Software Title: PBS Kids
Grade/age Level: Pre-K through Grade 3.
Subject Areas: All subject areas with a greater focus on phonics.
Platform: MAC/PC
Purpose: This site is based on many of the popular educational TV shows that kids are familiar with. The site uses the characters to teach fundamentals of phonics in a fun, interactive way. The site is easy to navigate and young children could work independently simply by following the voice prompts. I think that students would like the idea of "playing" with their friends from TV. I love PBS!
Software Title: Free Rice
Grade/Age Level: Grade 2 through Adult
Subject Areas: Grammar, Geography, Foreign Language, Math
Platform: MAC/PC
Purpose: This is an interactive website that uses educational games to fight hunger. The site is most known for its emphasis on vocabulary. Participants are asked multiple choice questions ranging from vocabulary to multiplication, a correct answer will cause your rice bowel to increase by 20 grains of rice. Every correct answer adds rice to your bowl. The rice grains you earn are then donated by site sponsors to feed hungry people worldwide. Students love the idea of being able to give to others in a tangible way. There are no download fee's and the site is simple to navigate. Students can play as often as the teacher allows. Perhaps, the teacher could let the students track how much rice there class had earned with a graph or bar chart. I could also see where the teacher could use this to lead a discussion about world hunger and what we can do to help.
Software Title: FunBrain
Grade Level: K through 8th
Subject Area: Math and reading
Platform: MAC/PC
Purpose: These are basically fun "arcade" style games. The student can choose from many different kinds of games and levels. There is also an option for teachers to choose the games they want their students to play according to a subject area they want to emphasise. I did notice a few adds but they were mostly adds for teachers for online grade books. In order for student to get to these pages, they would need to navigate into the "for teachers" section of the website. Children wouuld have a lot of fun playing these games. However, I would limit the exposure of these games because sometimes children can be overstimulated by all the bells and whistles.
Instructional Unit Atoms and Presentation
15 years ago
5 comments:
Great sites! I am teaching preschool to my niece and daughter. 1-2 times a week I let them do computer games. They are getting a little board with the Deigo game that I bought, but I found a lot of games at the PBS site that they could play.
I really like the PBS site. Because I only have one computer in my preschool room, I like sites that have printable resources. I am already planning to use the Sesame character alphabet pages. Thanks for sharing a good page!
Awesome sites!!! I never knew there were so many fun very educational sites till I visited the PBS one. The rice site is interesting too. I'll have to let others know about that one.
FreeRice is not only fun, it's highly addictive! I discovered it a few months ago and I play it a lot in my spare time. It's amazing how effective it can be in developing your vocabulary, and you're actually helping people by playing it.
Thanks for the very helpful reviews.
I have always loved PBS as a television station. I never thought to look for a website. FreeRice is a very fun site, and I am with Skip; it is very addictive.
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