Joanne+Limoni's+page

I received my SMART board about 2 months ago and have been experimenting with different types of programs and features of the board along with creating a math folder with various activities in notebook for our Investigations unit in math. Here are some of the activities I have used:

Investigations 3rd grade: Unit 5 Session 2.1 Hightlighting Multiples on 100 Chart

Math focus for students is: finding the multiples of the numbers 2,3,4,5,10 by skip counting describing and comparing characteristics of the multiples of a number understanding the relationship among skip counting, repeated addition, and multiplication

The lesson has the students using a hundreds chart and manually highlighting the factors of a particular product in multiplication. With the use of the SMART board, the students were able to do this in a different and interesting way. They went to the gallery tab which gives a variety of lessons and interactive activities. They were able to look under mathematics and search for interactive hundreds chart under interactive whiteboard lessons and multimedia. I was able to use it to show the students how to highlight the factors in a different way and allow them to sort through which were the correct factors and incorrect factors. The students looked upon it as a game and it was an interesting way to teach the lesson. They loved it and it saved me having to run off tons of worksheets!

2. Spelling Units (homophone pairs)

Each week, our class is introduced to a different spelling pattern. We do a variety of activities with the spelling words that the students are working on. I have used the Ink Aware tool to create a list of homophone pairs and then the students need to match them with the correct pairs. I open a document in word and then type the list randomly. The students use the pen tool to write the correct pairing and then see if their anwers are correct. I then save the homophone activity in notebook in order for my students to use it as a center activity during reading class. They also go to the gallery and open up English/language arts (interactive media) and click on refrigerator magnets and this is used as a center when they want to practice making their spelling words.

3. Rocks/minerals As a district building leader, I am responsible to bring ideas to our 3rd grade team and have the teachers share their ideas in science and social studies. One of our upcoming units is rocks/minerals as part of the Einstein unit. The students have the opportunity to use hands on activities with the rocks/minerals in their kits but there is not alot of information available other than the rocks themselves as part of the unit. We suppliment this with ideas from the internet. I had searched the gallery under geology and science, but was not able to find much. It does have a neat rock cycle activity under interactive media. What we have also shared is simply using the internet via the SMART board. One great site is [|www.rocksforkids.com] which allows the students to find different types of rocks and pictures if they are doing a report. It has a site where the kids can hunt for rocks in a cave, creat a rock cycle or just learn some interesting facts about rocks. we hope to add to our favorites list so that when we meet again, we can get a variety of ideas.

Overall the SMART board is a wonderful tool which has allowed the students a greater opportunity to explore all the resources that are available to them. I am fortunate to have one in my classroom so it will allow me to explore which programs I will be able to offer to my class. I am excited to learn more!