Lesson Plans

SpellingCity Helps You Do More with Less

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 August 2010 11:48 Friday, 06 August 2010 15:30

I think this site is so great that I thought I would share this with you.

Many teachers are being asked this year to do more with less. Often, the impossible is expected yet nobody is offering teachers much in the way of useful help or tools.

I hope that you recognize SpellingCity as a key to achieving real educational and productivity gains.

Here's where SpellingCity lets you do even more with less:

vocabulary
phonics
writing
handwriting
alphabetical order
spelling

Since SpellingCity keeps adding capabilities, you may not be aware of the full breadth that we provide. Back to school is a great time to review the possibilities. Watch our one minute videos to see what more SpellingCity can do for you.

While we provide SpellingCity for many uses at no charge, we do ask two things of you:

Don't keep SpellingCity a secret. Share your enthusiasm for SpellingCity with your colleagues and friends. It’s as easy as forwarding this email, “liking” us on Facebook, or mentioning us in your meetings.
If possible, sign up for a SpellingCity Premium Membership. You will be glad you did. At $49.99 for an annual classroom license, it's an insanely great value ($24.99 for a family). Below are the highlights of the current Premium Membership and an inside tip: we will be introducing more great features this year in vocabulary and phonics to simplify your life and to help you and your students. These new materials will only be available to paid-up Premium Members. So get in on the best stuff from the beginning. One teacher told me:

SpellingCity helped my hardest-to-reach students (ESE, ESL)
learn vocabulary, phonics, and spelling.

A Premium Membership:

Automatically tracks student test scores so you don’t have to grade tests or record scores.
Tracks students' activities on SpellingCity.
Provides a class gradebook and individual records.
Enables the Premium Games, LetterFall and SpeedySpeller.
Allows you to read the students’ writing exercises, respond to them, and keep records, all online! It’s green and efficient.

For funding sources, consider your school budget, the PTA, the class parents or donations via Adopt-a-Classroom. Tens of thousands of teachers keep telling us what a difference SpellingCity has made to them and their students.

General News - We’re up to 48,000 words in our database (we started the last school year with 30,000). You now have the choice of different meanings for about a quarter of the words. Any teacher or parent can write and use a customized sentence for any word. We see teachers creating their own sentences for specific activities. To see how this can be used, here are a few learning reinforcement activities using SpellingCity to teach about honeybees, Florida and nutrition.

SpellingCity is midway through a massive sentence upgrade project. We're adding more context and tightening the wording. As sentences are rewritten, the synthetic voice says them on an interim basis and within two weeks, they're recorded by a human. Please bear with us through the transition.

SpellingCity welcomes you all back to school. Count on us to be a bright spot helping you and your students this year.

My best regards,
John, Mayor of SpellingCity.com
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Hungry for More Learning Games?

Syllables Segmenting Lesson & Game. The combined educational and fun value of this game is astonishing. The Hig Pig Game. I grew up playing this game on road trips with my family. My kids now play it. For those of you who don’t know what a Hig Pig is, it’s a word puzzle game where the answers are two rhyming one-syllable words. For instance, what is a hig pig for an overweight feline? Answer: a fat cat. There are also higgy piggies where the answers are two words each with two syllables. For example: What do you call a crab-like creature involved in organized crime? A mobster lobster! (PS. My daughter made that one up!)

These math fact games can help your youngster learn and practice basic math operations. LearningGamesForKids.com just added games for learning about the states with a page devoted to each of the 50 states. I love trying to match each State with its Nickname. Do you know which state is the Beehive State? The First State? These keyboarding games build your students' skills and speed for this 21st Century skill.

	Time4Learning.com is a great back-to-school skills sharpener for students, K-8.
	Time4Writing’s courses can help students build their writing skills for the new school year. These online writing tutorials take eight weeks or less.

Teacher Videos Compound Words Sound Alike Words Dolch Words State Capital Game

FREE Online Peace Education Resources

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 August 2010 11:48 Thursday, 29 July 2010 12:13

Jeremy Gilley founded the non-profit organization Peace One Day in 1999 as part of his quest to establish the first ever day of global ceasefire and nonviolence. In 2001 the UN passed a resolution declaring September 21 the International Day of Peace, Peace Day, and since then Jeremy and Peace One Day have been working hard to institutionalize the day. As part of this, the education department has come up with a FREE online resource

that provides 21 lesson plans and 28 classroom activities for exploring issues such as: ending bullying, conflict resolution, intercultural cooperation, the United Nations, and the link between sustainability and peace. Using September 21, Peace Day, as the focus, the resource works in conjunction with the documentary film The Day After Peace, which charts Jeremy Gilley’s (founder of Peace One Day and director of the film) journey to establish the first annual day of global ceasefire. A classroom version of the film is available FREE online along with the Resource, and the Resource itself contains a wealth of video clips.

Each lesson plan refers to National standards and fits well within the frameworks of History/Social Studies, Civics and Government Studies, English/Language Arts, Environmental Science and more. To find out more about the Educational Resource and to show your students what young people can do to make peace, please go to:http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/education. Register now!

The Resource is also available in the 6 official languages of the UN: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

Please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know what you think!

Emily Dew

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Peace One Day Logo

A Substitute Teacher's Morning

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 August 2010 11:47 Tuesday, 27 July 2010 13:56

1. Prepare some nourishing and non-spillable food and drink for the day.

Do not include nuts of any kind.

The percentage of children allergic to nuts, is very high and not worth the risk.

Even having a small amount of nuts on your hands could pose a serious health

risk to some children.

2. Arrive at school by 8.00am. There may or may not be alot of preparation, so

it’s good to get a head start, just in case.

