Tequipment: Blogging About SMART Boards, Resources, Lessons, Training, Games

With the beginning of the school year just around the corner, why not revamp some of your old morning meeting routines by using you SMART Board to facilitate circle time. Here are some lessons created by our Teq-Certified users to get your started!

Morning Routine Templates
In this group of templates, you will find all of the regular things you do every morning with your students in the lower grades. Templates include weather routines, days of the week, attendance and hot lunch, and more!

Back to School
by Jennifer Milio
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the SMART Board, introduce them to morning routines, and to assess students’ skills from kindergarten.

Back to School Routine
by Mrs. Kuchera
Welcome students back to the new school year with fun interactive activities. This file contains features that are new in SMART Notebook 10.

We have developed a new learning object for our neighbor to the West – New Jersey. As you can see in the video below, this interactive New Jersey map can give the New Jersey educator a good resource for different aspects of New Jersey Social Studies Standards: 6.1.B (Geography, People and the Environment); and 6.1.D (History, Culture, and Perspectives).

We’re offering the New Jersey learning object free for a limited time! Download it now from our online store.

With the beautiful weather we have been having, everyone is out and about. Spending all this time outside puts me in a great mood, and I realize I have Mother Nature to thank for that! There is no better day to appreciate our world than on Earth Day — which is coming up on April 22nd. This will be the 40th celebration of Earth Day. So why don’t you celebrate with your class by using some of these notebook files.

	Earth Day! By Jennifer Larrea Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle with this great lesson for elementary students. Each page is filled with colorful interactive activities for students to explore. This lesson was created by a TeqSmart-certified user.
	Earth Day By (our own) Lany Burnett This is a Notebook file with interactive activities to help celebrate Earth Day.
	Plants and the Environment By Anna Capuozzo This lesson emphasizes how recycling can help Earth’s environment. There are multiple activities related to both plants and conservation. This lesson was created by a TeqSmart certified user.
	Earth Day Exploration By Katina Lundenberg This interactive science lesson for elementary level students will investigate recycling and how students can celebrate Earth Day. A KWL chart and vocabulary practice are included. This lesson was created by a TeqSmart certified user.
	Diversity of Living Things By Aimee Burns Students will be able to: describe the difference between living and non-living things, identify what plants need to grow, and identify the parts of a plant.

Enjoy the Lessons!

A while back, we released a learning object named Collapsibles. It’s currently available in our store. The first content pack was for the layers of the atmosphere. We’ve added another two content packs for the solar system. These, and future updates, are free for anyone who has the object.

To access the content, use the codes “inplanets” or “outplanets” and press the “Load Content” button. (To access the atmosphere content, use the code “atmosphere.”)

*These content packs require an internet connection.

What other content packs would you like to see developed?

There’s a brand new “Pi Day” lesson in the downloads section of our Educator Resource Center. The file features Teq Learning Objects, songs, videos, and a variety of New York State Assessment questions. For a preview, watch the video below.

Download the lesson here (remember to log-in).

OE-CAKE acts as a physics-based paint program. Users can insert objects and see them interact under the laws of physics. It has an advanced fluid simulator with support for things such as gases, rigid objects, and even elastic materials. With the escape-codes, users can also mix the properties of elements together. You can even add your own pictures to the simulation!!!

Download OE-CAKE for the Mac here and download it for the PC here.

Thanks to everyone who downloaded our “4-in-a-Row” learning object.  We’re happy we could make it available for free for hundreds of our customers.  We’ll be adding more free stuff soon, so keep checking the store.

If you use the calendars in the gallery, you have probably realized they end in 2009. To get the 2010 calendar and more visit the SMART Gallery Collections Online. Here you will find standalone gallery packs that can be downloaded separately from the main gallery. Some of the packs include “American States,” “Childhood Stories,” and “Spanish.” Once you download these gallery packs they will be added to your “My Content” Folder.

It is that time of year again, and those of us here at Tequipment are in the spirit of giving! If you’re looking for holiday activities to use in your classroom, check out The Polar Express lesson. This file was created to be used in conjunction with the popular book by Chris Van Allsburg. Within this file there are many interactive activities that will help your students practice their researching skills, increase their vocabulary, track narrative elements, and explore cross-curriculum concepts.

Visit the Downloads section in the Educator Resource Center (ERC) to download the Polar Express lesson and customize it to fit your classroom’s needs. Don’t forget to click on the attachments tab for a Word document describing how to use and edit the file. Happy Holidays!

We have created an interactive Chanukah lesson to help teach some important ideas to our young students.  This lesson contains some excerpts from the קצור שולחן ערוך and the portion of the גמרא מסכת שבת דף ×›”א עמוד ב.  Use these pages to help teach the difference between the Menorah of the בית המקדש and the 8 branch menorah that we use on Chanukah.

You can download this file from our Educator Resource Center.

Continued success with all of your students.