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

Sheppard Software designs educational software and free online games/activities. The goal of the company is to create interactive, visual and auditory activities that stimulate thinking. When you mix the learning tools and games from Sheppard Software with the computer/human interface that is the SMART Board you get students and teachers having fun and learning. Any educator from any grade level and any curricular area is going to find something at http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/.

Sheppard Software seems to be no stranger to differentiated instruction. You’ll find many topics with levels of difficulty starting with easy, for primary students, through to levels that will challenge adults (Think you really know where the states are? Try this game ).

The quick links give you a glimpse of what is available. And the list of popular games hints at what people are finding particularly valuable right now. But don’t take our word for it. Go and explore. You’ll be amazed at what you find. It is good that you have the summer to explore the free learning games on this site because it will take all summer to peruse. View one of my daughter’s favorite activities:

Food based math for the SMART Board.

Math teachers have long enjoyed using food in their lessons.  Whether we use M&M’s to discuss fractions, or pizza to learn about circles,  food can be a fun part of the lesson.  Subway’s recent decision to arrange their isosceles cheese slices in a more “geometrically satisfying pattern,” is the latest opportunity for teachers to integrate food into math lessons.  With the websites below, your SMART Board can be the perfect conduit to make the final connection to the curriculum.

How much is 70,000 bbl/day? The video below shows how Google Sketch-up can be used to create a 3D representation of the volume of oil seeping into the Gulf of Mexico each day.  Early this week BP plans to use the “top kill” method to seal the leak.  The video ends with an OE Cake simulation of the coming attempt to seal the well.  Sketch-up and OE Cake are free apps which work great from the SMART Board.

Click here for the Google Sketch-up Download Page

Click Here to download OE Cake for PC

Click Here to download OE Cake for MAC

Using fluids simulator physics game “OE Cake!” to better understand the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.  Students can brainstorm and design ways to stop the leak. The video discusses setting custom graphics and “recipes” to create materials with special attributes.  (Please forgive the frame-rate of the video.  It does not do the incredibly smooth and fast “OE Cake!” justice.)

Download (for free) OE Cake! for Mac or OE Cake! for PC.

Below are links to a couple of our favorite online games.  They’re free, addictive, and incredibly fun at a SMART Board.

Circle the Cat -  Trap the cat, without letting it escape the grid.  Start by clicking on the image and then on the light green dots, to try to trap the cat with the dark green dots.  Not easy, it’s a smart cat.  See how quickly your students can develop a strategy to win.

Cursor 10 You are a cursor in a building trying to reach the top floor. Clicking objects will uncover items, while clicking on stairs allows you to move between floors. As you play the game, your cursor dies and you have to start over.  However, on your next life, your previous cursor repeats everything you have did during that life, assisting your current life.

Your SMART Board is an amazing tool for engaging your students’ many intelligences. Multiple Intelligence Theory suggests that all students posses skills within seven different intelligence areas.

It is in our best interest to use multiple activities in order to involve our students’ most developed intelligence in active learning. By getting students to come to the board and manipulate “information,” we access their “spatial” intelligence as well as “bodily-kinesthetic” intelligence.

But let’s take it up a notch with the kinesthetic movement.

We don’t just want some movement here, we really want to get our students dancing while they are up at the board. So we have to create “buttons” for them to touch that are far apart from each other. For those shorter students, we can get them jumping to reach the “buttons.”

An example that comes to mind is a flash card activity with mathematics. But this could be applied to any question and answer game in any content area. For my activity, I have created a Notebook 10 file. Each page in the file has a math question and two answer buttons that are links to other pages in the file (see images). I would instruct students that they have to start with their feet touching a strip of tape which is about three feet from the wall. The instructions include having to return your feet to the tape after every touch on the board. Making them return serves two purposes. First, it gets them moving, a lot. Second it moves them back from the SMART Board so they can more easily read the question and view the possible answers.

This type of activity can be applied to any subject and Q&A scheme. One thing to keep in mind; make sure you check all the links before having students use the file. Remember, you need to  create a “try again” page for each question. It is all easy enough to do, but a little time consuming.

If you are pressed for that ever-precious resource we call “time” and you teach multiplication, I have found some online math activities that would require some movement and could meet the same purpose as the activity that I have described above. The great part is that they are already created for you. The following site contains some great activities http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm. My very favorite is “Disco Dino”. The music is funky and smooth! See Disco Dino at http://www.multiplication.com/flashgames/DiscoDino.htm.

How are you going to build the link between your students’ bodily-kinesthetic intelligence and their other developed intelligences? What other intelligences can we activate with the SMART Board? Get Moving!

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.

The Kid’s Science Challenge, brought to you by Pulse of the Planet and the National Science Foundation, has created an interactive flash game which teaches about gravity and air pressure. The game is SMART Board-friendly and sparks discussion about the effects of gravity and air pressure on moving objects.

The game starts with a couple of experiments that teach about the difference in gravity and air pressure between earth and mars. Next, students apply what they learned as they play a target-hitting challenge. They have to take into account the gravity and air pressure of the planet they are on. Successful completion of the game allows students to reach the bonus round which showcases how gravity and air pressure affect moving objects on each planet of our Solar System. This game is… out of this world!

Go to: kidsciencechallenge.com , click on “Sports On Mars”, click on “Games!”

Here is a short video of me playing the game. I had some practice:

Our Courts is a website envisioned by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that is dedicated to teaching students about 21st century civics. The website includes lesson plans, games and a place where students can send messages back and forth with Justice O’Connor.

While you’re teaching about goverment also check out Alex Kane’s Bill of Rights Lesson from our Educator Resource Center. This lesson describes and reinforces students understanding of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. After the lesson, go back to the Our Courts website and have students review what they learned by playing the Do I have a Right? game.

The year has begun and the classroom is equipped with the most up-to-date technology. A website to check out with your students is www.abcya.com This interactive website has a plethora of free interactive educational activities for children in grades K-5. The activities were created and approved by teachers, which include content area activities such as reading and math, and interactive games designed to enhance students’ computer literacy.

Take some time to explore the contents that are available under each grade level bar. Many different activities are there that may help reinforce math concepts, enhance keyboarding skills, and strengthen your students’ visual perception abilities.

Check out the “Paint” activity. Students can choose from a variety of paint brushes and shapes to create a unique drawing. Once they have completed their drawing they can print it to hang on their refrigerator at home. This activity will allow your students to practice using the different tools, which in turn will prepare them for SMART Notebook software.

To help your students familiarize themselves with the keyboard introduce them to the “Alpha Munchies.” Students choose a player from the selection and are instructed to keep their player safe by activating the keys on the keyboard to make the letters disappear. This activity is fun and exciting. Students will be engaged and at the same time, they will be improving their keyboarding skills.

ABCYA is a worthwhile site to visit. Students will be building their skills while having fun at the same time. Explore the site at your own leisure and find the activities that will work best for you and your students.