Computer+Lab+Time

=It's Computer Lab Time!=

What to do? What to do?
//This page was created with our elementary classroom teachers in mind, who often struggle with how to make good use of their scheduled time with the computer lab in their classroom. Here are some ideas that might help.//

//Primary Grades[[image:IMG_0595.jpg width="239" height="318" align="right"]]//
Online Games/Activities: **ABCYA** http://www.abcya.com/ **Online Storytime at Barnes and Noble** http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/online-storytime-books-toys/379003588/ **Fisher-Price Preschool Games** http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/GamesandActivities/OnlineGames/index.html **Math World** http://www.e-learningforkids.com **Mr. Anker Computer Activities** http://www.henryanker.com **Thinkfinity Activities**: (link in Staff Center under Information/Research) @http://www.thinkfinity.org/community/thinkfinity-resources  There are some wonderful interactives through Read Write Think, Illuminations, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and more. Search for these beforehand; students cannot manage the search feature. You might place a link to the desired resource on your teacher page. Creating: **Little Bird Tales** http://littlebirdtales.com/ (Create a picture book. Need to create accounts for this...requires email addresses for signup; use 10 Minute Mail) **Shidonni Shidonni** http://www2.shidonni.com/v2/? Animated story creator. Requires account.
 * Voicethread: ** http://voicethread.com Upload any type of content (images, files, etc.) and then students can record narration and can draw over slides. Classmates, teachers, parents, grandparents, etc. can log in and leave comments. Accounts are free, but only support three voicethreads per account.

**Word Clouds:** **Tagxedo** http://www.tagxedo.com/ (allows word clouds to be created in a variety of shapes, but you need Silverlight plugin to ensure it works. Use Firefox...it does not work in Chrome browser.) **Word It Out** http://worditout.com/ (simple; cannot print unless you have an account; I recommend using Snipping Tool to take a screen shot and then printing from there) **Downloadable programs** (have your school's Tech Support Partner install these in advance): **Skitch:** Take photo, draw or type words on top of photo **Tux Paint:** Create your own art Videos for digital storytelling: students work together to develop a simple drawing and a few sentences to narrate story, then film them with one student drawing the picture while the others narrate. To publish, the teacher can upload videos to **SchoolTube** http://schooltube.com in order to be able to share them on your teacher website. //Special note about account creation: Students under the age of 13 should not create their own accounts. Please see Kathy Fiedler or your school's Tech Support Partner for ideas about how to create teacher-owned accounts for web 2.0 tools (voicethread, shidonni, etc.) for your students.// ** Keyboarding: ** Click HERE to go to the Keyboarding page of this wiki for lots of keyboarding games and activities.