Vocabulary Builders

When you mention the words "parts of speech" or "spelling vocabulary" do your students get that glazed over look in there eyes? Hopefully those days are soon over. There are a couple of engaging interactive websites that not only support your curriculum but are fun to use.

Elementary to Secondary teachers here is a educational website designed to build your students English vocabulary. Vocabulary.co.il is a fun educational website created for the purpose of building ones reading, phonics, or English language skills. They offer free online word games which are specifically designed to motivate students to learn by having fun while practicing spelling, phonics, and vocabulary.The vocabulary games include an online word search, crossword puzzle, and hangman (hangmouse). It focuses on having the student make connections between words and ideas and between words and pictures in order to build vocabulary skills. As you know those connections make the process of building vocabulary skills faster and more efficient.

Vocabulary.co.il is not only for the general education teacher but ESL teacher as well. It has vocabulary games dedicated to the ESL student. They range from common foreign language phrases to specific vocabulary lists, including numbers and colors.

SpellingCity.com is a terrific site to enhance your students spelling skills. Their slogan is, "SpellingCity.com has transformed spelling practice from a chore to something fun and it's free". The best part of this site is that the students can enter in their current spelling list to practice and then test themselves. It also has corresponding handwriting worksheets for the Dolch word lists. The downside to SpellingCity is that to fully utilize all it has to offer teachers need to buy a membership.

Parents and students are able to use both of these website effortlessly. It is ideal to use for a school to home connection because you can suggest certain educational games for the student to play that corresponds to the curriculum you are currently teaching.

Math can be fun?????

Of course it can!  As a resource room math teacher at the middle school level, I've definitely come across my share of kids who are either "done" with math or they believe that it's some horrible thing that's going to keep them a prisoner to number their entire lives.  For those of you parents out there who may have a child who needs to improve his/her math skills or a child who needs incentives and loves to play games online, www.coolmath-games.com may be just the thing you're looking for.  It doesn't replace the need for instruction, but it can be a fun way to practice math skills, without trying your patience.
Where their motto is "Come for the games...Stay for the lessons,"  your student is sure to be engaged in an experience they'll want to replicate over and over.  The site is full of a wide range of games for a wide range of ages and interests.  I've found myself enjoying some of the games the students do!

My students and I both love Bloxorz  (a game which requires you to move a rectangular block along a path until you can stand it on end to drop it into a whole), that requires a good amount of focus and math reasoning.  Even my students who are challenged with the ability to focus have admitted to spending a lot of time playing this game.

Though I'm not a big fan, the kids love Bloons Tower Defense 3.    In this game, the students have to manage their money, to make sure they have enough to buy items to pop the balloons and keep them from making it through a path.  Where getting your student to manage money may be a challenge, this could prove to be a good starting point.  I've had students beg me for the opportunity to play this game and extra for a longer break, just to continue playing.

These are just two of the many games offered on the site, which claims to have games in all of the following areas:

Board, colors, jigsaw, logic, mazes, memory, numbers, pictures, quiz, shapes, skill, and strategy

The site is also updated frequently, so boredom shouldn't become an issue.  So if granting random computer time, to play senseless games isn't your thing, try this site out.  You can gain some peace of mind in knowing that your student is doing something meaningful and you might find something entertaining to do in your "spare" time, which will hone your math skills too!  :)

Stories Read Aloud Online

Early elementary teachers, have you heard some of your students complain that they have no one at home to read to them? Sad to say I have more times than I could have ever imagined. Storyline Online is a free on-line streaming video program featuring Screen Actor Guild members reading books. Using this program students can see and hear books read directly to them via the computer. Also, they can check out the books in the library so that they can read along with the actors.

One of my favorites is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. Not only can the books be read to them but each book is accompanied with activities and lessons that they can do by themselves or (hopefully) with parents. It makes a terrific listening center for a classroom too!

TextMarks - Breaking Through the 21st Century Divide through Text

Teachers, do you find it's difficult to get ahold of your students' parents, or communicate on a daily basis with them? How easy would it be to send one mass text to your parents every day letting them know what homework your students have? Not so easy, you say? Not anymore! 


