Wonderopolis!

IMA students share a Monday ritual called, "Expedition Monday."  As we launch each busy week, the IMA kids take time during Reading Workshop to explore new nonfiction resources.  If you visit our room on a Monday, you might find us sharing new or undiscovered books and magazines.  We might be exploring a new website or digital resource. The weekly ritual introduces or reminds children of the many nonfiction resources that we have waiting to be shared and explored at school and home. 

Due to the 2 hour snow delay, Expedition Monday will carry over to Tuesday this week.  The kids will be exploring a great new website called "Wonderopolis."  This dynamic website was created by Verizon and Thinkfinity.  Explore this site with your child and enjoy its many resources.  New wonder questions and answers are posted each day. 

You can visit Wonderopolis at this link:  http://wonderopolis.org/

You can watch an informational video at this link:  http://wonderopolis.org/about/

Enjoy the learning adventures!

Reindeer? Caribou?

Have you been thinking about reindeer lately?  Here is a link to a great article at ENature, a science and nature website that provides short nonfiction articles that children and their families find interesting and useful.  You can find out more about those magical mammals at:  ENature Update: Reindeer

Enjoy the article and let me know if you explore this great free resource!

Home Learning Resource

Many parents have asked about extended learning opportunities and resources to use for home learning.  Recently, we were introduced to, Beestar.org, a home learning program established by the public school district serving Sugarland, Texas.  The website offers many free resources for different grade levels and inexpensive resources too. 

Thanks to Jason Guo and his mom for sharing this link!  

If you try the Beestar resources, let us know what you think.

Sharing Resources

 The IMA kids are learning about a new way to share Internet resources.  As we find useful websites, we are collecting bookmarks through a site called Delicious.  Here is our class link:

http://delicious.com/smithima137

The kids can sort through our bookmarked sites by using the tags or labels on the right sidebar.  This resource will continue to grow as we use the web for many different projects.  The good news:  the collection of bookmarks through Delicious is accessible from any computer.  As long as you have the address (http://delicious.com/smithima137) you can see our collection.

As you explore the many resources on the web, please email any addresses that we should consider adding to our IMA collection.  Happy Exploring!