Caroline LaMagna’s Blog

Here are some free resources for Pre-K through 1st Grade:

Create Your Own Tracer Pages - Create custom tracer pages to print out - letters and/or whole words

Word Search Generator- from Discovery Education’s Puzzlemaker. Create and print out your own, customizable word search

Vocabulary Bingo Card Generator - download the excel worksheet, enter 25 vocabulary words and definitions, and click “Print Bingo Cards” - generates 25 different Bingo cards and a call sheet. This can be used for sight words as well. Instructions included. (Enable Macros to generate the Bingo Cards)

Computer Labs Favorites- Online Learning Activities from Scholastic. Each activity requires no prep and can be completed in 15-30 minutes

Orson’s Farm - phonemic awareness - games include: Continue reading »

(If you just want the template…scroll to the bottom of the post!) 

If I had a nickel for each time over the past couple of years a student asked me, “Do you have a facebook?” or “Do you have a MySpace?” I could retire. Okay, so maybe I couldn’t actually retire, but I could afford that really cute pair of Jimmy Choos I saw last week.

What does that have to do with putting a new twist on an old assignment? Well, what if, say, Edgar Allan Poe had a facebook account? What would it look like? Who would be on his friends list - or on his blocked list? What would he say to his friends - and what would they say back to him? Of which groups would he be a member? What would he say in notes he might post about his life? What events would he list on his site? How about a facebook account belonging to Emily Dickenson? Or Charles Dickens? Then there are the literary characters - like Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Or, how about Ebeneezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol? Or Pony Boy from The Outsiders?  Or Celie from The Color Purple? Or Jacob Black from Twilight? The possibilities are endless - and why limit them to literature? The site could be for a historical figure, a famous scientist, or even a character in a story students are writing to satisfy a creative writing assignment. And let’s not forget foreign language classes - how about a site done in French, Latin, or Spanish!

Well, I don’t know about you, but we can’t access facebook from school - not that I am saying we should be able to - but what if my students could create a faux facebook website for an author or a literary character? All of the computers at school have MS Publisher and projects can be viewed without being published online. Hmm…completing a faux facebook site could serve as a non-traditional research assignment. And it would allow for much more creativity than a research paper.

Okay, okay…I am getting to the point! Here it is - I have created a sample “fictionbook” website in MS Publisher 2007 that students can use as a template. 

Well, I think I have done enough rambling…click below for the template. Have fun!

Fictionbook Template

Filamentality is a free fill-in-the-blank web activity building tool. You can create the activities and place a link to them on your blog.

• Filamentality - Create your own web-based activity and publish it immediately - for free! Sponsored by AT & T.
• Filamentality - Formats - An overveiw of

Continue reading »

The Young Adult Library Association (YALSA) - a division of the American Library Association (ALA) - is sponsoring Teen Tech Week. Events will be held March 7 - 13, 2010.

Teen Tech Week is a national initiative aimed at teens, media specialists, teachers, parents, and other interested adults meant to encourage teens to explore the many types of technology available at school and public libraries. Past events/projects have included: Continue reading »

Reading classic literature this holiday season? Me, too! Speaking of classic literature (nice segue, no?) - here’s a handy, dandy unit on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:

A Christmas Carol

What you’ll find on this website: Continue reading »

Moodle - with apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I use thee? Let me count the ways.

1. I use thee to the breadth and depth and height of Professional Development
   • Online courses for CEUs and/or other incentives
   • Book Studies – Online forum style
   • Wikis or Forums on Technology Integration Ideas (among other things)
2. I use thee to the level of everyday’s Educator Virtual Library needs
   • District-wide Resource Drop Box – upload, store and share resources

Continue reading »

Click below for a Hotlist of resources for Tech Tools you can use in your Middle or High School English classroom to support the Virginia standards of learning. Links for a cross-curricular project (with history) using many of these tools are included at the bottom of the page, including activities for analyzing primary source materials, examples for conducting interviews, writing newspaper articles, writing scripts, oral presentations (dramas and news broadcasts) - and, of course, all of the resources could be used as part of a multimedia project.

Middle and High School English Tech Tools

Click here for a Hotlist of Tech Tools you can use in your 3rd - 5th grade classroom to support social studies standards of learning. Many of these resources can be used in other areas as well.

Click here for a Hotlist of resources for tech tools you can use in your classroom to support social studies standards of learning. Many of these resources can be used in other areas as well.

Here are some Thanksgiving themed writing activities for K-5 students:

Kindergarten - this is a Word document tracer page. Students will trace the word “Thanksgiving” on the first line and then the second line just has the “Th” - they would have to try to write the rest of the word imitating the line above it. There are pictures at the bottom for them to color.

First Grade - this, too, is a tracer page. Students will trace “On Thanksgiving, my family” and then they will complete the sentence on their own. There is a blank space at the bottom for them to draw a picture.

2nd Grade - this one is a Power Point. It includes a writing assignment - a paragraph about their favorite Thanksgiving memory. Examples and a mini-lesson are included.

3rd Grade - this one is also a Power Point. It includes a writing assignment - an essay about their favorite Thanksgiving memory. Examples and a mini-lesson are included.

4th and 5th Grades - this is another Power Point. It has examples and a mini lesson for writing an essay about their favorite Thanksgiving memory.