OVERALL GRADE: A+
Camp Silos
GRADE LEVEL: K-6
CONTENT: A+
Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area sponsors Camp Silos, an
interactive educational Web site for children that highlights the
development of American agriculture.
AESTHETICS: A+
Camp Silos has a crisp, clean, user-friendly interface with adequate white
space and nice graphics.
ORGANIZATION: A+
The site is well organized and easy to navigate. Main sections of the site
are linked on the home page, and each internal page has a left-side
navigation menu with a link back to the home page.
REVIEW: A+
Camp Silos teaches students about the development of American agriculture in
a fun, interactive way. The site is divided into four learning modules:
Exploring the Prairie, Pioneer Farming, The Story of Corn, and Farming Today
& Tomorrow. Each learning module contains a teacher and a student area. The
student areas feature Web-based lessons, such as scavenger hunts, WebQuests,
mystery photos, interactive games, simulations and opportunities to explore
historical documents. The teacher areas have module overviews, lesson plans,
evaluation rubrics, field trip guides, and resources and "Webliographies."
Be sure to check out the video of baby pigs being born! This is a well-done
site, and the lessons are all ready to use.
RELATED REVIEWS:
Science: Earth Science
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/science.shtml#Earth%20Science
Vocational: Agriculture
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/voc.shtml#Agriculture
The History of Jim
Crow
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0802-06.shtml
Explore African
American history from the 1870s through the 1950s.
Congress for Kids
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/2002/r0802-07.shtml
Uncle Sam guides students through Congress and history.
Twenty-Five Great Ideas for Teaching Current
Events!
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson072.shtml
Looking for ways to work news into your
classroom curriculum? Check out these great ideas for connecting current events
to all subjects!
Following are five of the 25 ideas you will
find in the above article:
A to Z adjectives.
Each student writes the letters from A to Z
on a sheet of paper. Challenge students to search the day's front page (or the
entire newspaper, if your students are older) for an adjective that begins with
each letter of the alphabet. Students cut the adjectives from the newspaper and
paste them on their list.
Scanning the page.
Provide a copy of a news story for this
activity that teaches the skill of "skimming for information," or let
all students work with their own copy of the front page of the same daily
paper. Provide a list of words from the story/front page and invite students to
skim the page to find as many of those words as they can. Set a time limit. Who
finds the most words before time runs out?
Headline match. Collect ten news stories and
separate the story text from the headline. Number each headline from 1 to 10.
Assign a letter, from A to J, to each story text. Invite students to match each
headline to the correct text.
Ad math.
Provide a group of five ads from a local
newspaper and the section of the paper that describes how much it costs to
place an ad. Invite students to use the per-word or per-line cost information
to figure out how much it cost to run each of the five ads.
Guess-timating!
Provide each student with the copy of a news
story. (Story length will vary depending on grade level.) Invite students to
count the number of words in each of the first five lines of the story and to
guess-timate, based on that figure, how many words long the whole story is.
Older students might average the number of words in the first five lines and
consider half-lines and other elements of a story to come up with a more
accurate figure. Let students share their estimates and how they arrived at
them. Then inform students of the exact number of words in the story (which you
have pre-counted). A prize goes to the winner!
Go to the article referenced above to find 20
*more* newspaper activities!
New this week:
Remembering September 11
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson277.shtml
Education World offers five new lessons to help teachers
commemorate the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack on the
United States. Those lessons will keep alive the spirit of patriotism and
tolerance stimulated by the events of 9/11.
The five lessons that comprise this week's
Lesson Planning resource are listed below. (Approximate grade levels for each
lesson are indicated in parentheses.)
Hang a Flag Mural
What better way to greet visitors to your
school (or to your Town Hall) than with a student-created flag mural? Four
mural ideas included. (Grades K-12)
Write Letters to Commemorate 9/11
Students commemorate 9/11 by writing letters
to fire, police, or emergency medical personnel in local communities or to the
service men and women who fight terrorism overseas. (Grades K-12)
Proverbs of One World
Students create a book or bulletin board of
proverbs that offer lessons connected to themes of freedom, tolerance,
patriotism, diversity, and respect. (Grades 3-12)
Use Literature to Teach Tolerance
Commemorate 9/11 by reading aloud children's
books that focus on the theme of tolerance. Book list included. (Grades
PreK-12)
My Name Is Osama
A short story about a young Iraqi boy opens
up classroom discussion about the difficulties some immigrant children face,
especially in the days after September 11. Student work sheet included. (Grades
3-12)
Writing Bug Activity #6
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/writing_bug/writingbug006.shtml
September 11: One Year Later
Student work sheet
included
Writing Bug Activity #6
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/writing_bug/writingbug006.shtml
September 11: One Year Later
Student work sheet included.
Internet Scavenger Hunt: Remembering September
11
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/hunt/hunt045.shtml
What do your students know about September
11? Student work sheet included.
OVERALL GRADE: A
Empires: A Study of Ancient
Egypt, Greece, and Rome
http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/
GRADE LEVEL: 3-5
CONTENT: A+
This gold-winning ThinkQuest
entry from elementary students in Tennessee has a wealth of information on the
ancient empires as well as interactive activities, recipes, and crafts.
AESTHETICS: B
The choice of background and
text color on the main page makes reading a little difficult, but on other
pages, the text and background work well together.
