Tag: KB Connected

3-12, Critical Thinking, Multiple Intelligences, Problem Solving, Websites

Piece of Mind

Terri Eichholz
Following along with yesterday’s post on Brain Games, KB Connected brought another site to my attention that allows you learn more about the way the mind works.  This one, Piece of Mind, uses flash-based games in order to help you “train your brain” in the areas of Memory, Attention, Executive Function, Logic & Reasoning, and Visual Perception.  My favorite game was “Triplets”, which is similar to the card game, “Set.”  I did horribly on “Face It” – mostly because it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was doing.
The site appears to be a work in progress, as some of the links do not lead to anything, and it advertises that more games will be “coming soon.”  It will be interesting to see what is added in the coming months.
3-6, Critical Thinking, Education, Games, Language Arts, Motivation, Problem Solving, Reading, Research, Social Studies, Teaching Tools, Websites

The Akinator

Terri Eichholz

I found out about this site on KB Connected right before the holidays. Karen’s site recommends to “use it to introduce: Historical figures, characters from a book, famous scientists, figures in pop culture etc.” I tried it out myself, and was impressed, so I showed it to my nine-year old daughter – who became obsessed with it!  The Akinator tries to “figure out” which character you are thinking of by asking you questions.  It slowly narrows down to the correct answer based on the answers you give to its questions.  The character can be one from fiction or non-fiction.  Of course, there is less of a chance that obscure ones will be guessed correctly.  But, you may be surprised by what The Akinator knows!  My daughter was thrilled when it guessed the character from The Fablehaven series she had in mind.  In addition, if The Akinator guesses incorrectly, you have the option of inputting information about the character to help it to “learn” more.

Be aware that the site does request a name and age.  I would recommend that you have your child or student use a nickname, but give a close approximation to his or her real age.  The questions change a little for adults and might be considered inappropriate.

Education, Teaching Tools

My Favorite Educational Technology Blogs

Terri Eichholz

Many schools are out for the next two weeks, which gives teachers the opportunity to catch up on their personal lives.  Sometimes, though, teachers like to use this time for planning.

In case you have any time over the next couple of weeks to explore some other blogs, these three have been my favorite “go-to” blogs for finding new technology resources for the classroom over the last year:
#3 – iLearn Technology:  this blog by Kelly Tenkely regularly offers new ideas, and each post has a thorough explanation
#2 – Free Tech 4 Teachers: Richard Byrne is the author of this award-winning blog, which often gives several new links a day, and recommends how each tool can be applied in the education classroom
#1 – KB Connected – There are usually at least two or three resources added by Karen Bolotin per day with short descriptions, allowing me to easily scan the page for something new that I think might engage my students.
3-5, Art, Creative Thinking, Education, Student Products, Websites, Writing

Text Snowflake Creator

Terri Eichholz

UPDATE 11/28/2020: This link is no longer available.  Sorry!

This is a neat Java-based site that allows you to design your own snowflake with text.  Teachers could have their students create short messages in their snowflakes: a sentence from a book character’s point of view, what they would give the world as a gift, their favorite things about winter, etc…, and decorate the classroom bulletin boards with the print-outs.  I found this link on KB Connected, where you can also find a link to over 100 holiday related websites.

Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Independent Study, K-12, Language Arts, Vocabulary

Word Cloud Alphabet Book

Terri Eichholz

I found this example on KB Connected.  You can see more examples and find the link to Mr. Zetterberg’s site on her blog post.  This idea could easily be modified for higher grades or more advanced students by using more challenging words or asking them to create their own books.