Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Decimal fractions

The user 'redhills' put together a useful collection of websites that help high school and middle school students understand decimals. There are some fun interactive applications that help kids understand placement and how that can change the value of a number. There are also some sites that help with decimal plotting on graphs.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Study Resources on Pearl Harbor

Found another great binder by 'xmath' who has combined a rich resource of links on the history of Pearl Harbor. If you are teaching a class on this subject, you might want to start by looking at this binder:

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Colonial America Resources

My daughter is in the 4th grade and we just recently went to Philadelphia and Boston for Thanksgiving. Her teacher recommended we stop and visit some historical sites because they will be covering the colonial period later this year. We really enjoyed visiting downtown Philadelphia, visiting the Betsy Ross home, Liberty Center where we saw the Liberty Bell, Benjamin and Deborah Franklin's tombstone and the location of their last home. We also saw the oldest rent district in the US - Elfray's Alley. There have been residence occupying the buildings since the 1700s.

There is a wonderful collection of resources from 'lthurber' covering the colonial period. I would recommend checking out these references if your child is working on a history project for this time period.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Thanksgiving and Pumpkin pies

Here are some more interesting links on the topic of teaching Thanksgiving.


This binder has an amazing list of links that cover K-5 grades on various subjects like math, english, esl and science - all revolving around the Thanksgiving holiday:




This binder has the history of the Mayflower and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade tradition as well as a list of resources from Scholastic.com



This binder also has links to interesting facts about turkeys and recipes for cooking turkeys for Thanksgiving:



This binder has Thanksgiving Songs and ESL lesson plans for THanksgiving:



This binder has an amazing list of Pumpkin recipes - from pies to soups. This is the place to go if you are looking an all encompassing collection of pumpkin recipes for Thanksgiving and winter holidays:

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Take advantage of Thanksgiving week

We still have school during the week of Thanksgiving. For some this is an opportunity to teach the concept and tradition of Thanksgiving in some unique ways. Xmath has collected a list of websites that cover different ways to incorporate Thanksgiving into a project in the classroom. With so many unique resources, you are bound to find something that will be useful for your grade and classroom.

Monday, November 9, 2009

10 great ways educators are using livebinders

There is a nice blog post listing a bunch of livebinders that teachers have created for use in their classroom. These represent binders that where teachers have carefully selected links and uploaded their own documents to support a particular subject in class. To see the complete list, click on this link:

http://livebinders.wordpress.com/

Monday, November 2, 2009

Studying Edgar Allan Poe

It is after Halloween, but I'm sure there are still English classes that are covering the works by Edgar Allan Poe. I've found this livebinder that includes some great links on Edgar Allan Poe's work. There is even some tabs with Flash interactives that carry on the 'eeriness' of his work - beating heart beats, cawing of ravens, shadows - fun stuff! The livebinder also includes wiki information on his life, poetic terms, sites that include his short poems and stories as well as other useful information about poetry in that era.

To view just click on the link below. Well worth it!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Amelia Earhart

With the new discoveries of what may be Amelia Earhart's bones from a castaway camp on a deserted island, not to mention the upcoming movie played by Hillary Swank, there has been renewed interest in the Adventurist and pilot. The author has put together this livebinder with number of engaging videos and resources that will give your students a pretty good background on the subject of Amelia Earhart and her tragic disappearance.

To view this great binder click on the link below:

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Middle School Creative Writing

My daughter has been working on greek mythology and starting to do some creative writing assignments. I found these great writing tools from storymap.com and pulled just a few tools that she was able to use to construct a story. Before that she seemed to be lost about how to begin and organize a story. Using these tools she was able to understand what she wanted to tell and how to make it more compelling.

