The SMART Exchange has tons of SMART Notebook lessons, SMART Response question sets, images, and web resources for the SMART Board. There are currently 41 files associated with Thanksgiving. Below is a background image of a Thanksgiving scene. This can be used as a story starter or simply as a welcome screen as your students enter the room. There are several more images such as a turkey, maize, and a pilgrim. Check them out!

It’s that time again! Thanksgiving is this week, and many teachers are looking for informational activities and interactives to use on the SMART Board. Here is a wonderful FREE video from BrainPopJr.com about Thanksgiving. It covers pilgrims, Indians, Plymouth, the first Thanksgiving, and more. There is a free matching Thanksgiving game, too! Also, please check out Teachers Love SMART Boards for additional Thanksgiving resources.

I found out about MathNook.com from the iLearnTechnology blog. MathNook.com provides a good collection of flash math games, and there are a few that work great on the SMART Board such as the Brain Test activity. From the site: Drag the correct math symbol to complete the equation. The symbol match portion of the game requires you to draw a line to the matching symbol.  Remember to draw an “o” if no match.

The Active Science website from GlaxoSmithKline contains a number of interactive modules on many different science topics ranging from Humans and Animals to the Periodic Table. The modules include printable worksheets, online activities, and quizzes. Here is the module from Human and Animal Habitats on the Antarctic that I plan to introduce to my 2nd graders after Thanksgiving. These work great on the SMART Board!

The 2009-2010 Winter Wonderland Project is now open for registration!

The Winter Wonderland Project is an online project for grades K-3 that includes winter-themed technology activities with reading, writing, and math components. Registration will open on Wednesday, November 18th. The Project will begin December 1st and end February 28th. Teachers who participate will share student work on their own personal page(s) on the wiki. Suggested thematic activities and resources for each month will be provided. We will have a Featured Activity each month that we hope all classes will be able to complete. We have chosen our Featured Activity to introduce you to some new tools or websites or new uses for tools you already use. We do realize that there may be times when sites are blocked at schools or schools do not have access to the programs or tools used. If you cannot complete the Featured Activity we would still love your participation in the Winter Wonderland Project.

Please visit the Winter Wonderland Wiki at http://winterwonderland.wikispaces.com/ to register, learn about the planned activities, or to get more information about the project.

Thank you,

Winter Wonderland Project Coordinators

Amber Coggin, Nedra Isenberg, & Vicky Sedgwick