Archive for the ‘other’ category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Sing & Say “Thank You” In Every Language!

November 19th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Saturday, November 19, 2011 and time for Foreign Languages at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Websites:
See Below

Age Range: All (with parental supervision)

*YouTube: Thank You Song In 45 Languages
You’ll tap your toes and clap your hands along to the beat as you learn to sing “Thank You” in 45 languages from Arabic to Vietnamese. This is a really uplifting video presentation – don’t miss it!

*Omniglot: How To Say ”Thank You” In Many Languages
Learn to express your thanks in many languages! This terrific website teaches you how to say “Thank you” in many of the world’s languages. Most of the languages include audio files so you can hear how it’s supposed to sound. Plus, in some cases the name of the language is linked – and if you click on it a new page opens with more phrases you can learn.

No comments »

Posted in other

Tags:

Virtual Tour of New York’s Undergound!

October 28th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Friday, October 28, 2011, and time for a Virtual Field Trip at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
New York Underground

Age Range: 8 and up (approximately with parental supervision)

This website, brought to you by National Geographic, offers a virtual tour of New York City’s Underground - where there’s a whole lot more than just dirt!

When you get to the site you’ll see a large diagram that is fully interactive. Click on any label to learn about the underground systems that deliver:

  • Power
  • Water
  • Gas
  • Transportation
  • Sewage

Click on any one to find photos and information. Don’t miss the interactive quiz called “Myths of the Underground” – amazing things have been found down there!

This site also offers some slideshow and video presentations. The videos will only work properly with the free plugins available through links on the landing page. If you cannot get the videos to work, don’t worry; transcripts are also available, conveniently located directly under the links to the videos.

Be sure to click on the link at the bottom of the page that says, “Click here for the scale version” to be impressed with just how far down construction workers are toiling today beneath New York City.

Fun Idea:  If you have several children, challenge them to an online scavenger hunt on this site. See who can be first to find the following: elephants, alligators, and why people have good reason to be nervous about earthquakes in New York. :)

No comments »

Posted in other

Tags:

Free Audio Stories for K-8

October 5th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, October 5, 2011 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
The Story Home

Age Range: 5-13 (grades K-8)

This website provides original and classic children’s audio stories that you can access for FREE in a variety of ways including:

  • Listen to the free podcasts instantly on your computer.
  • Download them to your iPod, iTouch, iPhone or iPad.
  • Subscribe to The Story Home newsletter and have links to the stories delivered to your inbox biweekly.
  • Subscribe to the stories on iTunes. The stories will be delivered directly to your iTunes podcast library.
  • Burn and save them to a CD from a PC or a Mac. You’ll need the iTunes software, and a free download is provided at the site.

You can also purchase albums of The Story Home stories, but no purchase is necessary to access the free stories on the website that cover a wide range of categories including:

  • Animal Stories
  • Fairy Tale Classics
  • Aesop
  • Andrew Lang
  • Beatrix Potter
  • Brothers Grimm
  • Charles Dickens
  • Charles Perrault
  • Hans Christian Andersen
  • O. Henry

You’ll also find storytelling tips and more on this fun-filled site.

No comments »

Posted in other

Tags:

Free AudioBooks of Classic Stories & Poems

August 10th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, August 10, 2011 and time for Language
Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Lit2Go

Age Range:  5-18 (with parental supervision)

This website provides free audiobooks of classic literature, stories, and poems in MP3 format that you can download to your MP3 player or listen to on your computer. (There is a free conversion app for iTunes as well.)

You can also read the text of the literature on the webpage or
download a pdf and print it out to read offline.

When you get to the site, you’ll see an introduction and links
to the ways you can browse for information including by:

Author – Enjoy listening to literature by Aesop, Jane Austen,
J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Brothers Grimm, Thomas
Jefferson, Jack London, Melville, Poe, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Robert Louis Stevenson, Thoreau, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Walt
Whitman and many more.

Title – You can listen to titles such as Anne of Green Gables,
Black Beauty, Common Sense, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The
Gift of the Magi, Just So Stories, A Little Princess, The
Merchant of Venice, Rip Van Winkle, The Scarlet Letter,
Treasure Island, The Ugly Duckling, The Wind In The Willows,
and more.

Reading Level – Click on any grade level from K-12 to find a
suggested list of suitable titles based on the Flesch-Kincaid
reading level scale.

This is a terrific resource for homeschoolers, unschoolers,
and carschoolers! 

No comments »

Posted in other

Tags:

Celebrating Languages Thru Videos & More!

May 21st, 2011

Hi! It’s Saturday, May 21 and time for Foreign Languages at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Celebrating Languages

Age Range:  All (with parental supervision)

This website is produced by the Children and Young People’s Service of Cambridgeshire County Council in the United Kingdom. It recognizes the rich diversity of languages spoken in the UK, the fascinating ways in which festivals and special events are observed by people of different cultures, and how young people learn languages.

It offers free videos in which you can watch and listen to students using their native language to provide instruction in how to say the names of numbers, colors, parts of the body, conversational speech, and more. The children speak in English and then in their native language including:

  • Afrikaans
  • Chinese: Cantonese and Mandarin
  • German
  • Italian
  • Pashto
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Tagalog
  • Zulu
  • And More!

When you get to the site just click on a language on the menu and a new page opens where you’ll find a video presentation. Click on “Go” on the video icon to launch the film.

Don’t miss “Festivals” on the menu. You’ll find students explaining in English how they celebrate festivals in their country.

The website notes that the spoken and written language material was provided by the young students themselves. There is no guarantee that the vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation are without errors.  Nevertheless, this is an engaging way to introduce your children to the many languages and cultures throughout the world.

 

No comments »

Posted in other

Tags:

Spanish Proficiency Video Exercises

March 26th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Saturday, March 26, 2011 and time for Foreign Languages at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
University of Texas: Spanish Proficiency Exercises

Age Range: 12 and up (middle school and beyond)

This website from the University of Texas at Austin offers free video lessons and exercises for each of SIX levels of proficiency in Spanish – from Beginning to Superior!

Designed for use by students at the University of Texas, motivated middle school and high school students can really learn a lot here too!

When you get to the site, you will see an introduction that explains this unique program. The lessons are listed by level in a horizontal menu bar near the top of the page. Place your cursor over the level on the menu bar and a drop-down menu
displays each lesson in that proficiency level. Click on the lesson and a new page opens.

In each lesson, there is one simplified video interview, plus video interviews of FIVE native speakers using the grammar and vocabulary for that lesson. The five native speakers are from Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Honduras.

While the video is playing, the captions can be set to Spanish, English, or none. The videos are also available as podcasts for viewing by iPod, for example.

There are no worksheets or quizzes, but you will find lists of relevant vocabulary, phrases, and grammar in the menu located in the right-hand column of each lesson page.

The entire site can be navigated by means of the “site index” in the upper right corner if you prefer.

No comments »

Posted in other

Tags: