Posts Tagged ‘character’

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Amazing Free Online Social Studies Books!

March 8th, 2012

Hi!  It’s Thursday, March 8, 2012 and time for Social Sciences at Clickschooling!

Recommended Website:
Go Social Studies Go!

Age Range: 9 and up (Grades 4-12, with parental supervision)

This is amazing! A Social Studies teacher created this ad-supported website to make social studies awesome and claims that it “brings to you the most complete Social Studies teacher resources in cyber space.”

The Social Studies material is all organized into free, engaging interactive books. You just click on a corner of the book to turn the pages that contain free social studies interactive lessons, games, videos, photos, and sound and music clips.

When you get to the site, you’ll see an icon menu that includes:

*Global Religions – Study African Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Shinto.

*History – You won’t believe the extensive content available under each major category that includes: Ancient History, World History, 20th Century History, American History I, and American History II. Topics include the Mayans, the Silk Road, the Black Death, Feudal Japan, Marco Polo, the Trial of Galileo, American Revolution, the Donner Party, Salem Witch Trials, Underground Railroad, the Hindenburg Disaster, the Dust Bowl, the Titanic, the Rwanda Massacre, and more!

*World Geography – Discover the countries and cultures of the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Russia, Africa, India, Korea, Japan, China, and Australia.

*History Hunters – Go on an interactive History Adventure! Become a character in a story that allows you to make choices that determine the outcome.  Choose from “The Underground Railroad” and “Immigrant Experience.”

You’ll also find links to other cool websites and teacher resources.

This site is a brilliant example of how mundane textbook information can be transformed into an interactive learning extravaganza that your family will love!

 

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Shakespeare for Kids!

January 25th, 2012

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, January 24, 2012 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Shakespeare for Kids

Age Range: 9 and up (with parental supervision)

The Folger Shakespeare Library offers this fun website that introduces kids to Shakespeare through fun games and activities.  When you get to the site you’ll see an icon menu that includes:

*Words, Words, Words – Unscramble letters to reveal words from Shakespeare’s plays, learn new vocabulary by discovering the meaning of “Weird Words” in Shakespeare’s works. Try creating Shakespearean insults or compliments. Learn some common idioms that originated in Shakespeare’s plays. Print out scripts for plays and perform scenes at home.

*Fun Facts – Learn trivia about Shakespeare’s life and times.

*Games & Coloring Puzzles – Enjoy playing interactive mazes, crosswords, and word searches based on Shakespeare’s plays.  You can color and do jigsaw puzzles too!

*Shakespeare Challenges – Answer trivia questions about Shakespeare’s plays, or read a quote and try to guess which character said it.

*Who Am I? – Use clues to identify characters from Shakespeare’s plays.

Want to have a little more in-depth fun?  For historical perspective, be sure to click on the links to “Discover Our Collection” and “Queen Elizabeth.”

 

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Posted in language arts

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Silver Rush Adventure Game!

November 3rd, 2011

Hi! It’s Thursday, November 3, 2011, and time for Social Studies at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
The Cobalt Adventure

Age Range: 9-14 (About grades 5-8, with parental supervision. People of all ages may enjoy aspects of this site.)

At this website you can virtually experience an early 20th century Silver Rush through interactive games and lessons that teach social studies, history and geography. When you get to the site, you’ll see a menu that includes:

*Game – Select one of three real-life characters (an old prospector, a nurse, or a young shopkeeper) and head to Cobalt in Ontario, Canada to join the Silver Rush of 1903. This multimedia adventure (available in Flash or HTML) is different for each character, and there are 28 possible endings. After you’ve seen the results of any one decision you make for your character, you can choose “previous” to go back and choose again.

At the end of each playthrough, you can click on “Actual Factual” to see what actually happened to the person you chose to be, plus plenty of other information about life in Cobalt at that time. (From the “Library” on the menu, all of the Actual Factuals are available; during gameplay, only the information pertinent to your most recent decision is available.)

*Curriculum – Get four downloadable (pdf) lessons with ideas and activities designed to enhance what you learn from playing the game. Create a facsimile of a hand-colored postcard, write your own adventure story, use visual prompts to tell a story.

*Library – Explore a photo gallery and view a collection of artifacts from the Cobalt Mining Museum that were used to create the multimedia game.

This game is available in English or French. If you want to view it in French, click “Francais” at the top of the home page.

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Learn to Speak Japanese!

October 29th, 2011

Hi! It’s Saturday, October 29, 2011, and time for Foreign Languages at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Kids Web Japan

Age Range: 4 to 12 (with parental supervision)

This website, created by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), is designed to foster appreciation of Japan among American children and introduce them to the Japanese language!

