ABCya Games - Spanish Word Toss

Hello All!

This week I spent some time looking for a game that could be used across elementary, middle and possibly even high school or beyond. After exploring the web, I stumbled upon the ABCya.com website. Normally this site only contains games for students in kindergarten through grade five. However, I was able to find a game that works on Spanish word relations. This game provides not only rehearsal of words that a student might know, but also provides additional words that they might not know and could learn by playing the game.

The game is called "Spanish Word Toss" it is a modification to the standard balloon dart game. The game starts by having students choose specific word categories that they want to practice or learn about as they play the game. The categories include animals, colors, food, numbers sports people and more. Once you choose the categories that are desired, the player must then choose whether he or she wants to work on Spanish to English translations or English to Spanish translations. Once a translation option is picked, the student can play the game.

 

The game works like this. You have to look at the word at the bottom of the screen and throw a dart at the corresponding balloon. If the balloon is correct, the player will get 100 points. If they are incorrect they will get one strike and lose 100 points. If you get three strikes then the game is over and you get to play again.

I think this game will work for several grade levels because its provides the basics of Spanish word translations, which can be taught at any age if they desire to learn the language. If you have a spare moment and want to play a fun game, head over to the link below and learn some Spanish words!

http://www.abcya.com/spanish_vocabulary.htm

See you all next week!

Guess My Number! - Math Greater Than / Less Than Lesson-Game

Hi everyone, 

           

Today I want to share with you a math game that I had modified to my own design to help students become aware of the "greater than" "less than" concept. This game is best played at a first or second grade level, as an opening lesson to develop the terminology and basic knowledge of these two phrases. The materials that are required for this lesson-game are as follows:

·      - A sheet of "Guess My Number" board 201-300, for each student in the class

·       - A blank sheet of paper

·       - Doc-cam/projector , in order to project your board at the start of the lesson

·       - Blocks, chips or other game/counting pieces

Once you have the materials, you can follow the steps and provided questioning that I have below. This lesson-game can also be modified to fit into any classroom environment. This lesson-game is separated into three key components; a "Launch, Explore, and Summary" portion. I will have each portion labeled as I walk through the game.

The Launch:

 Have students will meet in an area that they can all see the projector or board, but also collaborate with one another to complete a task you will be posting shortly. Show the students the 201-300 and ask them to guess your number in 5 guesses. Make sure to only play the game once to get the students attention, you want to make them lose this round.

Here are some questions you could ask:
"Alright class so who can tell me what this is?"
"Great! Now I am thinking of a number between 201 and 300. I will write it down and put it under this sheet of paper so my number won't change."

"can you guess my number in 5 guesses!"
"What is your first guess"

This will continue until all five guesses are answered. While the students guess, Make sure to mark off the numbers they guessed that were wrong with counters/chips, to show the remaining numbers. This will come in handy later, and it will also keep your number a mystery. Once the class runs out of guesses send them back to their seats for the exploration phase.

The Exploration:

Inform the students that they will move from working as a whole class trying to solve the number you had, into pairs in order to guess one another's number.

Here are some phrases you could say:
"Now that you have all tried to get my number, you will be able to try and guess each other's number in partners!"

"What I want you to do is play this game until you guess each other's number."

"When you begin to guess your partner's make sure you cross off all the numbers within your guess."
"Can someone explain what I mean?"

(If no one can explain, provide them with a possible example without giving away the main point. Say something along the lines of 'if I was to guess someone's number I could ask if it was in the tens column, and if it wasn’t I could cross off all of the numbers in the tens column').

As students are playing the game, you should be walking around the room to see which students are heading in the direction you want to go with the lesson. Look for students who seem to be asking questions that relate to using greater than or less than terminology or similar terminology (i.e. bigger than/smaller than). This will show if you notice that the students are able to mark off several rows and columns of numbers at once from one question such as asking if their partner's number is greater than or less than fifty.  

The students will play the game two to three times, as in order to make sure that what they are asking allows them to quickly guess their partners number.

The Summary:

Bring the class back together to where they were for the launch portion. Here you will discuss some of the solutions the students found to get their partner's number in the fewest number of guesses.

Here are some phrases you could say:

"Okay class so what have you noticed about trying to guess your partners number?"

"Are there any ways that you found that could get you to the answer with the fewest number of guesses?"

