Posts Tagged ‘nature’

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Join the Word Wizard Club!

June 15th, 2022

It’s Wednesday, June 15, 2022, and time for Language Arts at ClickSchooling!

Lexiteria LLC: Dr. Goodword’s Word Wizard Club

(www.alphadictionary.com/ww/)

Grades 1-8, approximately, with parental supervision

This archived website is a language lover’s paradise! The host, Dr. Goodword, has amassed an incredible array of helpful tips and activities to improve grammar, spelling, and vocabulary, along with fun interactive games and quizzes, and links to many other related resources.

Some of the fun language arts activities at the website include:

  • Game Closet — Try your hand at the Goodword Junior crossword puzzle. A few years’ worth of puzzles are archived here. All the words for each puzzle are available for you to review before you play. These crosswords can be played online (complete with hints and answers) or printed from the Teacher Resources page and completed offline. *Note: Due to the discontinuation of Flash, you will need to print the puzzles. Also in the Game Closet is a huge collection of language jokes and stories about where English and other languages come from. Can you guess how old English is? You can find out here!

  • Miss Spelling’s Spelling Center — Find a fun poem to challenge your pronunciation skills (“Spelling Chaos”), six tips for better writing, lists of commonly mispronounced and misspelled words, and more!

  • Reference Shelf — This menu item takes you away from the “kids” section, back to the “mother” page for this website called AlphaDictionary.com, where you’ll find articles about the nature of language, correct usage, and other fascinating linguistic tidbits along with word games and activities for teens and adults.

Use the menu to find an array of items from exploration of English word origins and roots, to fun with puns, to text messaging shorthand and more. You’ll also find:

  • Slingin Slang: From the Flappers to the Rappers — Did you know that the slang you use/used in high school and college reveals your true age! Or does it? Try this quiz and see!

  • Are you a Yankee or a Rebel? — Take the quiz and find out.

  • And more!

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Explore Nature, Science & Culture

April 5th, 2022

It’s Tuesday, April 5, 2022, and time for Science at ClickSchooling!

Pulse of the Planet

(pulseword.pulseplanet.com/)

Grades K-12, with parental supervision

This website, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, offers daily (Monday-Friday), free, engaging two-minute sound portraits that blend science, nature, and culture worldwide. These audio clips contain fascinating information that may springboard you to further science investigation and learning.

Just take a look at some of what’s available from the past several weeks:

  • March 30 – It Comes in Many Guises – Wherever you may be right now, odds are you’re not far from clay in one form or another.
  • March 31 – Swamp Song – A dawn chorus of amphibians – headphones on!
  • April 1 – A Trojan Horse Made of Clay – Fooling cancer cells!
  • April 4 – Elephants and Ivory – Remembering the late Richard Leakey, famed anthropologist and conservationist. In a 1989 interview with Jim, he unveiled his strategy to protect Kenya’s elephants.

Just listen to the featured sound clip (and print out the transcript or download the MP3 if desired). Then, use the menu to access all of the “Daily Programs” audio clips from 1991-2022.

Click on “Monthly Features” for the in-depth studies, and peruse the rest of the menu for other wonderful science surprises.

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Virtually Observe Owls & Other Amazing Animals

March 18th, 2022

SportsmansParadise: Live Owl Cam & Much More!

(sportsmansparadiseonline.com/barn-owl-cams/live-owl-nest-box-cam/)

Grades: All, with parental supervision

A BIG THANK YOU to ClickScholar Rena Hobbs who suggested this website.

This hunting and fishing website offers a live stream from a camera placed inside a Barn Owl’s nesting box. In addition to the owl show, the sportsman who owns this nesting box narrates what’s happening from time to time. Yesterday, for example, he took questions from kids at an elementary school via Skype. He leaves notices of any planned presentations on the site. So keep a look-out for them.

You and your family can learn so much about nature and the circle of life by observing this view into a usually hidden world. Don’t miss it!

By the way, if this peaks your kids’ interests in Barn Owls there is more information located on this site about them here:

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Barn_Owls.html

Not only that, this site offers links to animal cams of deer, turkey, rabbit, crow, bear, raccoon, squirrel, doves and more.

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Webcams.html

Plus, there’s even a link to an underwater fish cam where you can see Perch, Largemouth Bass, and Sunfish (bluegill).