The simple artwork, the openness of each page, the soft color scheme and intuitive navigation, are all immediately attractive to young ones. And the content is top-notch! Here’s what you’ll find:

*Lessons 1-8 – Nicely illustrated formal language lessons, complete with audio examples, English and Japanese text, and pronunciation in text form. (Typical lessons contain dialog, vocabulary/grammar, and an exercise.) 

*Animated Japanese – There are 3 scenarios on this page with 3 menu choices each. The 3rd link in each scenario is the ONLY one that works – but it opens terrific interactive cartoons. Click on the numbered speech balloons sequentially (as many times as you like) to hear the dialog in Japanese and read the captions in English, Japanese, and phonetic transcription. Learn fun sentences like, “Welcome home, Master!” and “Let’s play together until our spaceship gets fixed.”

*Quick Kanji – Here you can play with a fully interactive drawing of a scene in Japan. Click on any part of the scene to watch the picture evolve into a Japanese/Chinese character. This is a winner!

*Hiragana and Katakana Charts – Japanese alphabets. Click any letter to hear it pronounced.

*Numbers – Learn to speak and read the numbers from 1 to 100.

And under Related Articles:

*Language – The older kids and adults will appreciate this clear article about the Japanese language.

*Hiragana Matching Game – Click and drag the Japanese word to the picture. If you guess correctly, you hear the word pronounced and learn to write it correctly. Even if you are just guessing wildly, you will still learn something by playing this game. (You probably won’t want to play it past level two, tho ugh, unless you already know some words and letters.)

And last but not least:

*Gesture Game – This hidden gem is listed under “Games” in the left column. Look at the gesture and try to guess what it means. These gestures are also used in Japanese Sign Langauge.

You may also wish to spend some time on the rest of this website; some additional Japanese vocabulary (origami, manga, ninja,..) is presented in the context of the culture and history of Japan. Parents, as always, should preview the site and supervise Internet use.

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Creative Writing Activities!

October 12th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, October 12, 2011 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
BruceVanPatter.com: Let’s Get Creative!

Age Range: 5 and up (with parental supervision)

This website offers over 300 pages of fun activities to help kids enjoy creative writing! The designer, Bruce Van Patter, is an illustrator who shows kids how to bring their ideas for stories to life. He does offer some creative writing helps that can be purchased, but you don’t have to buy a thing to access the many freebies.

When you get to the site, you’ll see some featured activity pages. Look at the menu on the left side of the screen under the heading “A Quick List of Fun Stuff” that includes:

*The Story Kitchen – Enjoy using creative, interactive story-writing prompts.

*Mugshots – Click on a picture of a character and answer a set of  questions to create your story’s character!

*KidTales – Use the one of Bruce’s fun drawings to inspire a story of your own!

*What-if Genie – Look at the top of the page to read a “What-if” question that will inspire a story. Refresh the page to get a new one.

*Creative Times – Develop a story based on a wacky news headline!

*DaVinci’s Doodles – What is the story potential of a doodle? Try this activity and find out!

*Wacky Headlines – Help your child write “outside the box” by using parts of speech to create elements of randomness.

You’ll find many more activities to choose from too.

Be sure to check out what Van Patter has “For Families” in the horizontal menu bar located at the top of the home page.

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Posted in language arts

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Earth Day Activities & Leonardo’s Horse!

April 21st, 2011

Hi! It’s Thursday, April 21, 2011 and time for Social Sciences at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Leonardo’s Horse

Age Range: 12 and up (approximately with parental supervision; younger children may enjoy aspects of this site)

ClickScholar Kristin recommended this website that provides the history of how in 1482, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by the Duke of Milan, Italy, to construct the largest equine statue ever built. Leonardo’s full-scale clay model, that stood 24 feet high, was destroyed by French archers who used it for target practice.

Five hundred years later, an American pilot and art collector named Charles Dent decided that the colossal horse should be recreated as an expression of gratitude for the immense cultural, artistic, and scientific legacy of Leonardo and the Renaissance. He thought it should be given to the Italian people as a gesture of international goodwill and peace.

This website chronicles the fascinating history of how Dent accomplished his mission (and more!) and includes photographs of all stages of development.

The Horse, Il Cavallo, is faithful to Leonardo’s original drawings, and much like the Statue of Liberty, will stand for a thousand years as a symbol of friendship between nations.

After reading the history and viewing the photographs, use the menu at the top of the page and click on “The Seven Principles” to learn the seven character traits that made Leonardo da Vinci one of the most influential geniuses in history.

Don’t miss the links to other sites about Leonardo da Vinci too. Parents, as always, should preview the sites and supervise internet exploration.

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Posted in social sciences

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