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Kids

Games @ Lunch Break

Nov 1st, 2008
by pollyalida.
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Lunch break Our lunch break today was too short to get any game playing going – school librarians know how to eat quick and network at the same time! But I did get a few games out for people to look at.  In honor of ALA’s National Gaming Day coming up on Nov 15, we had Pictureka and Top Trumps. And Quiddler too. All these are new to me, so I was happy to have an excuse to buy them.

But what I really loved about this, was the reaction of a couple of the librarians who started thinking about how they could use the ideas behind these games and have kids create their own games! Kids could make their own Top Trumps cards by using a big huge labs Trading Card making tool.  Use a photo from flickr, add some facts, print them out and play! Cool!  Pictureka-ish game boards could be created with clip art collections.  All themed around topics being covered in classes. Creative and fun.

Give a kid a voice and WOW! Election coverage from 5th grader.

Oct 27th, 2008
by pollyalida.
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Election coverage from the Kathryn E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary in Florida. Damon Weaver, a 5th grader, is the news reporter covering Obama and McCain rallies in Florida. And he gets a terrific interview with Joe Biden. Well done Damon! And “well done” to the school too. What an amazing way to involve your students in the election process.

More videos from Canal Point KECT

Glogster: taking posters to a whole new level

Oct 24th, 2008
by pollyalida.
1 comment

Glogster for Education lets you create online posters with graphics, photos, text, video and audio. Wow, what a great tool for student projects. I can see lots of other fun uses for this in public libraries too.

Though Glogster has been around for a while, I just heard about it today in a twitter post from Buffy Hamilton. Seems the Glogster for Education service has just recently launched.

For a great example of a class project using Glogster, check out Buffy’s 11th grade lit project on Thoreau and Emerson.

“Then & Now” – Third Grade History Reports

Sep 30th, 2008
by pollyalida.
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Goldengate Bridge - Then
Mill Valley (CA) Library posted a set of photos to flickr of 3rd grade history reports from the Edna Maguire Elementary School. Nice project idea. And great way to share the reports.

Cartoon Network Game Creator

Sep 13th, 2008
by pollyalida.
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Cartoon Network Game Creator

In an effort to get lots of little notes off my desk, I’ve just spent a few minutes playing with the Cartoon Network’s Game Creator. Heard about it in episode 5 of the Games in Libraries podcast.

I confess, I’m really pathetic at playing video games, but I did have fun creating my own VERY easy game.  And I found another really easy one that was right up my beginner level alley.

Creating a game involves 6 easy steps: including picking a character, a background, goals, barriers and more. Once you’ve tested your game to make sure it actually can be won, you can submit it to be approved for inclusion with other games. Other people can play it and rate it. And you can invite your friends to play too.

There’s lots of information for parents, a help section and short tutorial on building a game, which I appreciated, but suspect isn’t needed by most kids.

There was a very short commercial when first visiting the site, but it was short. Only suggestion I would have is provide some way to embed a game on a blog or web page.

Just call me Mighty Zeus Llama from now on!

A Dozen Back to School Uses for Big Huge Labs Trading Card Generator

Aug 18th, 2008
by pollyalida.
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flickr toys trading card

In a class last week, someone suggested using the the free trading cards generator at bighugelabs.com as a ‘get to know you’ sort of exercise at the beginning of the school year.  That got me thinking about and looking for other back to school ideas for this fun tool.

Like all the tools at bighugelabs, this one is very easy to use. Upload a photo/graphic or grab one from your flickr or photobucket account, enter a title, caption and some text and shazam, you have a cool trading card. You can download the trading card to your own computer, post it your flickr account, copy html code to put it on a web/blog/wiki page or print it out.

Some ideas – please share your ideas in the comments!

  • Book Reviews – find a photo that expresses your feelings about a book you’ve read. Write a few lines about what the book meant to you.
  • Student book reports -  Use the 2-sided Character Trading Card generator from the ReadWriteThink to create a summary of the book, notes about the characters, plot and more.  (sample card)
  • “5 facts” reports – Find a photo or graphic of a topic. List 5 facts about that topic. Expand this to a podcast of the ’5 facts’ (that idea from the Beverly (MI) Elementary School Podcasts) and use the trading card to illustrate the blog/web/wiki page listing the podcasts. (more…)
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