WWW–Word Central

Review: Word Central is a great site by Merriam Webster where words are power and language is fun. Kids can search for any word in the dictionary, thesaurus and even search for rhyming words. They can build their own dictionary or subscribe for daily buzz word. But the feature I (and my kids) liked the most was the games section. kids can feed the Big-bot correct synonyms and antonyms, fly the Robo-bee through a garden of synonym, antonym, spelling and usage puzzles or drag, drop and click their way to success with Alpha-bot. No music and engaging graphics!

Suitable for ages: 5-10

Wacky Celestial Writing

Have fun writing something and then “galaxifying” it with My Galaxies. When you type a word, my galaxies replace the letters with the images of real galaxies that look like that letter’s formation. You can share your “words” with others, on social medias and even learn more about the galaxies used in your writing.

WWW–Dragon Breeder

Review: Dragon Breeder (BETA) is a game where players progress by using the principles of Mendelian Genetics. Breed target dragons, or determine the genotypes of the dragons in your den. Purchase special skills and upgrades, and work your way through a storyline mode that will take your knowledge of genetic principles to their limit. Because the game is written in HTML5, you will need the latest version of whichever browser you use. When I studied basic genetics in school, we did it in context of pea plants, but lets face it, dragons are a lot cooler than pea plants. And the colorful graphics and easy interface makes it hard to give up! You need to register though to use this resource but registration is free and easy. And once you have registered take some time and explore the wonderful Sponge Lab site further, there are tons of wonderful and innovative resources out there.

Suitable for ages: 10-15 (although my 7 year old is up to her eye ball in it now, so let the younger ones have a go with it as well!)

Disclaimer: I am not being paid by anyone for these reviews and mention on my blog. I only share the stuff I have used myself in our homeschooling journey and like it so want to share with everyone.

WWW–Make Me Genius

Review: Make Me Genius has tons of science  videos and ppts for elementary aged kids, on a wide range of topics.
Suitable for ages: 5-12

WWW–Planet Quest

 

Review: Planet Quest is another excellent site offered by NASA. Planet Quest is all about humans’ quest for exo planets or planets outside solar system. It has many neat interactives. Interactive Timeline is an excellent resource tracing the history of astronomy and space exploration from the Greek philosophers through today. This timeline has actually three elements combined into one: technology, discovery, and culture as they relate to astronomy and space exploration especially exo planet quets. Each element on the timeline is narrated. Users can select individual elements on the timeline or choose autoplay to hear the narration of each item in sequence. Alien Safari is a small interactive map that you can click on to discover the homes of the "most extreme" organisms on our planet. We can discover organisms that live at the coldest temperatures, hottest temperatures, deepest depths, and highest elevations. There is a short audio lesson about each of the organisms. The Interstellar Trip Planner is a simple interactive  in which students learn how long it would take to arrive at destination inside and outside of our solar system if they were travelling by plane, car, or rocket. Other interactives include 3D guide to galaxy, Extreme planet makeover etc. Don’t forget to have a look at New world atlas and the educators’ page to find other amazing stuff and resources. There is some music in the interactives so you may need to keep the sound off, or shuffle the on and off switches on your speakers quite frequently. Over all this site is an asset for students and educators alike like the other resources from NASA.

Suitable for ages: 10-18

WWW–Adventures of Splish and Splash

 

Review: Adventures of Splish and Splash is a collection of child friendly interactive games teaching children about safety at pool sides. There are three games, safety at home pool, safety at a public pool and one where the character splash learns how to swim. the aim of the website is not teaching how to swim though, but basic pool side safety and guides.

Suitable for ages: 3-7

WWW–Cell Craft

Review: Cell Craft is a state of the art game that invites students to delve into the world of the cell, learning about how a cell functions while helping it survive in hostile environments. The student will gain an understanding of important molecules such as glucose and ATP, as well as a variety of cellular organelles, while going through an entertaining story guided by Platypus scientists in need of help. The game encourages students to balance resources and grow a robust cell in order to fight off cold, starvation, and viruses. Can they use their cellular knowledge to grow a super cell and save the Platypus species? I love this game because it not only makes the process of understanding and remembering fun but students must apply their knowledge in order for the cell to survive. There is music in this game but you can turn it off from the menu. It is one of those resources that need to be seen (or played with) to discover the full potential.