Check out the binder I created for her:

Friday, October 16, 2009

Computer Lab Resources for K-5th grade

A teacher put together a wonderful selection of useful websites that have spelling, math and writing interactives that are also fun for the kids. If you are looking for lab projects this is a good resource.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Excellent way to learn States and Capitals

I wish I had this when I was a kid. User 'reynolds5a' put together 5 very useful websites that help your kids learn both the states and capitals. There are three tabs with very useful interactive sites that are fun for kids to play, but effective - kids not only learn the capitals, but also learn how to spell them correctly. I learned something just playing around. Another tab has printable blank maps that you can use for testing. Any parent or teacher will want to get a hold of this livebinder.

Monday, October 12, 2009

A great library resource and free SAT study notes

The following livebinder has a collection of free online resources put together for a tech librarian or for a teacher and parent. What I like about it are the free goveernment resources and links to free practice SAT and vocabulary lists for SAT.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Great tool for Homeschooling parents and Teachers

I just saw this blog by Mary Nabadenhorst with a very detailed explanation on the benefits of using the online binder livebinders for creating a collection of learning material for your students. Mary also created a how-to-video that very nicely goes through the website and how to create a binder. I highly recommend that you check out her video here:

http://marynabadenhorst.globalteacher.org.au/livebinders/

Monday, October 5, 2009

Wonderful Online Teaching Materials

If you are a homeschooling parent or a teacher in a classroom, this livebinder has a wonderful collection of websites that offer media files from subjects like dance and theatre, art, math, science and social science. This is a great way to present high quality material for free. The binder is nicely organized with the first tab presenting a list of material appropriate for Kindergarten or high school. There is also link to the British Monarchy site. The tab PBS National Parks is really beautiful. Be sure to check out the subtab called 'www.wdlrg/en' under the first tab. It displays a wonderful interactive map of the world. Thank you to user 'andersonj' for finding such great resources.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Great Template for English Class

This is a binder template for students to use in High school English, and it is a great way to use the technology. In each tab, the teacher explains what the tab is for. For example, under 'vocabulary' she writes down objectives as the cover page for that tab and then the students will add to the tab with their vocabulary worksheets under new sub-tabs. This way the instructions and objectives are always available to the student. A really nice organizational template anyone can copy and use.

Internet Safety for Kids on Facebook

There is a wonderful binder that user 'thebyrditlady' put together on safety protocols for kids who use Facebook. It shows articles on the issues of posting information you will later regret and how that information is being circulated. The last tab is particularly revealing. It is worth forwarding to your fellow parents, kids and teachers. I will be forwarding this to my kids and niece and nephew...

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Online Art Interactive Websites

Here is a useful livebinder. The livebinder user 'TheresaMcGee' put together a great collection of online art websites for kids to interact with. The binder includes sites about how color is formed, how Picasso created the human form, Tates museum interactive site, the National Gallery of Art website for kids, and many more websites are included. If you are looking for some useful but fun websites to teach creative thinking and artist skills for kids online, this is a great resource.

Click on the link below to launch the livebinder with all the links:

Monday, September 21, 2009

Swine Flu Vaccine -to do or not to do - that is the Question!

Flu season is creeping upon us. For some, the changes in weather have even caused quite a few kids at our school to stay home bedridden with flu like symtoms. We have never received flu shots before, and my kids may have had the flu once in their short lives, but we have had to reconsider our view on whether to get the Swine Flu vaccine this year.

This LiveBinder is a great collection of articles and people's research on the pros and cons of getting the H1N1 influenza A virus vaccine. The author has broken the binder into two tabs, pro and against and listed a bunch of subtabs in each with resources on those viewpoints.

Take the time to check this out.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Cool organizational tools for Students

Most of the time I've been collecting information for parents or teachers to use with their students, but this time I've found a great binder on online tools that help students get organized and make presentations. If your kids are struggling with how to organize their work week, the online tools this binder recommends might help them. Especially if they are checking their email by phone. There are also some cool sites that help build graphs and pie charts and help with presentations.

