Reading for Junior Primary

Here's a great reading website for JP students. The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service.

It is US based and 4 sections from ABC to learn to read and I'm reading.

www.starfall.com

It has some thematic sections as well. A good addition to a book-based reading program!

Could be used at home.

Earthquake Science Explained

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/

-A Series of Ten Short Articles for Students, Teachers, and Families [pdf]

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2006/21/gip-21.pdf

That swirling bard of American letters and transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once opined “We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.” This need never be the case for educators and members of the general public who give careful consideration to this excellent pamphlet created by the United States Geological Survey. Compiled by Matthew A. D’Alessio, this document contains ten short articles on earthquakes designed for classroom use. The articles originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, and they include such titles as “Find the Fault: Recognizing Active Faults”, “Looking into the past with earthquake trenches”, and “How do we make buildings and roads safer?”. Additionally, each article contains helpful graphics, illustrations, and photographs.

Videos show how math, science relate to real-world applications and careers

Math and science educators will find free video resources that can help connect their lessons to real-world applications at TheFuturesChannel.com. The site produces short documentary-style videos that take students behind the scenes with professionals from a wide range of careers. As the subjects of these video clips discuss why math and science are so important in their respective fields, they help answer the common question, "Why do I need to learn this?" The site's Hand-On Math section features movies on counting numbers and integers, algebra, fractions, geometry, measurement, and statistics. One clip incorporates measurement into a video about college students who must measure food for animal feedings. Teachers can download classroom activities based on the video content. All videos and classroom activities are available free of charge. http://www.thefutureschannel.com/index.php

The Effects of Project Work in a First-Grade Classroom

A Little Goes a Long Way
This article discusses how a brief project-based unit promoted the learning of children in a first-grade classroom. The children attended a public elementary school located in a southeastern university town in the United States. Approximately 94% of the students in the school were from economically disadvantaged families. No children in this classroom were Caucasian, and most of them came from single-parent households. We compared the children’s learning and performance in a teacher-directed science unit on animals versus a project-based unit on chicks. Results revealed that more state-mandated objectives were covered during the project-based unit than during the teacher-directed unit and that children had “more to say” by using more words and expressing more specific and accurate ideas after the project-based instruction. The project also provided more enriched learning opportunities than the traditional teacher-directed unit. Implications for early childhood teacher education are included.
Read on ...

Virtual staffroom

: conversations with leading teachers about technology in the classroom

http://www.virtualstaffroom.net/wordpress/

Virtual Staffroom is run as a community podcasting project by Chris Betcher. The site provides educators of young people with the opportunity to engage in conversation and dialogue which explores the impacts that new technologies will have on classrooms. By providing a communication channel for leading teachers to voice their ideas about 21st century classrooms, it hopes to enable others to tap into that collective wisdom and make the classrooms of tomorrow the best possible experiences for our students.

What Explains Toddlers' Linguistic Leap? Math

Simple math may explain why toddlers experience a sudden burst of words—and why some talk earlier and more than others.
Read on ...

The Water Cycle and Global Warming [pdf]

[From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007. http://scout.wisc.edu/ ]

The Baylor University College of Medicine continues to work at a furious pace on their delightful BioEd Online site, and educators everywhere love them for their work and dedication. Recently, they placed this “ready-to-go” lessson on the water cycle and global warming online, and it’s a true delight. As with the other lessons in this series, the materials here include a brief description of the lesson’s objective, along with information on the intended audience, the materials required to complete the lesson, and so on. Teachers will note that they will need to download a slide set, several activity sheets, and a “State of the Climate Report” offered from the National Climatic Data Center

http://www.bioedonline.org/lessons/water-cycle.cfm