With TextMarks, sending a free text message to all subscribers is simple and easy. After you create a FREE account, all you need to do is create a  "group keyword", announce it to your parents and tell them the simple directions to sign up for your daily text (they text the keyword to 41411 and are automatically signed up). You login everyday to TextMarks and send a text. Simple, easy and fast. The most important part? Most parents text and would appreciate that daily text. It doesn't cost them anything (only if they don't have unlimited text - they would have to pay their own standard text messaging fees). TextMarks does NOT charge any fees, but they do send ads in the text. A short ad at the end of the text to have better instant communication with your students' parents? I'll take it. 


Sign up today and simplify your life! You can even embed a widget on your website that sends the text to that widget, so parents can just check your website every day if they don't want to receive the text. 


Says Jeromy Sumner, a Sixth Grade Teacher in Springfield Public Schools, 

"Textmarks helps me to reach my students on their level! I am able to forward my homework assignments to the entire class with one click. Parents even signed up so that they could receive homework lists and special announcements from me. Every classroom should use this service - it has helped increase the percentage of homework turned in each day, as well as reminding students of school events, library day & to bring in that field trip money!”

BBC Languages

World Language Teachers, 


Do you feel like you're always looking for a good way to invovle the parents but maybe give them "a little more" so that they're more interested in learning the language, as well? Or maybe your students' parents really want to help with homework but don't understand a grammar concept or correct pronunciation. Look no further! BBC Languages  gives the parents these concepts in "Plain English". In other words, they don't have to sit in an hour-long class to "get it". 


With BBC Languages, students and parents can work together to not only reinforce their knowledge of the language, but also includes beginner courses for parents who want to "catch up" to their beginner or intermediate student. It would also be great to use for students and parents when they tell you they're going on vacation to a country that speaks a language other than English. 


BBC Languages provides not only grammar concepts and correct pronunciation in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Chinese but also includes audio and video such as a conversation between two students in Madrid, which helps reinforce certain important words, such as greetings and good-byes. It gives you the weather in different cities in the language, along with a beginner program called 'Steps' that allows learners to take a free class for 12 weeks and then BBC gives them a certificate for their achievement. 


One really cool aspect is that BBC Languages offers what they call a "Quick Fix" which offers important, emergency vocabulary and phrases in 36 different languages. 


All in all, BBC Languages is a great resource you can give to parents to help them with their student's learning as well as brush up on their own language skills! 

Quizlet - Vocabulary & FlashCard Games

Are you looking for a way to get your parents involved at home, without it being a big hassle? Want students to practice vocabulary in their spare time, but need it to be a very specific vocabulary list? Using Quizlet, you can search for flashcards made by other users, create your own flashcards for class and at home, and even share everything you create with your fellow educators and more importantly, parents! it's incredibly easy to get started, just a quick and easy (and of course, free) registration and then you are on your way! Quizlet takes the hassle out of studying for vocabulary quizzes, practices world language vocabulary, and even can make it engaging! It automatically creates games such as Scatter, where you have to drag words and definitions on top of each other to make them disappear, and (my personal favorite), Space Race, where you write the word or definition before the word races off the screen. It's easy, automatic and free! 


It is a great way to utilize this with parents who are having a hard time finding time to study vocabulary sets with their students. Just create, send, and watch magic happen when your students tell you how "FUN" it was to "STUDY". ( The words "fun" and "study" have never been in the same sentence before now!) Needless to say, if you want to engage even the parents and really get them involved, Quizlet is definitely a great way to get started! 

Health Resource for Students and Teachers

Over the last few years, I have been working as a long-term substitute primarily in grades K-2. Often, I am looking for online resources to assist students in many areas of learning. Through my searching, I found a terrific site for students and teachers who would like information on health called BAM! Body and Mind. It was developed by the CDC. It is designed to be a health information resource for students and their teacher so sections of the site deal with nutrition, exercise, disease control, and staying safe while enjoying all kinds of sports and activities. Other topics include emotional issues, social issues (bullying) and puberty.

The site also offers a teacher's section with lesson plans, activities, and down-loadable resources available in printer-friendly pdf format.

Everyone knows that time is limited in class so this would make a terrific student and parent resource to use outside of the classroom. This way both student and parent are learning together.