Suitable for ages: 7-15

Wednesday Weekly Website–Light Bot

 

Light Bot

Review: Light Bot is an amazing and quite addictive pre programming game for children and adults alike. You have to use programmer-style logic to tell the bot (robot) how to light up all the blue tiles! You have to use Functions, conditionals, recursions and loops! An excellent way to sharpen your logic and getting kids ready for computer programming all the while having fun. Logic and algorithm are two vital skills needed in computer programming no matter which programming language you are using and this game introduces both the skills to kids in a very informal way. There is music but it can conveniently be switched off by clicking the speaker icon in the game. There are also walkthrough videos available for the game, incase you find it too hard.

Suitable for ages: 7-70

Techno Tools - TurtleArt

 

TurtleArt is a very cool tool for not only designing your art, but for learning the basics of computer programming while having fun with colors and shapes. The website itself explains this program as:

TurtleArt lets you make images with your computer. The Turtle follows a sequence of commands. You specify the sequence by snapping together puzzle like blocs. The blocks can tell the turtle to draw lines and arcs, draw in different colors, go to a specific place on the screen, etc. There are also blocks that let you repeat or name sequences. Other blocks perform logical operations.
The sequence of blocs as a program that describes an image. This kind of programming is inspired by the LOGO programming language. It was designed to be easy enough for children and yet powerful enough for people of all ages. TurtleArt is focused on making images while allowing you to explore geometry and programming.

This is a must do for all your learners! Have a look at the gallery to see what and how others have made. This program is completely free but you need to email the developers in order to obtain a copy. I got the reply with link to download my copy fairly quickly and it has been a big hit with my kids ever since. There are five books available on the site under getting started section that guide you through using different tools in this program. Overall it is a very good quality resource.

Wednesday Weekly website–Learning Circuits

 

Learning Circuits

Review: Learning circuits is an interactive resource that takes the children on a learning journey from very basic to more complex information about circuits and how they work. It can be a good starting point when doing a unit on electricity. Topics covered include electricity basics, simple circuits, circuit diagrams, switches, changing circuits, insulators and conductors. There is also an optional worksheet available for printing.

Suitable for ages: 7-10

Wacky Poetry Writing

 

Use this concrete poetry maker to write your own poems about nature. Use one of the shapes provided, or draw your own shape. Then use the words to write a poem about that shape. Have fun!

Wednesday Weekly Website–HM Spelling and Vocabulary

 

Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary

Review: Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary is a collection of spelling and vocabulary games by Houghton and Mifflin. It is a part of the Eduplace site. You can find games and activities for grades 1-6. Basically the activities and games are supplementary to the Houghton and Mifflin text books, but you can benefit from the site even if you are not using their text books. Games are versatile  and include crosswords, word builders, word sorters, mad libs, proof reading etc. These kind of games can be a fun substitute for regular spelling drills.

Suitable for ages: 5-11

Wednesday Weekly Website–Exploriments

 

Exploriments

Review: Exploriments is a site that has interactive simulations that help students learn and understand math and science.They get to explore different topics and ask, and answer, questions like "what-if" and find the cause and effect of things. There are learning objectives for each Exploriment and everything works together and builds on previous knowledge. The Exploriments are organized by three subjects: Physics, Chemistry and Math and then further organized by topic. The free access does not give you full features, but there are some great things to use. You can upgrade to the premium access if you want to.

Suitable for ages:7-15

Techno Tools - Twine

 

Twine lets you organize your story graphically with a map that you can re-arrange as you work. Links automatically appear on the map as you add them to your passages, and passages with broken links are apparent at a glance. As you write, focus on your text with a fullscreen editing mode. Rapidly switch between a published version of your story and the editable one as you work. Twine is free to download and use, and you can share it with anyone you like.

