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Books for Boys

Need to get your little boy interested in reading?  What fascinates him?  What does he love?   Check out these fabulous resource lists that may unlock the world of reading for your son.  

Books for Boys

Guys Read

 

Learning Around the Web: Inventive Thinking

Inventive thinking is such a important 21st century learning skill that promotes out of the box thinking, problem solving, and creativity.  Check out this Invention at Play site that I just love. The site has four activities that target different areas: make believe and visual thinking, puzzle play and problem solving, exploration and tinkering, and social play and collaboration.  If we all had these skills under our belt, wouldn't the world be a better place?

In the classroom, I tried these activities out with my second graders to introduce an invention unit.  It was a hit.  Try it out at home.  Instead of letting your child play with arcade-like websites that have  no educational value, try to suggest unique, exciting, and engaging sites like these.  More inventive thinking sites to come...stay tuned.

 

Halloween Word Fun

Remember Wordle?  This awesome resource allows your children to create word clouds.  This is such a cool tool and it's perfect for Halloween.  We just had to share it again!  Wordle away!

Learning Around the Web: Carve a Pumpkin

Halloween is just around the corner and I wanted to share this cute, simple, pumpkin carving site I found.   Practice making those shapes, or have your child use the interactive pumpkin as a "sketch" before carving the real thing!

A channel to: practice shapes, learn about sketching, get excited for Halloween!

Grades: preschool-5

Learning Around the Web: Building Vocabulary

Here's a great resource to help build vocabulary.   Merriam-Webster offers daily words on their WordCentral site. I really like the way the Daily Buzzword is designed.  It gives a daily word, its definition, an example of its use, and a unique multiple choice question..and it's clean!  It's never to early to start building vocabulary.  Get your little one started at a young age..and get prepped for those SATs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just: A great way to start the day. 

Try it with: all learners, especially those curious and creative types!

 Grades: 2 and up

 

5 Ways to Inspiring Writing

It's the age old question - how do we inspire our children to write?  Here are some tricks I used in the classroom that did wonders with my students.  Try them at home with your struggling writers.  You never know what will ignite the spark!

1. Pinpoint the 3-5 things your child is absolutely passionate about.  Use these interests as the themes/topic for writing.

http://www.focusladder.com/Other_Services.php

2 Writing Disguised: Don't dismiss the power of comics.  Many students enjoy comics and graphic novels, and would LOVE to create comics.  Perhaps this may be the way your child can begin to discover that writing can be fun. Check out these cool comic creators online:

• Toondoo A website that allows the user to create their own comic strips and even comic books using the templates provided or using your own pictures.
• Myths and Legends Story Creator  A fun website that students can use to create their own cartoon myth story. This is  more than just your typical drag and drop cartoon builder..it allows students to create sound effects to insert into their stories.

If your little one is not into comics, how about drawing a picture and writing a caption or a few sentences about it?  

3. Open ended Journal Prompts: Use your child's interests to come up with some intriguing journal prompts.  ie.  If you could have any superpower in the world, what would it be?  If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?

4. Perhaps an Audience is All they Need?  Writing on a blank piece of paper  that no one will ever see is not very motivating.  Give your little writer an audience! How about starting a blog amongst family members where cousins can share photos, captions, and anecdotes about what is going on? 

5.  White space can be overwhelming: Knowing that you have to write something a certain length is intimidating.  I used to cover up half the page for my second graders and have them only look at a few lines at a time.  This helped reduce anxiety.  I'd also try not to give them a time limit for certain assignments.

Learning Around the Web: Sizing up our Universe

Take a five minute coffee break and check out this fabulous interactive site from the Smithsonian Museum- Sizing Up The Universe.  It does a great job explaining how big the planets, moon, and our Solar System are by comparing them to real life objects. PS: If you haven't discovered this already, museums have some of the best interactive web resources that allow children to learn and explore.

Try it with:  students studying space in school, anyone interested in space!   Great fun facts and conversation starters.

A Channel to:  help kids learn the scale of objects in space by comparing them to real life objects, and to their local maps.

Grades: great for any age!

Learning Around the Web: Design a Cell Phone

Finally a site that promotes my favorite 21st century learning skill - inventive thinking.  I came across this site early this week and absolutely fell in love.  The goal is to Design a Cell phone for Senior Citizens. Not only do kids participate in the design, but they do market research, view test results by listening to customer feedback, and view sales stats. What a fantastic way to promote creativity, innovation, and analytical skills.  For more similar game based activites such as predicting the weather and even participating in surgery, check out Edheads.org.  

Great for: promoting inventive thinking!

Grades : 2 and up

Learning Around the Web: Some Fabulous Internet Art

Here are two really fun art sites that allow users to imitate the styles of two famous painters - Jackson Pollock and Pablo Picasso.  Beware, this is so much fun, and be prepared to take a few minutes discovering the Pollock and Picasso in you!  I love that this site allows youngsters to discover and experiment with styles of art, and it lets everyone be a successful artist. No matter what you do, your creation will look authentic!

A note of interest, Steve Jobs said "JacksonPollock.org" is one of the best websites to experience the iPad. Here's a look at my Pollack creation...

 

And here's my very own Picasso..

 

Learning Around the Web: Spelling with Flickr

Check out Spell with Flickr.  Its a simple but cute word art tool that pulls letters from pictures on the Flickr database.  (PS you'll need to screen shot to pull the image from the site to your computer)

In the classroom, I used it to print out the names of my students in the beginning of the school year, but looking back, with more time for preparation of course, there are so many hands on phonics activities I could have made.   

A Channel to:  create fun and interesting letters and words. Try printing out some letters, scramble them up, and have your child make as many words possible. Or, simply use for the cover of a creative writing piece.

Grades: K-5