Kindergarten+Assistants

Welcome to the Kindergarten Web 2.0 Page! [|Marc Prensky] says //“Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.”//

//Baby VS iPad//

[|Voicethread] is a must-use tool in kindergarten classes. It’s a great way to integrate technology into storytelling. It allows you to combine voice, text, video, and images to create a digital story. Once you create the voicethread, others can also leave comments on it by recording, filming or writing a text. Kids can draw their own pictures and talk about it, or create their own stories and record their voices while telling it to others. They can talk about their animals by putting their pictures on a slide on voicethread or families. We can record our voices and read stories to kids to listen at home. This tool can help our kids to improve their listening, speaking and writing skills.

[|TalkingPets] is site where you can make the pets talk using text-to speech system. You choose pets from a selection of cats and dogs and accessorize them or kids can choose to upload their own pet’s picture and attach a virtual mouth. You choose voice and write the text for your pet. If you put comas between the words, you can make your pet speak slower. Kids will love to create their own pets and make them talk. Since they are learning how to write, this can be good for short writing activities, listening the correct pronunciation and integrating technology into your classroom.

Starfall - Teachers are already familiar with Starfall and are using it in the classroom. But,not all teachers realize it's great for kindergarten as well. Here is a direct link to Starfall's kindergarten page.

PBS Kids - this interactive web sites offers lesson plans, at home resources, and games and activities for early elementary students. The site features some of PBS' favorite characters - Curious George, Arthur, and more. The games have simple directions, and everything can be read to the children as they go along by the computer taking the guess work out of how to play for a student who is not yet a strong reader.

Between the Lions is a subset of PBS kids, but with it's emphasis on reading skills, Between the Lions is a truly wonderful site for kindergarten. At this site, children can listen to stories, complete activities, play games, watch videos and generally have fun learning important reading skills.

World Book Kids - designed with young students in mind. World Book Kids is a great database for students who are reading and able to use large, colorful buttons for navigation. Calvert County subscribes to World Book, and you can access it from any computer within the system without a user name or password. If you want to access any of our databases at home, Mary Brooke can provide you with log in information.