The following videos will give you an idea of what twine is all about.

Creating A Simple Story from Chris Klimas on Vimeo.

Formatting a Story from Chris Klimas on Vimeo.

Finishing Touches from Chris Klimas on Vimeo.

Wednesday Weekly Website–Sun and Moon Scope

 

Sun and Moon Scope

Review: Sun and Moon Scope is a neat interactive to help you study the relationship between earth, moon and sun. You can use it when learning about the moon phases on any given date or any other lunar/space study. Easy interface and no music! It will show you the sun and moon phase of current date, and current season. You can change the seasons or dates and see how it effects the positions of the moon and sun.

Suitable for ages: 5-50

Wednesday Weekly Website–Eskeleton

 

ESkeleton

Review: ESkeleton is an excellent resource for students of anatomy. It provides an interactive environment in which to examine and learn about skeletal anatomy. The purpose of this site is to enable you to view the bones of both human and non-human primates.You can have a look at the skeletons of different animals including gorillas, chimpanzee, bush babies and lemurs etc. Click on any animal to look more closely at different bones. In the resources section there are some wonderful resources to print out, like the life size skeleton of human, (adult and child), scramble puzzles of skulls, jumble puzzles for “what are teeth” etc.

Suitable for ages: 9-15

Wednesday Weekly Website–Material World

 

Material World

Review: Material World has been designed for use by KS1 & 2 children during lessons. Pupils will learn about materials, processes and techniques used in art through the different categories of Paint, Wood, Metal, Clay, Animal, Stone and Composite. Within each section there is information about:
. Where the material comes from.
. The different types of each material.
. The processes that are used with each material.
. How museums care for each material.
The ‘Fun’ section for each of the individual materials contains an interactive activity designed to be used by children using this site. They can gain more information about key works of art by visiting the ‘Gallery’ and unusual words are defined in the ‘Glossary’.

Although we are not big fans of all kind of arts, and as some forms of arts (like sculptures, nude art etc.) are totally prohibited in Islam, we do not study art. But I use this site as a means of introducing the different materials that make up our world.

Suitable for ages: 5-10 years.

Wednesday Weekly Website–Nobelprize Education

 

Nobelprize Education

Review: While I do not agree with the criteria based upon which nobelprizes are given, (recent nobleprizes for peace, for instance) there is some very good educational material available on their website at Nobelprize Education. There are animated games and simulations, based on Nobel Prize-awarded achievements, that will teach the concepts in a fun and inspiring way. There are games and simulations on tons of topics. Some of the games are easy enough for early elementary aged children, while some are geared to more advance topics. Through these games children can learn things like what is a blood type, how immune system works, what are x rays, how is malaria cured, what is DNA, understand insulin and diabetes, what are conductive polymers, what is genetic code, to name only a few. I haven’t seen all the games/simulations so I don’t know about music etc, but the ones I have seen didn’t have music and they were quite straightforward and easy to understand. Use this site as an aid when teaching any of the topics or on its own. Take your time exploring this wealth of knowledge, as speeding through it can be a bit over whelming for some non-scientific learners.

Suitable for ages: 8-18

Techno Tools–AlQuran plugin for MS Word

Al Quran plugin for Microsoft Word is a useful tool when you are working with Quranic text. Download the plugin and when you want to write a Quranic verse in Word, just type the number of verse and name of sura and the verse will be inserted automatically for you. You can choose from Arabic text and translations in a number of languages. When working with the holy Quraan, it is important to make sure that there is no mistake in the actual text or in the translation. Using this plugin not only assures that the text and translation of the holy Quraan is correct, it can make proofing of your work easier and quicker, insha Allaah.

Wacky Bookmark Writing

Do you think writing motivational sentences is easy? Think again! Motivational sentences can be so droll if not plain boring and quotes like “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” often makes kids (and adults like me) go to sleep. So think about what will inspire you and write it down, make a bookmark with your quote with this bookmark factory and tah dah! enjoy your reading with a bookmark of your own design and words.