Google Class on Power Searching

Help your students become better searchers

Web search can be a remarkable tool for students, and a bit of instruction in how to search for academic sources will help your students become critical thinkers and independent learners.

Help your students and yourself become skilled searchers- whether just starting out with search, or ready for more advanced training.

I just signed up for this free class from the web-search giant Google Inc:

Google Power Searcher

Hone your search skills and become a Google Power Searcher. Sign up for our Power Searching with Google class - a free, online, community based course that starts on July 10 and runs until July 19.

This is the address: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/

They have a series of lesson plans posted on the site too such as: picking the right search terms, understanding search results,narrowing a search to get the best results, searching for evidence for research tasks, and evaluating credibility of research sites.

I know that I've learned about searching by the trial and error strategy, and I'm betting that I can benefit from these classes. What about YOU?

Deborah

     

 

Learning Through Observation

This child is learning through observation.  He is noticing many things about the scorpion as he draws his own model.  He is only 5 years old now, but someday he might see an illustrated model drawing like this:

He can then think back to his own drawing he made this summer during summer school and make connections to what he already knows and the new information presented in the drawing.  That is how children learn through play.

As an educator, you might suggest to parents that they can take a simple drawing made by their child, and add words and arrows just like the drawing above shows.  When a parent works with their child in  this way they are increasing their child's vocabulary. 

Of course, in your own classroom you might do the same thing as a classroom activity and add this note directly to the drawing:

Click Here to obtain a copy of the letter from my Google Documents file.

Deborah Devine

I'm the Greatest Five Frame Game

2 Students are playing this game together.
1) Each student gets 1 set of five frame cards. ( It might even help if each game card is a different color to sort them into 2 sets at the end of the game.)
2)Then each student turns over the top card of their pile and names the number it represents.
3)The student with the greater amount take both cards.

Since I suggested a second color card set, I made them to share with you.

Click on the top red five frames to obtain your own copy from my Google Documents File

The school year is ready to end tomorrow, but I still have a lot of work to prepare for PreKindergarten Summer School :)

Deborah