3. When arriving at a new school, immediately go to the main office to let them

know you have arrived. Staff may direct you to the Assistant Principal or another

teacher, who will brief you on the teaching resources, locations and your timetable

for the day.

4. Find out when, where and what time your playground duties and any other extra

duties, will be for the day. There is often a slip of paper given to emergency teachers,

with instructions in relation to such duties. You may have playground duty before the

day starts. If so, you will have less time to prepare.

5. Make sure you know where the photocopier is located and if you need a code in

order to use it.

6. Find out where your classroom is and how to find it.

7. Upon arriving in your classroom, open the windows, weather permitting and

locate the class roll.

8. Open up the class roll and place a paper clip on that date’s page.

9. Place a pencil on the roll’s page for the day so that you can quickly

open it up.

10. Make sure you sign your name at the bottom of that day’s column in the

roll, after you have taken the roll during class at the beginning of the day.

11. Locate the teacher’s instruction sheet if there and have a look at the

whiteboard to see if the teacher also wrote down the day’s activities.

12. Read the teacher’s instructions carefully and make sure the

answers are available. If not, write the answers on the relevant

worksheets yourself.

13. Make sure there is a spare worksheet, book or other teaching

materials for all activities, so that you can refer to it during the lesson.

If no spare sheets or books, make an extra photocopy for yourself.

14. If equipment is needed, prepare. If not sure of the location,

ask another teacher.

15. Write the day’s date in the top right corner of the whiteboard.

16, Look for any indication of a merits point system for that class.

17. Look around the room, for Reading group, Classroom Duties and/or

News names for the day or week.

These are usually written on large coloured sheets, located at the front

or sides of the classroom.

18. Leave the classroom for the photocopying room, turning off lights and

fans that have been on in the classroom.

19. Make 2 copies of the teacher’s instruction sheet and 2 copies of the

duty note.

Clip them together. You will want to scribble your notes on the first

copy throughout the day. The second copy is just in case you lose the

first copy. The original is to give back to the class teacher (see Point )

20. Make some photocopies of extra activities for fast finishers, if not

supplied by the teacher. You can find lots of emergency teaching ideas

on this site.

21. Go back to the classroom and organise the roll and activities in

the order of presentation.

22. Place the original instruction sheet in a safe place.

23. If time, go to the staffroom and have a relaxing coffee or tea before

the bell.

Have a great day!

Make 2010/11 The Year of TEAMWORK at your School with ‘Stand Up for Peace One Day’

Last Updated on Thursday, 29 July 2010 12:17 Monday, 19 July 2010 12:35

Herald in the new school year with Peace Day! Stand Up for Peace One Day is a lesson taken from our USA Peace Education Resource and provides the ideal opportunity to get the whole school or community involved in a positive celebration for 21 September, Peace Day. These Resources are free and available in the six official languages of the United Nations; they can be accessed by completing a short registration process.

We invite you and your students/colleagues/friends to participate in Peace Day by making a commitment and taking a photo or video of this commitment. This could involve painting banners, spelling peace words or images through students making the shapes by standing in formation. Over the years we have been sent some incredible images from all over the world and we are hoping 2010 will be the best year yet!

Lesson 4J –Stand Up for Peace One Day provides a guide on how to organize this event in a straightforward and flexible manner, relative to what is feasible within your school or community. As this creative and inclusive opportunity happens at the beginning of the school year it is an excellent ‘icebreaker’, allowing students and teachers to get to know one-another. This is a group activity, encouraging students of mixed ages and ability to work together; they will have opportunities to develop confidence and compassion through working together for a common goal.

There are 2 activities:

1. Deciding what you want to spell out and who will be responsible for which letters

2. Taking the formation and taking the photo/video

This activity is not just about the end result it is also about the process of a group coming to a unanimous decision about how would they like express their commitment to Peace, and working together to make it a reality.

Wherever you are in the world we hope you and your students will join in the Peace Day fun!

PLEASE REMEMBER to send us your pictures or videos to the following email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , so we can post up your work on our website to motivate others to take part in this event next year and give them the opportunity to enjoy it as you did.

Thank you for Standing up for Peace One Day.

Emily

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Peace Day Activity

FREE Online Peace Education Resources

Last Updated on Friday, 23 July 2010 19:04 Monday, 19 July 2010 11:17

Our updated 2010 FREE digital Education Resource, recommended for teachers of grades 6 – 12 in the US, is available online! The Resource provides 21 lesson plans and 28 classroom activities for exploring issues such as: ending bullying, conflict resolution, intercultural cooperation, the United Nations, and the link between sustainability and peace. Using September 21, Peace Day, as the focus, the resource works in conjunction with the documentary film The Day After Peace, which charts Jeremy Gilley’s (founder of Peace One Day and director of the film) journey to establish the first annual day of global ceasefire.

Each lesson plan refers to National standards and fits well within the frameworks of History/Social Studies, Civics and Government Studies, English/Language Arts, Environmental Science and more. To find out more about the Educational Resource and to show your students what young people can do to make peace, please go to: http://www.peaceoneday.org/en/education. Register now!

Do not hesitate to contact me and let me know what you think!

Emily Dew

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Lesson Plans

SpellingCity Helps You Do More with Less

SpellingCity Helps You Do More with Less

I think this site is so great that I thought I would share this with you.

Hungry for More Learning Games?

FREE Online Peace Education Resources

FREE Online Peace Education Resources

A Substitute Teacher's Morning

A Substitute Teacher's Morning

Make 2010/11 The Year of TEAMWORK at your School with ‘Stand Up for Peace One Day’

Make 2010/11 The Year of TEAMWORK at your School with ‘Stand Up for Peace One Day’

FREE Online Peace Education Resources

FREE Online Peace Education Resources

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