Posts Tagged ‘spelling’

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Reading, Writing, Spelling, & Grammar Games!

May 16th, 2012

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, May 16, 2012 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
BBC: Skillswise

Age Range: 11 and up (with parental preview and supervision)

This BBC website offers free interactive games that teach practical literacy skills. Although designed for adults, students (about 11 and up) can use this resource as well. Instead of playing young “kiddie games” that are sometimes too elementary, slow-moving, or annoyingly “cutesy,” students can practice basic reading, writing, grammar and spelling with games that use more sophisticated vocabulary and topics (although some of the games are still very simple with young-ish animations). 

When you get to the site you’ll see a menu of English skills including:

*Reading – Learn phonics, letter and word recognition, reading comprehension and more.

*Writing – This section covers handwriting, typing, filling in a form, writing a paragraph or letter, and proofreading.

*Spelling – Discover root words, prefixes and suffixes, letter patterns, and more.

*Word Grammar – Find out about verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns.

*Sentence Grammar – Practice sentence structure, tenses, and punctuation.

Click on any topic and a new page opens. Watch a short video, play some games to reinforce learning, and take some short quizzes.

IMPORTANT: In all of the games I sampled for this review, I didn’t find any objectionable content. However, I did not sample everything. Because Skillswise was designed for adults, PARENTS SHOULD PREVIEW AND SUPERVISE ALL USE.

 

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Fun Math Games in Many Languages!

February 6th, 2012

Hi!  It’s Monday, February 6, 2012 and time for Math at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Mothmatic

Age Range: 6-10 (About grades 1-5 with parental supervision.)

This website offers colorful, animated, interactive math games to help students practice basic math equations in a multiple choice format – and in a variety of languages including German, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Polish and more.

When you get to the site you’ll see a menu of math strands (displayed in English) that include:

  • Addition
  • Subtraction
  • Multiplication
  • Division
  • Fractions

Click on any one and a new page opens where the game begins.  Randomly generated  equations are displayed on the screen and the player selects the correct answer. If the player guesses incorrectly a message appears saying, “Wrong. Try again.” If you guess correctly, you move on to the next equation until the game runs its course.

To play in an alternate language, use the horizontal menu at the bottom of the screen to make your selection. 

Note: If you click on “Digital Dialects” on the menu bar, it will open a new page where you can play games to practice foreign languages from Afrikaans to Zazaki. We’ve featured the “Digital Dialects” website previously where students can learn phrases, numbers, conversational words, spelling, verb conjugation and alphabets in over 50 languages of the world. 

 

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Seriously Fun Spelling Bee for Grades 3-12!

January 11th, 2012

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, January 11, 2012 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee
 
Age Range: 8-18 (Grades 3-12, approximately, with parental supervision)

Bookmark this one – it’s a goodie! A Maryland ClickScholar suggested this website that is sponsored by fee-based online Thesaurus service. It offers a free interactive spelling bee that helps students use spelling rules and deductive reasoning skills to assess their spelling ability, learn to spell new words, and acquire new vocabulary.

When you get to the site, you can start to play right away. You’ll hear an audio recording of a random word and see the definition printed on the screen. Simply use the information to guess at the spelling and type in the word.

If you misspell the word, you can guess again. After your second guess, you’ll see “hints” appear on the screen. After three incorrect guesses, you can press the “I Surrender” button to reveal the correct spelling.

The spelling difficulty of this online game will adapt to your skill level automatically based on the number of words you get right or wrong. The more you get right, the harder the words get. The more you get wrong, the easier the words get.

This website also offers a free lesson plan based on the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee for grades 3-12. 

The Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee is fun challenge – and if you love words it can be addictive! It’s a great way to improve spelling skills and expand your knowledge of English vocabulary.

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Thanksgiving Language Arts Activities!

November 16th, 2011

Hi!  It’s Wednesday, November 16, 2011 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling.

Recommended Websites:
Thanksgiving Language Arts
(See below.)