A must see for students! click on the link below to view



if the link doesn't work - cut and paste this address in your browser:
http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=2475

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Great resource for online calculators

Hello parents, teachers and students - found another useful livebinder with a great resource for online calculators. If you have a student working on a variety of math problems such as algebra or calculus, this binder will have a selection of unique online calculators that can help your kid work through their homework. It is a must have! Check it out by clicking on the link below.



http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=2343

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Last days of Summer - Yosemite

Can't believe summer is already over... well almost over for me - I still have one more week before my kids are back in school. We just spent last week in Yosemite. If you live in the Bay Area or anywhere in California and are thinking about making a trek out to Yosemite, I highly recommend it. Even with the fires going on - it is still an awesome and relaxing place. We were there during the small avalanche near the Awahnee hotel. We saw the area in the granite cliffs behind the Awahnee that cracked off. It did not hurt anyone, and one rock hit one car. Too be cautious they evacuated the hotel to be sure that a larger rock fall wasn't going to happen. That was not as exciting as the number of bears running around. 11 car break-ins during the week we were there and every night we heard the evening flare guns going off to scare the bears away.

We took the girls on hikes to Vernal Falls, rode bikes to various 'hidden' spots along the Merced River, took a two hour tour of the park in an open air bus and learned some interesting stuff about the parks evolution.

Here is a binder on more information on Yosemite. It has a tab for reservations, skiing in the winter and a web cam tab so you can check out 'live' shots of the park.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

UC Berkeley Online Video Courses

If you are a college student who wants to freshen up on some science concepts or are attending one of the UC Berkeley courses and want to review your lecture material, these binders have a great list of videos - in chronological order - of the year's lectures all in one place. Topics include The Big Bang lecture, biology, electrical engineering, physics, chemistry and sociology. Check them out by clicking on the links below!















Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Teachers and Homeschoolers Excellent Online Resource

This time Mr. Lester has created a livebinder for teachers. It is hard to find good quality content on the web for educators and Mr. Lester stumbled upon a bunch of resources from the Tar River Writing Project at East Carolina University.

This is a great list of search sites for teachers and homeschoolers for recommended online material that is useful and engaging for the kids. The sites are free to use with some requiring registration. They are worth checking out.

To view his livebinder click on the link below:

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

4th and 5th grade classroom review

I'm following up on my last blog with the 4th and 5th grade summer review binders that Mr. Lester put together for his students. I can't say enough about them. They are a great collection of websites on math, language arts, history, reading and science subjects - selected for each appropriate grade. If you would like your son or daughter to review this summer, these livebinders are a great start. Many of the links have activities that are online and some will allow you to print worksheets for your kids to work on.

Just click on the links below to launch the livebinders.



Monday, July 27, 2009

2nd and 3rd grade resources from Mr. Lester

Here are two more excellent livebinders for 2nd and 3rd graders. They includ a combination of links on science and social studies, language arts, mythology, english and math.

These are some really great sites for helping kids review their classroom material. I would highly recommend having your kids spend some time going over these binders. Mr. Lester even provides a useful table of contents in the first tab to help his students and parents understand what each tab is for. They are very well organized. The links he has chosen are entertaining and very relevant for each grade.

To open just click on the links below:



Monday, July 20, 2009

Mr. Lester's Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade Resources

I just discovered these great list of educational resources by a teacher who has prepared Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade livebinders. They include online resources for reading, grammer and math. All of the activities are really very good. I don't think I could have found such great sites on my own.

If you are looking for activities to prepare your kids before the fall, I highly recommend Mr. Lester's livebinders - they include a great list of educational activities for your kids. Just click on the links below to launch.

To make it easier for your kids to use, you can drag the livebinder urls onto your desktop so your kids can easily find them and open them on their own.





