Monster Choir - Sound Patterns...

I wanted to share one of my favourite sites with everyone.  You may already have seen and used this... but in case you haven't, here is the link

 MONSTER CHOIR

This is a really fun sound pattern game that is fabulous to use on an Interactive White Board, and perfect for including when teaching Kindergarten kiddies about patterns.  I was introduced to this site by my Supervising Teacher on my last teaching prac.  We used it quite a bit and it was so engaging, as well as being a great classroom management tool (everyone wanted to have a turn...and it was amazing to see how quiet even the liveliest little person was, just so they could have a turn)!!

It really is a fun and effective activity to include in your resource list for teaching Kindergarten children about patterns.  My Australian teaching friends can also access this from the secured section of the DET curriculum support website via the DET Intranet, if you have access.

I hope you find this useful.

Tina

Fabulous Animation Site For All Grades...

Have you already seen the Zimmer Twins animation website?  I hadn't until this week, and WOW!  This site has so much potential for using in any classroom!  The potential really is endless...

• Perfect for the teacher to create movies to teach and reinforce all subject matter from any and all key learning areas.
• Fabulous and very engaging for using on an IWB.
• Great to use as a whole class lesson.
• Amazingly engaging and perfect for cooperative learning lessons with pairs, or small groups.

The site has some fabulous animation examples that have been made by teachers and children alike. This one made by Jen from Runde's Room blog is how I found the Zimmer Twins site.

I also really like the fact that only a 'nickname' is used to identify the creator of each animation on the site, so teachers can create an account with their email address, choosing a nickname to identify the account as creator of the animations, and then the children can use this account in the classroom, with their real identities remaining private.

Our Miss Olivia has had a lot of fun trying it out for me!  TIP:  Make sure you are logged in before you make your movie, or you won't be able to save it....yes we learned this lesson the hard way, a few times!   If you haven't seen the site before, I hope you enjoy it and find it useful as a resource.  If you have used it before, I would love to know how you have used it.

Tina