The very talented Jane Cassette has created a wonderful SmartBoard notebook file for her Kindergarten class. She wanted to create a way to make her daily calendar time more interactive and personalized.
Now why is this calendar any different that the poster bulletin board type most elementary school classrooms use?

Image by riaskiff
SmartBoard Calendar has the ability [...]

I believe that we need to teach our students to be able to extract information from a variety of sources. They do not only need to be able to read text, but they also need to be able to:

extract
comprehend
evaluate
summarize
re-use
re-mix

information from other forms of media. They also need to be able to choose, use and be [...]

Kindergarten teachers at my school proved this past week that they are a team of AMAZING teachers. I am in awe the way they :

worked as a team
were enthusiastic about the topic/content that they were teaching
taught with excellence in mind
did not use excuses why their students could not do this or that (Ex. they are [...]

Kindergarten spent time on the Pinky Dinky Doo site. It is well worth exploring with your younger students. We directed students to go to Story Podcasts on the site.

and to choose “Create your Own”.

They are able to choose from 5 different story categories.

The story is divided into three segments, Beginning, Middle and End. The site [...]

Here is my Top Ten “Learn by Playing Sites list for Elementary School age kids. No particularly order. They include links from categories, such as drawing, simulations, digital storytelling, programming and puzzle solving.

http://langwitches.glogster.com/LearnByPlaying/

Kerpoof
Linerider
Scratch
Fantastic Contraptions
Virtual Knee Surgery
Art Pad
Wildlife Film Maker
Tinker Ball
Glogster Edu
YOUR favorite “Learn by Playing” Site

As you may have noticed, Number 10 in this list [...]

Six schools in six countries in one hour? Is it possible?
Over 100 participants in 23 countries have shown desire to connect with other schools and left their contact information.
Time zones issues seem to be the biggest hurdle in connecting our students with schools from the Eastern Hemisphere during school hours.
I invited the students in my [...]

ShareTabs is a new tool I just heard about. It looks like a great tool to use in presentations, but also for your elementary school classroom.
It is very visual by displaying a thumbnail of the website link, but also has tabs open with the links you specify open, ready for your students to click on.
You [...]

Many times there is pressure to teach the “traditional” Office programs (word processing/spreadsheet/presenting software) in school. Parents and administrators have something tangible to see/say that their child/student is learning/getting computer skills. It is harder to recognize/put your fingers on skills like communication, collaboration and connections.
So far, we had started first graders out on using PP [...]

Title: Engage Young Learners with Web 2.0 Tools
Presenter: Gail Lovely
Description:  Discover curriculum-rich possibilities of engaging Web 2.0 tools like Skype, YackPack, Wikis, and VoiceThread in primary classrooms. Explore real learning ideas, not just “Gee Whiz!”

lovelytcea09.wetpaint.com

Moving from Computer as a toy to computer as a tool
Younger students should be encouraged to work in pairs.
Get headset splitters.
Teach [...]

She did it! Paige McGee from LeadingToLearn (can’t wait to finally read her first blog post ) found a cute little tool before I had caught it in my RSS reader or from my Twitter network. She is getting ALL  the credit for this one.
How cute for lower level elementary school kids to creat  [...]