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Underwater_MN_Fish.html

Bookmark this site (that earns a ClickSchooling Award for excellence) as you’ll want to return often!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Live Web Cam sites sometimes go dark inexplicably. If that happens, don’t panic and please don’t email me. :) Simply close the window to the site and return at another time. Persistence will pay off. If it doesn’t, use the contact form at the website to see if they have an explanation, or contact your own tech service to see if there’s a problem with your computer interfacing with the site. One more thing, ClickScholars have been know to overwhelm a website, making it temporarily inaccessible. Should that happen, just keep trying and eventually you should get through.

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Posted in Virtual Field Trip

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Fun with Words!

February 16th, 2022

Magnetic Poetry

(magneticpoetry.com/pages/play-online)

Grades 1-12, with parental supervision

This Language Arts Wednesday we are featuring this company that makes magnetized words that stick to refrigerators, cookie sheets, etc. Use them to create rhymes, poems, sentences, and cryptic messages.

At their website, you can use free virtual magnetized words to create fun, silly, and serious poetry – or to just have fun with words. Click on any one of the Magnetic Poetry games:

  • Original Kit
  • Kids’ Kit
  • Happiness Kit
  • Nature Poet
  • Poet Kit
  • Mustache Poet
  • Geek

You can drag and drop the virtual magnetized words to create poems or whatever you or your child’s imagination can conceive.

There is great potential here to open a game and leave it on the computer screen in a heavily trafficked area of the house. Start one line of poetry and leave it unfinished. Invite those passing by to add a line or two. See what develops as everyone takes a turn.

Have fun!

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Tour Stone Ruins Throughout Europe

February 4th, 2022

Stone Pages

(www.stonepages.com/)

All grades, with parental supervision

Many people know about one of the most famous stone ruins called Stonehenge in England. However, there are hundreds of stone ruins throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, including standing stones (like Stonehenge) and many of them are much older than Stonehenge. They document early man’s habitats, customs, rituals, defense, observance of cycles in nature like the seasons, and much more.

Today’s website offers the most amazing compilation of information on stone ruins in the U.K. and Europe. When you get to the site you can click on the following destinations to open new website pages devoted to these ruins:

  • England
  • France
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Scotland
  • Wales

You can take virtual tours of these remarkable historic sites through photographs and text — and in some cases through quick time movies. You will be astounded by the sheer number of these ruins, and what archaeologists have been able to piece together about early humans from them.

You can take virtual tours of:

  • stone forts
  • stone settlements
  • stone circles
  • standing stones
  • tombs
  • burial chambers
  • and many other formations

Allow plenty of time on your first visit to this site to get your bearings. You’ll want to bookmark it to visit each country and the many ruins offered for virtual tours.

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Bring Physics to Life Through Pictures!

February 1st, 2022

Physics Central: Physics In Pictures

(www.physicscentral.com/explore/pictures/)

Grade: Around middle school & up; younger children may enjoy as well. Parental supervision required.

Want to get your physics on? This is the place! The American Physical Society sponsors this exciting website that demonstrates through multi-media technology, how things work and the importance of physics to everyone. You’ll find free information on the physics of light, sound, matter and more in the form of articles, animations, and videos.

The site is massive, so I’m featuring one of the most engaging sections for this review called “Physics In Pictures.” It provides virtual “illustrations of nature’s infinite variety and humankind’s ingenuity.”

Each picture and title entices you to want to know more. You can explore the science content by reading a brief explanation and then further your learning with links to stories on related current physics research. Your brain can take a quick dip in the physics waters or dive in and soak it all up.

When you get to the site, you’ll see some featured “Physics Pictures” that include. Click on any one to learn more. Then, if you look at the menu on the right side of the screen, you’ll see a list of “Physics in Pictures by Topic” that includes:

  • Chaos
  • Compression Waves & Sound
  • Electricity & Magnetism
  • Force & Motion
  • Light & Optics
  • Material Science
  • Quantum Mechanics
  • Space & the Universe
  • Thermodynamics & Heat

Click on a topic to explore more. When you’re through, use the menu at the top of the screen and click on “Experiment.” You’ll be rewarded with experiments to try at home along with other activities sponsored by this website.

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