"What are some of those questions you asked about the numbers?"

During this process, make sure to ask the students to explain the questions they used and you write them on the board. Whenever there is a question that was already mentioned, place a tally next to it on the board. Once everyone had time to give the questions they asked, ask them which two questions (or one depending on how the question was phrased) did every pair have in common. The answer to this question will be using the greater than and less than phrases. Ask the students the following questions.

"What happens when we ask if someone's number is greater than or less than a certain number?"

"If we go back to my number what are some question you could ask to finally guess my number?"

"If I give you four more guesses could you guess my number?"

       At this point, the student will guess your number by using the knowledge of greater than       

       and less than terminology in the fewest number of guesses.

And that is how to utilize an easy math game, to develop a brief understanding for greater than and less than concepts, and preparing them for the unit. I hope you enjoy the game! 

Have a great week everyone!

Jumpstart Buzzwords - Knowledge Adventure Games

Hello everyone!

            Today is my first posting of a game that I have found over the course of last week. Since this is my first post I started to look at more elementary based games, ranging from pre-K to sixth grade. My first instinct to look for educational games was to check what was first available for internet users by typing in "educational games" into my Google search box. While scrolling down, I noticed the name "Knowledge Adventure" which had caught my eye. I did some exploring around the site and this is what I found.

http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/

This website, at first glance has access to a range of games that you can filter through based on your student or child's age or grade level. In addition to the grade and age filter, the use also has access to filter based on subject area containing; science, math, animal, reading, spelling and word games. My focus while I was viewing these games was to look for content that allowed students to play the game, while working on a strategy or learning something new in the particular content area.

After playing around with several of the games at different grade levels and content areas, I noticed that the filter systems were not working as I had anticipated. The games in most of the content areas had limited information to no information at all. Many games were just that, games. I also noticed that this website is also lacking any game-based learning for the history subject area. However, I did find a game that I felt could be used to support a student's spelling and vocabulary.  

Jumpstart Buzzwords, is a beat the clock, spelling game, around the idea of the commonly played bejeweled or candy crush style of piece matching game. The game is set up in a log mill and your letters are planks of logs. The idea of this game is to spell different words using only adjacent letters. Once you create a word the letters fall just like they would in the other Bejeweled and Candy Crush games. You have to be careful though, if you run out of time and you have too many word planks on the board, the saws will clear the board and the game will be over.

http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/games/jsb/

I feel this game can be used for supporting from about fourth grade to any age. I say this because this game only allows certain words and word length. I was able to find some three-letter words that worked, up to six-letter words, which are harder than you would think. This game takes strategy to think of different vocabulary words in a students' repertoire and then requires him or her to spell the word correctly before getting any points. As you play, the levels get harder and you even get some special tools to help or hinder your game play. It is a fun game, and if you have a spare moment check it out! See if you can beat my score, I got 1544 points before stopping!

Have fun and have a great week! 

Hello Everyone!

My name is Alexander Ranalli, Alex for short. For my first post, I would like to introduce myself and inform you on what I will be discussing during the weeks to come. I am from Syracuse New York, and went to Syracuse University as an undergraduate in the Inclusive Elementary and Special Education program offered by the School of Education. I have always planned and desired to become a teacher since the second grade. I was fascinated by all the creative ways in which my teacher had my class learn each new concept every day. Since then, I had felt and witnessed the sense of creativity in a classroom lesson become a rarity in classrooms, where many teachers go great lengths to develop a creative lesson, however adversely in many other cases there is a lack of creativity. It is my goal to reach out and discover new ways to help bring that creativity back into the classroom for all students and teachers.

Therefore, once I had finished my undergraduate degree, I entered the Instructional Technology Masters program also at Syracuse University, as a way to learn how to use technology in a classroom setting. With the uses of technology in the classroom, it could provide additional possibilities to unlock the creativity for students and teachers.

This blog will start with the focus on educational games. Although at first glance, the words education and games might seem like two different entities. There are actually several different websites and board/card games in which can be entertaining for different grade levels as well as possibly providing review, extra support or new knowledge or understanding of a concept taught during a class lesson. Each week I will look into different types of educational games and provide my opinion on how each game could be used during or after a lesson. I will also post links to each website I find in addition to pictures or screenshots of the page to help anyone interested to find them. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day and a fantastic week!