Interrupting Chicken

  

Today I read 'Interrupting Chicken' by David Ezra Stein to the grade 1/2 classes.  They LOVED it! The depth of colour in the illustrations of the little red chicken's bedroom contrasted with pages of less colourful, more traditional looking fairy tale pages,  the endearing little chicken, the use of speech bubbles, and (of course) the interrupting, won them over immediately. Stein's little red chicken captures the impulsive young interrupter perfectly.  The group of 6 and 7 year olds were grinning right away when the father asked his little one not to interrupt the story right on the cover of the book. Asked what they thought might happen, the children immediately said "He is going to interrupt" with broad smiles. They could all relate. This is a fun read aloud for both the audience and the reader. Jumping in with the excited interruptions made my day. It would be a fun book to practice and read together as a reader's theater with your child reading the little red chicken's part. I have some writing ideas too: perhaps a little red chicken's "I will not interrupt" pledge - could be hilarious, or a version with spoilers for different fairy tales (what are your favourites), a book review or a trailer. When I 'Googled' for a cover photo, I found David Ezra Stein's webpage including this video of him talking about the book...

 

and this great book trailer (with a real chicken)...

 

 I was also reminded of one of Stein's other books that is a wonderful lesson about what a smile can do:

You can borrow both of these books from our school library.  Drop in and visit for more recommendations any Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday after school. 

National Geographic Kids

National Geographic Kids website Retrieved from http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

This free website has many resources for research as well as pleasure. We have been using it with Susan's class to research temperate rainforest animals and Louisa's class to learn about the arctic. The students enjoyed the site and found it easy to navigate. The animals and pets tab led to many resources they wanted to explore including animal facts, habitat maps and videos. While the animal selection for the arctic was limited, it did include the snowy owl which we didn't find on the World Book Kids site.  This led to a great discussion about using different resources when we research and how some are better for one project, but not so good for another. The many high quality nature videos (after all, what National Geographic is all about) are another great resource. The students loved the 'Quizz your Noodle' games (piggy backing on the trivia fascination that fuels Guinness World Record Books).  The Canada section is very limited, but does provide a good map. This is a user friendly, high interest resource that is great for introducing students to research.  It is also a great site for educational games and videos.

Primary/Intermediate/Teacher resource

National Film Board Website

National Film Board Website Retrieved from http://www.nfb.ca/

This website is a wonderful resource for fun and educational films. This year I have used the stop motion animation tutorial, Animate Everything, with both Div. 6 & 7.  Div. 7 has explored 'balance' with videos like High Steel and Marianne's Theatre.  On the home page you can choose from channels like 'Animation', 'Kids Movies' and 'The Green Channel'.  In the wonderful 'interactive' section (accessible from the home page), you can access interactive films like "Out My Window" that lets you explore the views from various high rise windows around the world and here about those peoples' lives or "Waterlife" that documents environmental concerns about the water of the Great Lakes. With no subscription, you have access to over 2,000 films. If you create a password account, you can make play lists to keep track of your great finds and, if you feel 'techy', you can cut portions of films to create shorter clips.  With my education account, I have access to another 500 films. This is a great resource for entertainment and enrichment, but remember, it is not geared specifically for children and there is mature content on the site.  As with all web use, be sure to monitor your childrens' viewing.

All Ages

Searchasaurus

Searchasaurus Retrieved from

http://web.ebscohost.com/sas/search?sid=3eb20f9b-384d-4621-959e-f89feb5c8525%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&hid=104

