated from Colorado Christian University with a Liberal Arts degree in Elementary Education. She started teaching in 2003 as a second grade teacher in a public school. In 2004 she made the switch to private school and took the only available opening as the technology teacher. Educational technology has since become her passion. She started a web site for her classroom and soon discovered that other teachers were using the site to aid technology in their classrooms.
Kelly also trains teaching staff on integrating and implementing technology into the classroom. Training teachers on the use of technology in the classroom led to her blog, ilearntechnology.com, where she blogs daily about integrating technology into the classroom simply and effectively. When she is not blogging, searching for and playing with new technology, or on theapple.com Kelly enjoys scrapbooking, cooking, and spending time with her husband and dog (Aya).
More articles from this author:
Feature Topic: Phonics
iLearn Technology is dedicated to giving teachers practical tips for integrating technology into the classroom. All of the resources are free to use and simple to implement. This column is a weekly Friday feature, don’t miss it!
Kindersay
What it is:
Kindersay is a website for emerging language learners. This is the new See and Say. Kindersay allows pre-school, kindergarten, and struggling language learners to learn new words through visual and auditory practice.
How to integrate Kindersay into the classroom:
Kindersay makes an excellent listening and language development center in the preschool, kindergarten, or special education classroom. Set up the computer for student exploration of words. Learn adventure, alphabet, animals, arts, cities and people, food, home large, home small, movement, numbers, outdoors, parts of the body, colors, times, shapes, tools, and transport words.
Tips:
For a $6 a month subscription, Kindersay allows you to upload your own images and sounds to Kindersay.
Visit Kindersay now.=
Professor Garfield: Transport to Reading
What it is:
Professor Garfield: Transport to Reading has two interactive reading games. The first is called Fishing for Phonics. Students can choose to fish for beginning or ending consonants. In the game, Garfield fishes and discovers different objects like a book. Students find the consonant that matches the object. The second game is called Orson’s Farm. Students can choose to play a game on the farm practicing rhyming words, syllables, segmenting words, blending, and deleting and substituting.
How to integrate Professor Garfield:
Transport to Reading into the classroom: Professor Garfield is a nice addition to the kindergarten, first grade, or remedial reading programs. Use Professor Garfield: Transport to Reading as a center to reinforce phonemic awareness and learning in class. Orson and his friends on the farm offer engaging, academically-sound activities at each level that will give students the opportunity to practice phonemic awareness tasks. The skills practiced while playing Fishing with Phonics can be used to reinforce ongoing classroom instruction directed at identifying sound-symbol correspondences and automatic phoneme blending. The students will love working on these interactive sites as an alternative to paper and pencil practice.
Tips:
Be sure to visit the Teachers’ Lounge for really thorough instructional materials, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, printable materials, electronic field trips, and educational links.
Visit Professor Garfield now.
Mindomo
What it is:
Mindomo free web-based mind mapping tool that delivers the capabilities of desktop mind mapping software in a web browser with no software to install or maintain. Students can create, edit, and share mind maps with teachers and other students.
How to integrate Mindomo into your classroom:
Students can use Mindomo to create mind maps for all subjects. Students can create character diagrams, comparison charts, story diagrams, vocabulary word diagrams, timelines, effect of events, experiment maps, food pyramids, scientific processes, life cycles, and more. This tool will be valuable for your visual learners!
Tips:
Students have to sign up for a free account to use Mindomo they will need a email address to complete registration process.
Visit Mindomo now.
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== Related Links ==
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- Reading: To Phonic or Not to Phonic? Read more. == == ==
- Reading Lesson: Roaring Good Reads Read now. == ==
- Take your knowledge to the next level. Find a degree program and advance your career. == ==
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Curious George
What it is:
PBS Kids Curious George website features several games featuring the popular Curious George character for kindergarten students. All games encourage growth in math and science. Students will use counting skills, observation skills, listening skills, logic skills, basic engineering skills, measuring skills, basic addition and subtraction, color creation, mouse manipulation skills, categorizing skills, and recording skills.
