SMART Board Goodies A Resource Blog by Amber Coggin 

Nedra Isenberg and I have teamed up our 2nd (and some 3rd) grade computer lab classes during the month of October to participate in a project called Scary Spuds.

Project Description

This project is very similar to the Monster Exchange project and Monster Project Wikispace. However, for Scary Spuds the students use a flash activity found at Crick Web to create their Scary Spuds instead of a paint program.  I felt this would speed the project up a bit and make it more simplified and contained instead of giving the students free reign on a paint program.

More Details

The premise of the project is to create a Scary Spud, and then write a description of the Spud so that their partner classes can re-draw it, coming as close to the original as possible. The students from 3 different schools, 1 in Alabama and 2 in New York, have been paired up with a partner class. Each class will be split into about 6 groups with 3-4 students in each group. Each group will then be assigned a number. After creating their Spuds and writing their descriptions, the information will be posted to the Wiki so that the partner class may access it. After the Scary Spuds are re-drawn they will be uploaded to the Wiki for all to see. The students may then compare them to determine how close they came to the original Scary Spud.

Please visit the Scary Spuds Wiki for more information, including the lesson plans created for the project.

Today I Googled “free preschool software” to see what I could find for my 3 year old. I was specifically looking for software so that she can play without being online. I came across an Educational Freeware website, which led me to Sebran’s ABC and Minisebran. I downloaded them and soon we were both playing! I plan on downloading Sebran’s ABC in the lab, and hopefully I can get Minisebran installed in the PreK classrooms.

Here are the descriptions and screenshots. Visit the website for more.

Sebran’s ABC: Sebran’s ABC is a freeware collection of 12 different activities for kids 4-9 years old. It includes counting games, a Hangman game, Memory games, typing games and much more. Sebran’s ABC is multilingual and runs in 28 different languages, including French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Greek and many more.

MiniSebran: Minisebran contains alphabet exercises, number exercises and doodle activities. It is perfect for toddlers and kids up to 5 years old who are learning the basics of using a computer, keyboard and mouse.