Using Tech to do fun Book Reports

There is a website called Digital Booktalk. The premise of this site is that teachers and students make trailers for books that they have read. Instead of a book report, maybe this would be a great book project for your students. All ages could use this, but I am visualizing that our fourth through sixth graders would have the most success with this. If you don't want to make the book trailer, but want to use one to increase interest for students to read the book, this is also a good site.
It is certainly worth checking out! Digital Booktalk
http://digitalbooktalk.com/

Interactive Simulations - Math and Science

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/index
Clicking on the above link will take you to a page with many different simulations. They are all relatively small programs that can be downloaded to your computer. You do not have to have access to the computer to run them although you can choose to just use them from the web. Magnetism, electricity and math are a few of the subjects that are covered. There are over 80 different sims and you owe it to yourself to check them out. They are great for exploration or review of topics.

Meegenius

I have just found this website, www.meegenius.com. 
If you register, you can personalize well known fairy tales for students to read. You can then mail the finished book to someone else. The books come with audio playback and word highlighting, so beginning readers can read along with the finished story. A great way for students to get involved in reading. Do take the time to check this out. It would be great to use with a white board in your classroom! I know I am using this site. It seems to be all free!

Origami Hang Gliders - Science Toy Maker

I have just finished working on origami with my students and the fifth and sixth graders have just finished a unit on flight and made rockets. I am going to suggest that they look into making these origami hang gliders. It sounds great. I haven't made any yet, but hope to this summer. This web site, http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/hangGlider/index.htm has directions to build and surf your hang glider. It looks fantastic.
This Science Toy Maker site looks like a real find. All projects use very cheap materials and there seems to be a lot of science explanations about why they work. Maybe this summer, you could spend some time looking at this site.

www.sciencetoymaker.org

Sheppard Software

This is a company that sells software, but they have a LOT of great games for kids that are free. I was amazed at how many different subjects were covered. http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/

There are great punctuation games, math games and science. It is not just for early learners. Do spend some time checking this out!

Teachers' Domain

This site is a wonderful resource for teachers. It is a library of resources that have been developed by public television. It is an easy search. It does ask that you create an account to use the resources. I was able to download most of them for off line use. Teachers’ Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. Once you register, you can personalize the site using “My Folders” and “My Groups” to save your favorite resources into a folder and share them with your colleagues or students.
Teacher's Domain - http://www.teachersdomain.org/about.html

Tagxedo - a new type of Word Cloud or Wordle

Tagxedo is a variation of Wordle. The one nice part about it is that you can do many more variations than you can in other word cloud programs. Well, this is a picture of the first page of Ferrisburgh School Website. I have to say it is really fun to play with and would make nice posters or cards.

ARKive! - world's species of animals

This is a beautiful site that has videos and pictures of endangered animals. http://www.arkive.org/

There are very clever photos and information about animals that are endangered - a great place for students to start their reports.

Alternative to Wordle

Word it Out is a good alternative to Wordle. It has a bit more customization features and seems to have a bit of a censor built into what is displayed. Wordle is not really as kid friendly.
http://worditout.com/

KS2 Bitesize Science

This is a great site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/ This BBC site has lots of science, English and math interactive pieces that can be embedded in your webpages or just used on a computer. You do need to have Flash installed on your computer. I have found that even if I have Flash installed, sometimes a few of the interactives don't work right away. I really recommend that you spend some time looking at this site.