Science resources

I was exploring some Science-related resources today and wanted to share a few good ones. FOSSweb (http://www.fossweb.com) has lots of inquiry-based science resources for elementary and middle school. Many zoos across the country (e.g. San Diego, Denver, Omaha) also have helpful animal-related science resources. For example, Omaha Zoo has online resources for educators related to butterflies, habitat, amphibians, and Madagascar (Omaha Zoo online teacher resources). They also have distance learning and Zoo-to-You programs for accessing learning opportunities from the zoo even if you can't go on a field trip there (Omaha Zoo educational programs) -- check out the sample Zoo-to-You resources on penguins (Penguin Playing Cards PDF and Penguin Conservation Lesson PDF).

Problems of the Day/Week page added

I have added a new page with resources for Problems of the Day/Week. These are mostly math sites, but the Scholastic links have language arts and other cool stuff, too. Check it out here. This Symbaloo is also linked from my Math Resources Symbaloo (see tabs at top of page).

Interactive Whiteboards

I recently read a helpful series of blog posts on Education Week about how to get the most out of your IWB. These are great food for thought.

• http://tiny.cc/IWBreadiness
• http://tiny.cc/IWBredemption
• http://tiny.cc/IWBreminders

ABC's

Here are a few ideas for teaching the ABC's in multi-sensory ways:

• http://teachers.net/gazette/APR09/horner
• http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/t6.html
• http://specialed.about.com/od/readingliteracy/a/Sensory-Reading-Instruction-With-Sand-Letters.htm

As an added bonus, here are a couple other sites offering fun with ABC's:

• http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/play.htm?f
• http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/learn-abcs
• http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/abc
• http://alphabetimals.com

Soda Bottle Science Resources

Here are a few ideas for ways to use soda bottles in science:

• http://www.bottlebiology.org/
• http://www.essentiallearningproducts.com/soda-bottle-science-john-cowens
• http://www.essentiallearningproducts.com/soda-bottle-science-experiments-john-cowens
• http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/soda-bottle-science (click on the "Experiments" tab)
• http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/sodabottleboat.html
• http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/workbook/page9.html

Also, a couple of books on the topic:

• http://www.amazon.com/Pop-Bottle-Science-Lynn-Brunelle/dp/0761129804
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439754658

New Primary Resources

Today I was reading about educational uses of Twitter (http://edudemic.com/2011/10/twitter-hashtag-dictionary/), and I came across the #kinderchat hashtag. At the same time, one of the folks at Symbaloo has been helping me do some troubleshooting, and she mentioned that there are #kinderchat webmixes on Symbaloo. These webmixes have great resources for ABCs, YouTube videos, and counting/patterning. I have added them to my "Other Resources" Symbaloo, which you can find here.

Fun with Math Tests

I made a video to help a 1st grade teacher "spice up" one of her test questions for math class. I stole the approach from Dan Meyer (http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=9608), although he does it much better than I. Can you guess what the question is?

"NDE and Standards" updated

I have completed updating the NDE and Standards page into the Symbaloo visual bookmark format. Check it out here (you can also find this in the tabs at the top of the page).

New Page: Other Resources

I have added a new page called "Other Resources". This page features links for Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) resources (SMART Board, BrightLink, etc.), district-compiled lists of helpful links for teachers, some helpful links for parents, and more. You can check it out here (you can also find this in the tabs at the top of the page).

Now we're getting somewhere...

I have completed my first round of updates -- the Symbaloo pages for Math Games, Math Resources, Search Tools, and Blogs. This page is now officially functional! More pages and Symbaloos to come in the weeks ahead.

Welcome to Dan's Instructional Coaching Resources Blog

Please check out my different resource pages from the tabs at the top of the site to find the helpful links you're looking for. As I make updates, changes, improvements, etc., I will add a post to this blog briefly describing what's happened. So, if you subscribe via RSS or email (see bottom-right of the page), or if you just check out this blog from time to time, you can keep track of what's going on! :)