Seachasaurus is an online database linked to our school district electronic resources and created for elementary students. You need a username and password to use this database at home - ask Kathy. As with all online databases, although the linked articles are checked by Searchasaurus staff, parents should supervise their children's online research - links can lead to different pages and different articles are appropriate for different ages.  You can use the dinosaur icons to search general topics or type your specific topic into the "Find" box. One great thing about this site is that you can choose a reading level (called the lexile) appropriate for you. Lexile levels do not match grade levels so you might have to experiment to find the lexile level best for you. Make sure you choose the lexile BEFORE you type in your topic.  It does not work if you do it out of order. Searchasaurus also has a visual search feature which shows you all the articles organized by relevance (how close they are to your original topic) and by date (so you can get recent information).  The visual search option does not seem to work with the lexile choice, though, so you will need to look for your own reading level or get an adult to help you. Once you find an article you are interested in, you can choose to look at it as text only (loads faster on your computer) or as a PDF (shows you the original article with pictures, different fonts etc.).  Remember to use the "citation" button to get a reference for what you read.

Late Primary and Intermediate

World Book Kids

World Book Kids Retreived from  http://www.worldbookonline.com/kids/home

World Book Kids is an online encyclopedia linked to our school district's electronic resources .(You do need a username and password to access it from home. Ask Kathy.)  This encyclopedia provides great resources for school projects as well as general interest.  The information on the World Book Kids pages is written at an appropriate reading level for students in grade 3 and up and have a read aloud feature too (although I had trouble using it on my old laptop at home). All the links are checked and deemed appropriate for elementary school children.  Many of the linked articles are at higher reading levels and may require some help from parents. The site also includes videos and photos for most topics. One of the great features is the 'Compare' feature where you can choose two animals or two places and compare them.  The site creates bar graphs which compare common attributes. This feature is limited as not every animal is included. The science projects section contains projects with clear and simple explanations using everyday materials (usually).  There are not many experiements for simple machines, unfortunately. The Games and Activities section has some more experiments in the activities part  under the 'be it' category. Most of the games are not very interesting, but there is one about the provinces tcould be useful for memorization. The Maps section has printable outline maps. Each article or resource has a "cite this" area that provides references that can be copied and pasted into projects. Photographers have given permission for you to copy the pictures in the Pictures section - remember to give credit.  If you can't find the topic, animal, person or place you are interested in, ask Kathy or click on the words 'online research' on the library home page.  There are some other resources we can try.

Primary/ Intermediate

Khan Academy

 Khan Academy Retreived from http://www.khanacademy.org./

I have heard a lot of buzz about the Khan Academy and decided to check it out for myself.  Being a primary teacher, I had a look at the early math skills sections. I pretended to be a child struggling with basic addition and subtraction facts and worked through these two sections.  Khan Academy did not win me over. The 'badges' and incentives are fun (although they don't fit with the intrinsic motivation we believe in at our school). I like that the program changes the questions with the proficiency of the user - as I got tricky questions wrong, the program gave me more simple questions in each 'stack' of practise 'cards'.  I showed that I knew about adding to 10 and some of the doubles (eg. 3+3) but had trouble with the usual tricky ones (eg. 5+8). The basic addition section moved me on to the next concept with a very tenuous hold on addition facts. The instructional videos, while narrated in a friendly and relaxed voice and using standard examples of addition, are not great teaching tools. They provide very basic explanations and little strategy. A student who used a number line for every question could do quite well on the practise, but would only be proficient with that one strategy.  Primary teachers know that we need to teach various strategies and a real understanding of how numbers work. We teach about using doubles, doubles plus one, how to break numbers into manageable pieces, how to estimate to know if your answer makes sense, which numbers make 10, how to use that knowledge to make 9 or 11....  Khan Academy may be useful for middle or high school students who already have some knowledge of basic facts and strategies, but it is lacking in depth for early numeracy.  As a forum to practise skills after a some skilled math instruction, Khan Academy could be useful.  However, there are more accessible and appropriate programs out there for elementary students. One is Destination Math, created by Riverdeep, which is linked to our school district e-resources. Destination Math uses virtual manipulatives and follows a carefully designed progression of early numeracy skills.  Ask your teacher for a password to try the Destination Math site from home or download a trial demo here.

Primary/ Intermediate/Young Adult depending on the topics/exercises chosen