Age Range: Varies (grades K-12, with parental supervision)

Read All About Wild Turkeys
National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF)

Read the information on this website that also has illustrations, photos, and sound clips to help you learn about wild turkeys. Discover:

  • What a wild turkey looks like
  • The difference between gobblers and hens
  • What a wild turkey sounds like
  • Wild turkey species and subspecies
  • Fast facts about turkeys and predators

Once you’ve read all about turkeys test your knowledge by printing out and solving these puzzles…

Then, try these Thanksgiving-themed Language Arts worksheets:

*Find the complete sentence.

*Underline the verbs and nouns in each sentence.

*Practice spelling the plural form of Thanksgiving words by printing out Worksheet 1 and Worksheet 2

*Unscramble Thanksgiing-themed words. Prin out Worksheet 1 and Worksheet 2

*Write an acrostic poem using the word “Turkey.”
To write an acrostic poem, use one word (such as “turkey”) as the subject of your poem. Write the word vertically on a sheet of paper. Use each letter of the word as the beginning letter for a word in each line of the poem. Each line of the poem must connect to the subject of the poem.

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Children’s Literature Games & Puzzles

November 2nd, 2011

Hi! It’s Wednesday, November 2, 2011 and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Hoadworks.com

Age Range: 9 and up (approximately, with parental supervision)

This website was developed by an English language and literature teacher who is also the president of a media company that promotes literacy through innovative educational content, resources, and fun games, puzzles, and quizzes.

When you get to the site, scroll down the page to find the menu of free activities that includes:

*Lit Quizzes – Answer multiple choice questions about children’s books such as Watership Down, Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, and Dork in Disguise. Can you answer questions about Roald Dahl’s life? (He is the author of such classics as Mathilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, etc.)

*Crossword Puzzles – Brush up on vocabulary, spelling, and logic and reasoning skills with this assortment of puzzles about children’s authors, history, science, and more.

*Assorted Games – Test your skill with word games, word scrambles, spoonerisms, poems, and more!

*Bio Quizzes – Answer questions about the lives of famous historical people such as Galileo, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Mozart, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

When you’re through exploring the games, click on “Word Play” on the horizontal menu at the top of the page. A new page opens called “The Vocabaret.” Click on the words “hundreds of archived word puzzles” in the description to unlock a treasure trove of word plays and puzzles that are sure to challenge and boost your vocabulary.

There is so much content here that I simply could not review it all. Therefore, as always, parents should preview the games for suitability of content and supervise all Internet use.

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Literacy, Spelling, & Grammar Activities!

October 19th, 2011

Hi! It’s Wednesday, October 19, 2011, and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Recommended Website:
Ambleweb

Age Range: 7-12 (with parental supervision)

The Ambleside Primary School faculty and fourth-year students created the free language arts games and activities on this site. The math portion of this site was reviewed in ClickSchooling in 2005 and is still useful. Today’s review focuses on the literacy portion of this site that appears in two sections as follows:

I. When you get to the site you’ll see the word “Literacy” and below it a menu that includes short “Click-On” activities as follows:

*Interactive spelling worksheets -Cclick and drag the missing letters to the blank spaces where they belong to complete the words.

*Proverbs – Click and drag the first and last parts of each proverb to place them together.

*Adjectives, Nouns, Verbs, and Prepositions – Drag each word into the correct category.

*Word Finder – Given a word, see how many smaller words can be made from its letters.

*Sentence Sorter – Put the words in order to create a sentence that makes sense.

II. Below the above menu, click on the words “Ambleweb Literacy Page“ to find:

*Look, Cover, Write, and Check – A customizable spelling list. You look at the word, then click “cover” and type the word from memory. You will be informed whether you got the word correct or not.

*Book Reviews – Read reviews submitted by (mostly young) website visitors, or submit your own!

*Word Games and Quizzes – Create stories, limericks, or haiku. Work on vocabulary, spelling, reading comprehension, and more!

*Best Internet Resources – A long list of recommended links for further Language Arts learning and practice. (I did not review these links, so parents, as always, should preview the sites and supervise Internet use.)

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