Northside’s online databases offer varied activities and games to keep students engaged and learning while they are away from school.  We hope you and your children will choose often from the following suggestions.

Suggestion 1: Curriculum Resource Center Jr. Edition, from Facts on File has a section of science experiments which use typical household items and requires a minimum of preparation time.  Try: Dusting for Fingerprints under the category of Life Science or Calculating the Speed of Chewing Gum under the category of Physical Science.

Suggestion 2: The home page of Encyclopedia Britannica Elementary includes samplings of many current events, such as Animal of the Day, Activity of the Day, News by Student News Net, Discover America, and much more!

Suggestion 3: TeachingBooks.net has a multitude of Author Programs where students can see and hear the author’s original words about the writing of many favorite children’s books.  Examples: View a slide show of Sharon Creech on her writing of Love That Dog or watch a movie with footage of Spiderwick art and a reading from one of the Spiderwick books.

Suggestion 4: Visit World Book Online Encyclopedia’s Cyber Camp.

Here’s the Camp Schedule:

• Take a Nature Walk through a forest or wetland and learn cool things about the animals.
• Visit the Craft Cabin and make things with your own hands.
• Go to the Dining Hall and make easy recipes for summertime treats.
• Go to the Mindbender Cave to see the puzzle the monster has for you.

Visit other databases to keep the learning going during the hot months of summer!

 Leon Springs Elementary third grade students have  been researching different types of wetlands, including marshes, bogs, swamps, and prairie pot holes.  Their research task was to find out why these special areas are endangered, how they benefit the environment, and what we can do to save them.     

 Leon Springs librarian, Jennifer Hardin, gave students instruction in using the Big6 research process and how to access information in databases such as netTrekker, Discovery’s United Streaming, and Facts On File (Science Online). 

 The librarian, CIT, and third grade teachers worked together to help the students make brochures which outlined their findings and encouraged people to join together to save the wetlands! 

Martha Mead Elementary School librarian, Kimberly Lucero, found a unique way to get 5^th grade ESL (English as a Second Language) students involved in introducing the new Online Public Access Catalog called iBistro.  Kimberly says that she loves to make up songs and chants and that the students respond to them quite well.  So, it was no problem at all to get student volunteers to come in the library early in the morning and during recess to video-tape a segment to be broadcast over the morning announcements. 

Mrs. Lucero has been the librarian since Mead Elementary opened its doors two years ago.  The campus supports Bilingual and Title I programs, as well as an ESL program for students from 31 different cultures!  One of the actors in the video moved back to his home in Nigeria a week after the taping was finished, but he, like the other student actors, received a CD copy of the video as a special remembrance.

You can view the video hosted at TeacherTube by clicking on the link below.

TeacherTube.com

 Mrs. Calderoni’s first grade students from Mary Michael Elementary School use their classroom computer as a learning center.  One of our district database subscriptions, Encyclopedia Britannica, has a new interactive area called the Learning Zone designed especially for PreK – 2.  The Learning Zone provides reading, writing, and math skills practice for students in a unique and fun way! Ms. Zamarripa’s kindergarten class uses Encyclopedia Britannica’s Learning Zone for math practice in the computer lab.  Students choose different activities from the Learning Zone’s menu, which serve as a tutorial, as well as a chance to learn new skills. It’s a great tool for differentiation!