It is that time of year when the 3rd graders have completed their Digital Citizenship project training, assessment, and activities and are ready to move on to something else.  I emailed the third grade teachers before the Spring break and asked for their input.  From the responses, it appears 3rd graders need additional support in understanding area and perimeter. While scouring the web for ideas, I came across this tweet from Terri Eichholz.

 

The Pinterest link went to a TEDx talk by Brian Aspinall, a teacher in Ontario.  In his talk, he mentions several web based applications he and his students have developed. One of those is Clipkwik.  Clipkwik is a web based application that is a google custom search engine.  It will search twelve kid friendly websites for videos related to the topic you are searching.  By searching for area and perimeter, I was able to find this video that may help the 3rd graders get a better grasp of the meaning of area and perimeter and how to calculate them.

Students will also be introduced to Prodigy. Prodigy is a fairly new web based gaming platform for elementary students. The game is geared to the specific math needs of each individual student. Teachers can create classrooms on the site to enroll students. Once student names are entered, Prodigy will send an email with unique usernames and passwords for students to log in.  Prodigy will also send parent letters that contain the student log in information so students can access the website at home. I was first introduced to Prodigy by looking through episodes of Dragon’s Den on Youtube to find student entrepreneur examples to use with the 4th graders. On the episode that originally aired in 2012, the founders of Prodigy pitched their idea to the Dragons, but were not successful in getting funded.  Weeks later I came across Prodigy being mentioned through one of the blogs I follow.  After initially registering for the site, I wondered if this was the same website that I had come across while watching Dragon’s Den. A simple Google search confirmed my thoughts. The creators of this product were college students at the time they built the website.