After a bit I scrolled through the animals section looking for an unusual mammal and found...a peccary. Never heard of it before under that name, but when looking at the "exhibit" I realized that it was the same thing as a boar (duh.) I did not know that they gave off an odor like a skunk does. Yuck. They live in forests and low bushes in North and South America. I liked the feature where you could compare facts with another animal of choice. Also, it was nice to have things so easy to access for younger children.
In World Book Online Info Finder, I again searched for peccary, typing the word into the search box (a better approach for older students who are used to searching on internet sites) and found more information at a higher Lexile level. Habitat was described as forests and desert scrublands. The information was generally the same but went into more detail as to the three types and locations found.
I scrolled to the bottom and easily clicked my way into World Book Online Reference Center (which I discovered when I took the Online Challenge earlier this year...whoo hoo, I learned something!) For my country of choice I searched for the Netherlands, which I remember doing a very labor-intensive report on during my sixth grade year in pen with pasted pictures from a pen pal. Very cool and I learned quite a bit then but how much easier it would be to do it now! I like the fact that you could listen to the national anthem and that the information was arranged so that the researcher could easily pick out just which sections were needed and read or print only that section. This is also a great place to use the "hear the text aloud" feature.
The pronunciation guides within the text are nice, but if you had to give an oral report, it would be nice to hear how the word actually sounds so that you wouldn't get up and make a fool of yourself pronouncing
something incorrectly.
Now that I am done with the assignment, I see that there is another set of exercises for those who have done the challenge before (that will teach me to read the entire thing before starting the lesson!!)
World Book Online for Kids I chose to enter the science project site here because as a first grade teacher I was always scrounging for ideas for my students. I can see that this would be very helpful for a student who has no idea where to start. I haven't had many children come in asking for assistance with this. I suppose that they go to the school library in town. But if someone did ask, I know where to point them! I like the option of having the text spoken for those children accessing this resource who have difficulty with their reading. In some of the experiments there were pictures alongside the explanations. I wish that all of them had that feature. Nevertheless, I am sure that this would be a valuable resource for a student either starting a project or looking for ideas.
World Book Online Info Finder For this section I jumped into the Interactive Earth thing and clicked on Interactive Maps (which was conveniently set to South Dakota!). However, I chose to look for a map of Niagara Falls, NY (which is near by birthplace) and there wasn't one, but there was one for Niagara Falls, Canada (Hmmm.) It was interesting to look at the changes that erosion have made in the position of the Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls (Rainbow Falls). And I think that the addition of the Lexile information would be helpful to teachers looking for specific information for their class level. It would also be helpful if I were helping a student and knew about what level they were reading. (I have a general chart that matches Lexiles to grade levels). But the neatest thing that I found was the sound wave of the falls. Made me homesick! Another interesting item that could be used for some of our story time projects or for school reports are the outline maps. Wish they'd had that when I was teaching...I remember tracing things out of an encyclopedia for my classes!
World Book Online Reference Center I investigated the e-book section (which I forgot was in that resource...good thing we're doing this again!) and looked up Andersen's Fairy Tales. In the additional resources there was a link to Andersen's biography and some other articles on children's literature. The tool section included the ability to email a section (which would be helpful if a teacher wanted a specific fairy tale for class the next day...which has happened!) And how cool is it that you can download the entire thing? Another helpful thing for the patrons with e-devices or a computer. What a great resource! (I also found the complete text for Alice in Wonderland. That's what happens when you start wandering around in here!)
Posts
1 comment:
We are glad you are taking time to wander, Diane. That is how we make great discoveries! Thanks for your excellent comments.
Post a Comment