How to integrate Curious George into your classroom:
Use the Curious George website during math and science time as a center. Students can stop by the center individually if you have a classroom with several computers, or in small groups in the one to two computer classroom. The site has 13 wonderful games that can be used as extended learning activities in math and science class.
Tips:
Visit the Teacher section for Extended learning activities, lesson plans, and related video clips. Be sure to bookmark this page for easy access. Because there are so many games, this may be a site you use often to reinforce skills learned in the classroom.
Visit Curious George now.
Inspired Learning
What it is:
Inspired learning is a collection of lesson plans and ideas for using visual software such as Inspiration, and Kidspiration in the classroom.
How to integrate Inspired Learning into your curriculum:
Use Inspired Learning for ideas and lessons to integrate visual software into the classroom. If you don’t already have visual, mind mapping software, you can download Free Mind open source (free) software to use with the lessons and ideas.
Tips:
Click on the Educators Resource page on Inspired Learning for a free trial version of Inspiration and Kidspiration.
Visit Inspired Learning now.
Podcast
What it is:
A podcast is a digital media recording that can be saved on and distributed over the Internet.
How to use Podcasting in your classroom:
Use a podcast to record students reading. This can be used for reading records, for pronunciation, and reading fluency. Students, teachers, and parents can listen to reading records recorded over the course of the school year for fluency and progress made. Podcasts can also be used to share news with students and families, guest speakers, student presentations, student produced podcasts, lessons, assessment, digital stories, motivation, auditory learners, celebrating student work, interactive media center, a tool to help struggling students, to provide a “window” to your classroom for parents, and to show student growth at parent teacher conferences.
Tips:
Podcasts can be created using several programs such as Apple’s Garageband (this application comes standard on Macintosh computers), Audacity which is a free open source software for recording and editing sounds, and My Podcast where podcasts can be recorded and hosted for free.
Clifford Interactive Story Books
What it is:
Clifford Interactive Story Books features Scholastic’s Clifford the Big Red Dog in four interactive books and four fun games. The games include concentration, make a word, letter match, and sound match.
How to integrate Clifford Interactive Story Books into your classroom:
Use Clifford for beginning and emergent readers. Early readers can practice phonemic awareness and phonics skills as they actively listen to words read aloud and select which words to include in their book. Set up the Clifford site as a reading center.
Tips:
Find lessons to use with Clifford on the Teacher’s Guide page. Lessons include beginning consonant sounds, letter recognition, short vowels, and long vowels.
Visit Clifford Interactive Story Books.
Rhymer
What it is:
Rhymer is a free online rhyming dictionary from Write Express. Students can find end rhymes, last syllable rhymes, double rhymes, beginning rhymes and first syllable rhymes.
How to integrate Rhymer into your classroom:
Set up an inspiration center during a poetry unit. Students can stop by the center when they need a little poetic inspiration.
Tips:
Bookmark this site for easy access.
Visit Rymer now.
Berenstain Bears
What it is:
The popular children’s series, Berenstain Bears goes 21st century with their very own website. Students can visit the art gallery, read biographies of each of the bears, print out activities, read interactive story books, visit Barn theater for some Berenstain Bear videos, write an email to the Bears at the post office and more.
How to integrate Berenstain Bears into your classroom:
Allow students to explore the Berenstain Bear site as part of their reading time. The site is sure to motivate students to read. This is a great site to have on hand for indoor recess days!
Tips:
Make sure you have the most current Java and Quicktime players for the interactive books and videos.
Visit Berenstain Bears now.
ktenkely
over 2 years ago
168 comments
A couple that aren't listed here but are MAJOR phonics winners... www.starfall.com and Game Goo Gooey Games. So amazing!
Jill
over 2 years ago
822 comments
These are such fun sites to use either as whole class instruction or in for individual computer time for students. The more students practice these skills, the better, especially if it seems like a game!