Monday, July 13, 2009

3rd grade math word problems

My kids have been enjoying our little exercises this summer going over math word problems. They do about one a day figuring out the problems on paper and then presenting their solutions up on our white board. I think it is a great way to get them to organize their work and then practicing getting up and explaining their logic to an audience. Here is a binder on 3rd grade math word problems that has a great collection of worksheets your kids can print out and tackle at their own pace. This binder is very popular and I think the 3rd grade level is great for 4th and 5th graders who want to practice a variety of math word problems.

Monday, July 6, 2009

High School Summer Math Review

Let's not forget about our high school students who have even more pressure to perform well during the school year. Summer is a great time to review your math skills by taking a little time each day to solve a math word problem. I'm a strong believer in using math as a great problem solving activity, but often we treat math as if it is more of a rote exercise of doing drills. What is nice about this binder is that it has one worksheet per grade on math word problems and then another tab that lists worksheets for middle school and high school students. That way students can review material without being overwhelmed with too many choices, and if they want more they can refer to the tab with additional resources. The idea is to keep your mind fluid with the math concepts you learned over the summer - not burdened by them.

Feel free to use this binder over the summer. Just click on the link below to launch the binder in your browser.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Quick Review for Summer Grades 1-5

Here is another binder with a great list of websites for your kids to check out if you want them to do a little summer review. This binder has really helpful links on spelling, math and writing. It even has a great article on how math should be taught like art, which I find useful when I talk to my kids about math assignments. What works for me is that my kids work on one tab at a time and one worksheet at a time. So for math, the kids print out one worksheet and tackle a problem on the white board. Then we work on 10 spelling words using some of the spelling tips that we learned from another spelling binder. Finally, we set up a blog at hellokids.com so the kids could practice their writing and spelling. This binder has links to recommended kid blog sites as well.

Feel free to check out the sites by clicking on the livebinder link below:

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Homeschooling Resources

For all of the home schooling parents out there, this binder is a pretty good resource on material and supplies that are related to the home school community.

If you are looking for community groups, recommendations for curriculum text books and other related material, this is the binder for you.

Feel free to drag the livebinder URL to your desktop so you can quickly access your livebinder for future reference.

Click on the link below:

Monday, June 15, 2009

2nd grade math word problems

I've put together a 2nd grade math word problem binder as an 'easy' review for my 3rd going to 4th grader. These word problems are a great way to have your kids use their creative problem solving skills with math. For those of you who are looking to find some easy and printable math word problems this is a great collection of free websites with word problems specifically for 2nd graders.



http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=1823

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Summer Math Review for Middle School Students

I put together some summer review binders for lower school children, but I've also got a kid entering middle school. So I put together a binder on middle school math word problems and other math worksheets that my daughter can use over the summer. It also includes a great article about how math should be taught like it is art rather than as something to be memorized and dreaded. It was inspiring to read.

If you have a middle school student who wants or needs to brush up on their math skills before September this is a great collection of worksheets to start with. You can put the binder icon on their desktop at home and have them open the binder to the website they want to work on. They don't have to worry about getting lost in a google search or having to type in an address.



http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=1824

Monday, June 8, 2009

Making the Switch to Green, Homemade, Cleaning Products

I made the switch to green cleaning products a month ago and I have to say I am really pleased with the results. I never thought white distilled vinegar could be so useful as a cleaning agent and safe! I have granite counter tops and I've been using Windex or a granite sealer/cleaner. Both are toxic products. When I tried the vinegar and water solution I was amazed at how clean my counter tops were. There was not the usual film on top that I have to keep rubbing to get off. The counter tops were clean and shiny.

If you are interested in trying home made cleaning products that are safe for your family and affordable, check out the great collection of websites that I found that talk about all the different ways in which you can clean your home.

Just click on the binder link below.



http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=1834

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Helping Kids wtih Homesickness

We weren't very prepared when my daughter went on a 2 week trip with her class to France. Since she went with her classmates and friends, I figured it would be alright, but she has been experiencing homesickness. If you've ever tried to navigate a child's emotional terrain by email, chat or phone you know it isn't easy. You as a parent have to remain calm and positive, while your child is showing extreme signs of weakness. Then you want to collapse from exhaustion.

