Hello Everyone,
Below are some great sites to utilize for summer learning!
Engage Your Child in Active Summer Reading
Gobstopper is a free tool for assigning,aonitoring and leveraging summer reading in the classroom. As students read, they will see questions and get feedback, and they can stay motivated by earning badges. Teachers can use the tool to assign books, check on students’ progress throughout the summer and even benchmark data on students’ mastery of Common Core Standards before the start of the new school year. The tool can be used on all devices that have a browser and Internet access.
Challenge Children to Find the Location
GeoSettr helps you create your own GeoGuessr games. When you visit GeoSettr, you will see two screens: the one on the left displays a map with a Pegman; the one on the right, the Street View imagery for the Pegman’s current location. Move the Pegman around, and zoom in if you like, until you find the location that you want students to guess. When you’ve chosen the location, click “set round” to save the location. After you’ve set five rounds (locations), your game is assigned a URL that you can distribute to students. When they play your GeoSettr game, students use the visual clues in the Street View imagery to guess the location. After making a guess, students see the correct location and its distance from their guess.
Let Your Fingers Do the Hiking
Fotonauts’ free Fotopedia National Parks app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch lets users explore all 58 National Parks in the United States—from Acadia to Zion, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park—a journey that would require several years. Users will first discover the diversity of the national parks through a selected set of 1,500 photos; then they can dive into specific parks to find even more photos. The collection includes 3,000 stunning photos by the renowned professional photographer QT Luong, along with photo-stories based on the images of the national parks. In addition, each image is linked to a related Wikipedia entry. The app is available in 10 languages.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fotopedia-national-parks/id406969208
See It in 3-D
AndAR Model Viewer is a free Android app that is capable of displaying 3-D models on Augmented Reality markers. The goal is to help young students better understand the differences between shapes such as cones, cubes and squares, a Common Core math requirement. It helps build students’ spatial reasoning—they can zoom in on these objects and interact with them in the virtual space—and it gives students an understanding of what these objects look like in real life.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.dhbw.andarmodelviewer&hl=en
See Mathematics in Action
The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) opened in New York City in 2013. The museum’s exhibits and programs aim to stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity and reveal the wonders of mathematics. As part of its commitment to provide engaging, interactive mathematical experiences, MoMath has created Math Midway, a hands-on traveling exhibition that highlights the engaging and playful nature of mathematics. The Math Midway is making appearances at science and technology centers across the country.
Assemble a Geometric Paper Torso
Australian architect and paper artist Horst Kiechle recently constructed a geometric paper torso complete with modular organs, including lungs, intestines, kidneys, pancreas stomach and more. The piece was made for the Science Lab of the International School Nadi, Fiji. On completion of the model, Kiechle launched an extensive website with free downloadable templates you can print and assemble, along with photographed step-by-step instructions for every piece.
http://torso.amorphous-constructions.com/
Explore the Himalayan Glaciers
GlacierWorks, Microsoft and mountaineer/filmmaker David Breashears have collaborated to develop Everest: Rivers of Ice, a new interactive site that takes visitors on a virtual trek to Mount Everest base camp. Virtual travelers make eight stops along the way to base camp. At each stop, they can explore panoramic images of valleys and glaciers. After completing the virtual trek, they can compare the size of Himalayan glaciers in the 1920s to the size of those same glaciers today. GlacierWorks’ mission is to document, educate and raise awareness about changes to the glaciers in the Greater Himalaya through art, science and exploration.
http://www.glacierworks.org/home/
May we continue to seek knowledge in all things~
Denise
Unlock the Teacher 
