Monday, February 28, 2011
"The Magic School Bus" review
"The Magic School Bus", is a wonderful web based tool to use in teaching children. The ages it can teach would be from 3 years to 10 years old. Considering the cognitive level of the child, it may be a little younger to a little older than these ages. This tool contains themes such as: Animals, Archeology, Dinosaurs, Earth Science, Environment, Five Senses, Forces & Motion, Insects, Kitchen Science, Life Science, Machines & Building, Physical Science, Plants & Ecology, Power & Energy, Space, The Human Body, Water & Ocean, and Weather. I found a real neat fingerprint activity in this tool to use in my "Body Parts" unit. The interaction in this, could easily be used with a typical child or special needs student. I believe it would help in encouraging Autistic children to interact more. For children who learn through sight, auditory, and kinesthetics it is an especially good learning tool. The only disadvantage I could see in this tool is that all of the children will want a chance every day to use it, and with a normal sized classroom this wouldn't be possible. The teacher will have to set up time limits and chances for all who want to use it. The "Magic School Bus" is a fun, exciting, and entertaining learning tool.
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Toni:
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about using the technology tools with a projector or SMARTboard? Then you could have a whole group introduction to the concept and then incorporate the computer into a literacy center. When you plan, you would need to think about how long it would take for the students to go through different activities. Then build in time rotations. All students might not get to all centers every day, but what about throughout the week? Or you could have them work in pairs so more people could access the sites. Remember, early childhood level students are social learners. They enjoy working together and learn from each other.