I went online to search for anything that would help with her homesickness. I found some great articles and tips about what to do. The key is to help your kids feel in control and empowered so that they can walk away from this experience with confidence and the feeling of success. The hugs when you see them again will be that much warmer, too!

You can view these articles in the livebinder below:


Monday, June 1, 2009

Lower School Summer Review

Only two weeks left of school for us, but summer might have already started for some of you. I just collected a great list of websites that offer summer fun actitivities for the kids - along with free summer review projects for spelling, math and writing. All of the websites focus on kids from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. With this range you can cater the projects to your child's skill level.

Click on the link below to launch the livebinder.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Spelling with Confidence

I had a conversation this weekend with a few mothers, and we talked about how spelling is such a challenge for some of our kids. Spelling is a hard one to solve because you can't really memorize every word. After looking around on the web, I found that there are some simple rules you can apply to spelling. The key is to learn those rules and practice them on as many new words as your kids are willing to try.

In this LiveBinder, I found some great websites that gives tips on how to be a good speller including those simple rules that your kids can try. To help them build confidence, they can practice their spelling skills on new word lists, and this binder also includes some great spelling lists for different age groups -2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. I've even found some free websites where kids can play spelling games for free. Just click on the different tabs in the binder below to view.

Clink on the link below to open the livebinder:



Become a Better Speller

Monday, May 11, 2009

Help with 1st grade math word problems

There's no better way to have your kids learn how to apply their math skills than to work on math word problems. It helps promote their problem solving and critical thinking skills such as in pattern recognition which is helpful when they start to use multiplication in the higher grades.

In this binder I've selected a great list of websites that offer math word problems appropriate for 1st and 2nd graders.

Just click on the binder to view:


Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Parent on a Mission and Helpful Multiplication Worksheets

A parent on a mission:

As a mother I realized that the most time-consuming thing I do for my kids involves finding, collecting and giving information. I use the internet so often I can't believe how many links I've collected for my kids - whether its about their education, vacations, sports, art, health, or entertainment; I've searched it, found it, grabbed it, done it and shared it.

With all of this information collecting - I noticed that my bookmarks, url lists, and printed pages and pages of documents was not helping me get organized. I needed a place to put all my links together, so I could easily find them, group them together with other documents and sometimes share them. I also didn't want to view them as urls, but as pages in a book. I soon realized there wasn't anything like that on the internet.

That is why I created the idea of 'livebinders' - which is like a 3-ring binder for the web. With livebinders you can separate links by tabs and view them like pages in a book. You can create many different binders, name them and categorize them so you can find them easily. My business partner, a fellow parent, and I soon realized that many people collect information like us, but with no place to put it and no easy way to share. So we launched www.livebinders.com, where parents can add bookmarks and urls to their own binders for free. We think parents are a great resource for carefully selected information and we want to help them create their own library of binders.

Livebinders is dedicated to helping parents put their links to good use, and with this blog I hope to highlight some of the binders that I've either found useful or that I've created for my kids that I think you will find useful, too.

Helpful multiplication worksheets:

And that leads me to my 'multiplication worksheets' binder. If you have 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even 5th graders in your care, then you must be helping them memorize their multiplication tables. Memorizing times tables helps kids with their multiplication, division and eventually their algebra problems. I've found that flash cards are not enough, and that practicing on paper is very helpful. So I like to print worksheets from the web to give to my kids.

In this livebinder, I organized a great list of websites that offer free multiplcation worksheets that you can print. There is even a tab on a couple of useful interactive games that help your kids use their multiplication knowledge in a fun way.

To view the 'Multiplication worksheets'binder, click on the link below. Then go through the tabs at the top of the binder to view the diffferent web pages. (Livebinders works with Safari, IE6 and 7, the latest Firefox and Google Chrome.)




Go parents!