Karen Rainier
Learning Games
Elective #12
July 14, 2009
Online LEARNING GAMES FOR
PRIMARY STUDENTS
STARFALL
This website for K-2 students and has activities that focus on phonemic
awareness and phonics.
This site is a great choice for a classroom computer center.
http://www.starfall.com/
COMIC
CREATOR
The Comic Creator lets students to create their own comic strips for a variety
of purposes (i.e: prewriting, before and after
reading activities, etc.)
This would be a great tool to provide to have students respond to guided
reading or use for writing practice.
http://readwritethink.org/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=21
CARNEGIE
LIBRARY STORY MAKER
This website is so fun- kids will love it!
Students begin by choosing avatars for characters.
Then, they can plan the story elements by choosing the problem, the setting,
the characters feelings, etc.
Finally, they will get to watch the animated avatars act out their story!
PHONICS WITH BBC ONLINE
This website provides great fun phonics practice games for kids.
This would be perfect for a computer center because most of the games are
self-explanatory.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml
SPELLING FUN WITH SCHOLASTIC
This site let’s kids create their own word
searches and crossword puzzles using their spelling words!
This would be a great tool to let students use to complete spelling homework-
especially with the Words Their Way curriculum.
http://www.scholastic.com/kids/homework/spelling.htm
Math
This
website has games for every subject, however, the math arcade is particularly
fun.
Since I
know that, like me, many early childhood educators often assign fact practice
for math homework on weekends,
this
would be a great website to suggest to parents as a tool to let their kids
practice their facts in a more exciting way than just flashcards.
There is
also a “standards finder” which is a tool that can be used by parents and
teachers to find games that help students practice a skill
that
relates to a specific learning objective.
http://www.funbrain.com/brain/MathBrain/MathBrain.html
This site has lots of games sectioned by type
of math skill.
It is a
site that could be used as both a math center and as a homework suggestion for
weekends and holidays in place of standard fact practice.
This
site is great for young or struggling learners.
The
games are very basic, and cover all subjects.
However,
for math skills, these games could be a tool implemented as an extra support
for a struggling learner
or as a suggestion as
a supplementary activity for a parent with a student who needs some review.
http://www.primarygames.com/math.htm
Science
APPLES FOR THE TEACHER-
SCIENCE GAMES
This website
has some great science games about primary science topics such as animals and
weather.
It could
be a link on a computer center.
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/science.html
Scholastic
never disappoints me!
This
site has links to games that tie directly in with some of the 2nd grade
curricular topics such as bats and insects.
I would
perhaps use this as a computer center during those units.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/clf/tguidesitemap.htm
SURFNET KIDS SCIENCE GAME
LIST
This is
another site that has a list of games in all content areas.
However,
the list provided in the areas of science and social studies are both substantial
and
connect neatly with 2nd grade science topics such as health and the
environment.
http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/Science_Games/
Social Studies
This
section of the scholastic site is just as fun and curriculum-connected as the
science area.
One
large section of activities that go along with social studies topics in the
primary grades is the games and activities about community workers.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/clf/tguidesitemap.htm
I KNOW THAT-
SOCIAL STUDIES GAMES
This site
provides really fun and exciting games about other cultures, reading a map and
geography.
This
would be a great site to have in the computer center.
http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=L2_SocialStudies
This is
an index of lots of games all about American symbols, states, presidents,
holidays, history, etc.
A great
link, but teachers would need to choose a specific game to link students to
before putting this link on a computer center.
This is
a site that other teachers would be interested in.
http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/American_Games/