AAA Traffic Safety Competition

Students at all levels are invited to create AAA Traffic Safety posters or Public Service Announcements emphasizing traffic safety. Prizes include VISA gift cards and AAA gifts. You’ll find competition activities listed according to grade level. All entries are due by February 14, 2014.

Using Vine & Instagram Video in the Classroom

With Twitter’s app, Vine, your students can create videos in six seconds. Put that together with Facebook’s Instagram video-capturing feature and challenge your students, or yourself, to create. Take a look at Edutopia’s “Five Minute Film Festival: Vine and Instagram Video in the Classroom.” It features examples of teachers having fun by producing short videos using these digital resources, and it compares uses of Vine and Instagram video.

Differences Between e-Readers and Tablets

The CNET Community, in its Tablets Forum, offers a comparison between e-readers and tablets—information that parents of your students may find helpful this holiday season. Advice is given in answer to a question from a parent of an eight-year-old who wants to know what is the best mobile device for her child. Answers include visiting an electronics store to have a salesperson demo different products, finding products that fit the interest and age level of the child, going with tablets because they have more functionality, and thinking about going to the library for traditional books if all that is needed is a book reader. Some CNET members suggest that if parents already have an iPhone, for example, that purchasing an iPad or iPod Touch is a good idea.

Parents should also keep in mind that schools are successfully putting digital devices to work in classrooms with younger children. Tablets have more flexibility for learning activities and, dressed in a sturdy case, they usually can endure time in backpacks and accidental drops. Of course, checking with school personnel about devices that children can bring to school and use in the classroom is always wise advice.

Coding, Apps, and 3-D Models for Kids

Richard Bryne, in The Digital Shift from the Library Journal, discusses helping students “make things” in his article, “Teach Kids How to Code, Make Apps and 3-D Models With These Tools”.  Some of the learning sources he recommends are: Daisy the Dinosaur, which teaches programming basics; Code Monster with lots of coding lessons complete with instant feedback; Blockly, which uses visuals to teach about if-then logic; MIT App Inventor for creating smart phone apps; 123D Design for designing 3-D models; 123 Catch to turn pictures into three dimensional models; and 3DTin that lets students build 3-D models from scratch or with the help of templates.

Young Students Write Novels

During November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNaWriMo)

Although, adults are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel during November, the count is flexible for children. Grade 1 teacher Lily Jones decided to have her young students write novels. The idea was that they’d each write their own novel and all the words written by each student would be totaled. The goal for the class was 5000 words. Jones’ students learned about chapters and characters and enjoyed the freedom of writing fiction. The students didn’t master the art of creating chapters and plots, but they came up with delightful stories and saw themselves as novelists.  Jones went on to help create the NaNoWriMo curriculum for Kindergarten through Grade 12 students. You may want to put some of the NaNoWriMo ideas to work in your classroom this month and throughout the school year. Give your students time to create a story of their own, either using word processing or getting it down on paper. They’ll be proud of their accomplishment.

The Hour of Coding Is Coming

Computer Science Education Week is coming up December 9^th to 15^th and during that week CODE.org challenges us to get every student (and teacher) in every school in programming mode for at least an hour. Easy to follow, self-guided tutorials will be offered free of charge. Don’t worry if there aren’t enough computers to go around since CODE will make available “unplugged” tutorials, as well. No experience is needed. On the CODE site, where you can sign up, you’ll also find a “how-to” video, a teacher research kit, and information on “Why Computer Science”. Other events are planned for the week including a birthday celebration for Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, a computing pioneer.

Hispanic Culture & History Resources

In its latest newsletter, PBS LearningMedia features resources related to Hispanic culture and history. The content is designed to help students gain a deep appreciation of the Hispanic culture and history while building Spanish language skills. Some of the digital resources include salsa music, bilingual science discussions, Hispanic names like Nevada and Montana in the United States, Latino family ancestry, gender, and race as part of an understanding of history, and revolutionary art featuring the Mexican Muralist Movement.

Fun With Language Arts

The Children's University of Manchester in the United Kingdom hosts a very nice language arts site for students and parents. On the site, you'll find an introduction to words, a world language map, jigsaw puzzles, and fun with nouns, adjectives, pairs, and much more. There's even a timeline of the English language. —And, if you don’t know what an EPONYM is, you should head to this very nice site, which also includes fun with history, science, and art and design.

The Amazing 2013 Vultures Rock Competition

The Halloween Vultures Rock Poetry Competition is open once more for entries. This competition focuses on the plight of vultures, whose numbers are dropping around the world mainly because people know so little about them and why they need to be protected.  To honor the job that vultures do in cleaning up our world, children, ages 8-12, are invited to submit original poems that describe how they think vulture’s rock. Poems, which do not have to rhyme, are to be submitted to the Vultures Rock website by October 18^th, 2013. Winners will receive iPod Shuffles.

The competition is an excellent way to help students learn about the importance of vultures in our world and celebrate the fall season. Be sure to check the rules for entry on the site.

Storia: A Scholastic Reading Experience

Scholastic’s Storia is a place for your students to find over 2000 eBooks to read at home and at school. There are Read-to-Me books with highlighted text; Enriched eBooks that tackle topics in mathematics, science, geography, and history; reference tools and a dictionary; books with puzzles and quizzes; personal bookshelves; and tools for teachers. Many Scholastic favorites and classics are part of the Storia list, which is divided into categories according to Age (2 to 13 and up), Product Type (eBooks, Enriched eBooks, Read-to-Me Books, Reading Challenge, ePacks, eCollections), Reading Level, Grade Level (Pre-K to 8 and Teen), and Character & Series (Clifford, Harry Potter, Magic School Bus, etc.). Prices vary according to the book or pack selected. The eBooks may be used on iPad, Kindle Fire, Android devices, and Windows PCs. A Mac version will be out soon.