ORGANIZATION: A
The site can be easily
navigated from the left-side menu. Internal pages have a drop-down menu at the
bottom of the page; a site map is also available.
REVIEW: A
The Empires: A Study of
Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome site was developed by kids for kids. It's a
great site to supplement any study of the ancient empires. Each of the three
main areas, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome, includes factual
information on the empire; interactive online activities such as quizzes,
jigsaws, crosswords, flashcards, and timelines; directions for making materials
or crafts that are representative of the culture; recipes; and other related
resources. Visitors to the site can also tale a virtual tour of the Ancient
World Exhibit that was produced by these students to show different aspects of
their learning about the ancient empires.
RELATED REVIEWS:
History: Ancient &
Classical
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/history.shtml#Ancient%20&%20Classical
Internet: Interactive Web
Sites
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/internet.shtml#Interactive%20Websites
New this week:
Bring Ancient History to
Life!
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson276.shtml
The civilizations of ancient
Egypt, Greece, and Rome are among the most engaging of teaching themes. This
week, Education World presents five lessons for teaching about those ancient
cultures.
The five lessons that
comprise this week's Lesson Planning resource are listed below. (Approximate
grade levels for each lesson are indicated in parentheses.)
Hieroglyphics: They're Not
Greek to Me! (They're Egyptian!)
Use hieroglyphic characters
to spell a name, write a sentence, and create your own "Rosetta
Stone." Have fun using online hieroglyphic translators too. (Grades 3-12+)
The Gods of Ancient Greece,
Egypt, and Rome
Learn about the gods of
ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Create a diary, first-person report, or
postcard to share that knowledge.
(Grades 3-12+)
Roman Numeral Math
Solve simple math problems
using Roman numerals. Student work sheet provided. (Grades 3-12)
Working 9 to 5 in Ancient
Egypt
Create a pyramid diagram
that reflects the social order in ancient Egypt. Compare the ancient social
order with the social order in our world today. (Grades 6-12)
Draw Like an Egyptian
Follow four basic rules to
draw like an Egyptian. Display paintings in a classroom art gallery. (Grades
K-12+)
Heroes and Legends for
Kindergarten
Rating: B+
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/r0698-09.shtml
This site includes links to
lesson plans and other resources for teaching about Johnny Appleseed. (See http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/as/education/projects/webunits/khistory/home.htm.
)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson279.shtml
Fables, fairy tales,
folktales, legends, myths, and tall tales -- six literary genres that engage
student interest -- can be used in the classroom to inspire creative thinking
and writing. This week, Education
World offers five lessons to introduce students to the literary genres -- and
to their own imagination! Included: Graphic organizers, student work sheets,
more!
The five lessons that
comprise this week's Lesson Planning resource are listed below. (Approximate
grade levels for each lesson are indicated in parentheses.)
Using Graphic Organizers to
Generate Genre Definitions
Use graphic organizers to
help create definitions of a variety of story types, including fables, fairy
tales, folktales, legends, myths, and tall tales. (Grades 3-12)
Passport to Stories Around
the World
Introduce students to six
tales -- one from each of six continents -- and ask them to fill out a passport
as they "visit" each continent. Student work sheet pprovided. (Grades
K-12)
Up-to-Date Aesop
Rewrite one of Aesop's
fables using modern language in a modern setting. (Grades K-12)
Ten Characters from American
Folklore
Students learn about Pecos
Bill, Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and five other
characters from America's folk history. Student work sheet included. (Grades
3-12)
Folktale Writing
A well-known children's book
author helps students learn how to write folktales. (Grades 3-8)
OVERALL GRADE: A
GRADE LEVEL: 1-6
CONTENT: A
Kids' Castle is the online
Smithsonian Magazine for Kids. The home page offers links to the Cool Link of
the Day In addition, links to all the channels (subject areas) are available
here. Channels include Science, Personalities, Sports, Animals, Worldwide,
History, Arts, and Space. Each channel provides questions and answers,
pictures, and information about the subject.
AESTHETICS: A
The Web site has a bright
yellow background that could be distracting. Text is black and easy to read.
Picture menus make this site more child-friendly.
ORGANIZATION: A
The home page for Kids'
Castle offers links for each subject area. Each page also links to games and
the message board through links at the bottom of every page. A Homelink makes
it easy to get from any page back to the Kids' Castle.
REVIEW: A
The Castle Club page offers
links to the newsletters and a cartoon -- at this time, there is also a link to
coloring pictures featuring animals from the National Zoo. There is also a
moderated message board available -- based on the Discus program from Hope
College in Holland, Michigan. The message board includes a reminder for
students to leave only a first name and last initial and not to give any
personal information such as address, phone number, or e-mail address. The main
page at Kids' Castle offers picture links to all the channels. Each channel has
a What's New section, scrollable links to message topics (questions and
answers), facts and photos, and feature articles about that subject. Each
channel is "hosted" by a character -- for example, Animals is hosted
by a safari-clad character named Jane. Children can find interesting material
here on many subjects, and many of the articles have links to outside sources of
information on the same subject.
RELATED REVIEWS:
Parents : General
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/parents.shtml#General
Students : General
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/students.shtml#General
Teachers : General
http://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/topics/teachers.shtml#General