April 2021 Musts

This is a collection of high quality resources that can be used throughout the month of April and beyond.

20 affiliated resources

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23 Great Lesson Plans for Internet Safety

23 Great Lesson Plans for Internet Safety

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Help kids practice smart internet habits and stay safe online.

Educators' approach to internet safety in the classroom has changed as technology and our use of it continues to evolve. In the past, digital citizenship lessons on internet safety focused more on dos and don'ts, like do create safe passwords and don't talk to strangers online. While secure passwords are certainly important for technology users of all ages, and stranger danger is nothing to take lightly, most internet safety dilemmas are much more nuanced.

The best internet safety lessons recognize the complexity of these topics and help students build the critical-thinking skills and habits of mind to navigate the dilemmas they encounter. Included are the best internet safety lesson plans for students in grades K–12.

Subject:: Education; Educational Technology
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Lesson
Author:: Common Sense Education
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

Active April - Happiness Calendar

Active April - Happiness Calendar

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"This month we're encouraging you to get active, get outdoors and take care of your body! Let's reap the benefits of getting our bodies moving and breathing more deeply as a result of exercising, laughing and even singing! We don't all need to run marathons - there are simple things we can all do to take care of our bodies - for example unplugging from technology, getting outside and - importantly - making sure we get enough sleep!"

Subject:: Health Education
Material Type:: Primary Source
Author:: Action for Happiness
Date Added:: 03/29/2021

Bookopolis

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Bookopolis is a social network for kids that lets them log books and connect with other readers gr 1-8+. By creating an account, students create a virtual bookshelf and join a community of young readers who can discover new books, share book reviews and track their reading with a digital reading log. The site offers book recommendations ("Bookopolis Picks" and "What's Popular Right Now"), the opportunity to explore book reviews by other young readers, a featured book of the week, the opportunity to earn points and badges, plus the option to find books by grade (1-3, 3-6, 6-8, 8-12). You can sign in as an educator, a student or a parent. Choose the online version or download the app from your app store.

Subject:: English Language Arts
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Reading
Author:: Bookopolis
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

Build Literacy with Creative Technology in the Elementary Grades

Build Literacy with Creative Technology in the Elementary Grades

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The Building Literacy with Technology in Elementary guide provides articles, samples, and lessons to find new ideas and approaches to engage learners in building skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

In the Building Literacy with Technology in Elementary guide you will explore:
- Ways to get students making in language arts,
- Take a creative approach to student work with informational text,
- How to motivate students by creating their own comics, cartoons, and graphic novels.

The guide includes lesson plans where students:
- Design a new cover for a book they are reading to demonstrate comprehension and explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict.
- Create a digital scrapbook that showcases the viewpoint of the main character of a novel.
- Illustrate and translate the meaning of an idiom to help others learn these examples of figurative language.
- Write and produce an animated tall tale about a famous person.
- Explore character, plot, and theme and learn to write persuasively as they develop a movie-style trailer for a book they have read.
- Learn and practice persuasive writing and presentation skills.
- Personify an object and write a story as part of an online book or animated adventure.
- Analyze verse and explore meaning by creating a visual poem.

These articles, lessons, and strategies engage students through creative technology to maximize student literacy skills.

Subject:: Education; Educational Technology; English Language Arts
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Module; Primary Source; Reading
Author:: Tech4Learning
Date Added:: 03/01/2021

Build Literacy with Creative Technology in the Primary Grades

Build Literacy with Creative Technology in the Primary Grades

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The Building Literacy with Technology in Primary guide provides articles, samples, and lessons to find new ideas and approaches to engage your students in building skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

In the Building Literacy with Technology in Primary guide you will explore:
- Engaging new readers and writers with creative technologies
- Using digital storytelling in the primary classroom
- Inspiring every student to be an author

The guide includes lesson plans where students:
- Explore initial sounds through the creation of a classroom ABC book.
- Learn to write using alliteration and create illustrations that support and reflect their writing.
- Practice writing and illustrating as they create a page in your class’s adaptation of their favorite pattern story.
- Write a letter to their parents, or classroom teacher, to persuade them to get a new pet, supporting their opinion with reasons and examples.
- Research an animal and create a riddle to showcase their knowledge and engage other students in the natural world.
- Create a book review on a card or 3D cube to help others choose books they will enjoy.
- Learn about the haiku poetry form and write and illustrate their own haiku poems.
- Write how-to stories about getting ready for school and publish them to share with their families and to use at home.

These articles, lessons, and strategies engage students through creative technology to maximize student literacy skills.

Subject:: Education; Educational Technology; English Language Arts
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Module; Primary Source; Reading
Author:: Tech4Learning
Date Added:: 03/01/2021

Building Literacy in Secondary Students

Building Literacy in Secondary Students

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A combination of focused activities and creative, open-ended technology projects can help you take a new approach to building literacy with your secondary students. Use these articles, samples, and lessons to find new ideas and approaches that will work for your learners.

The Building Literacy in Secondary guide includes:
- Articles
- Reading, Literacy, and Digital Creativity
- SPLAT...POW...WOW! Motivating Readers and Writers
- More Than Just a Writing Prompt
- Supporting 6+1 Trait Writing

Lesson Plans
- Create a Video Poem
- Design a Book Cover
- Character Scrapbook
- Not Your Average Portfolio
- MyBook (Fakebook) Page
- Digital Book Trailers

These articles, lessons, and strategies engage students through creative technology to maximize student literacy skills.

Subject:: Education; Educational Technology; English Language Arts
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Module; Primary Source; Reading; Teaching/Learning Strategy
Author:: Tech4Learning
Date Added:: 03/01/2021

Canadian Geographic Education

Canadian Geographic Education

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Canadian Geographic Education provides learning resources to help improve students’ understanding of the world they live in. Geographically literate students are better prepared to face global challenges and have the skills necessary to become effective change agents. Use these resources to inspire curiosity and exploration in your classroom!

Lesson plans
Videos
Maps
Infographics
Activities

Subject:: Indigenous Perspectives; Science; Social Studies; Geography
Material Type:: Activity/Lab
Author:: Canadian Geogrpahic
Date Added:: 04/09/2020

City Guesser - Can you guess what city you're in?

City Guesser - Can you guess what city you're in?

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Is everyone ready for a (virtual) vacation?!

City Guesser is a geography based browser game that strives to provide an exceptional travel and guessing experience.

If you love GeoGuessr - you'll love this!

Choose the world, a continent or even Canada to explore!

Subject:: Choral; Social Studies; Geography
Material Type:: Game; Simulation; Teaching/Learning Strategy
Author:: Paul McBurney Jr
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

The Creative Classroom: Thom Gibson on How Student Jobs Can Empower a Classroom Community

The Creative Classroom: Thom Gibson on How Student Jobs Can Empower a Classroom Community

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Thom Gibson shares his ideas on how to design student jobs for your classroom community.
This fits into Distribution of Leadership in our REORDER framework and fosters developing 21st century competencies or skills.

Subject:: Education
Material Type:: Teaching/Learning Strategy
Author:: John Spencer; Thom Gibson
Date Added:: 03/01/2021

Emotional Intelligence Apps and Games

Emotional Intelligence Apps and Games

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TOP PICKS | 30 TOOLS
Emotional Intelligence Apps and Games
It can be tough for students of any age to understand what they're feeling and to channel those feelings in ways that help them be better people and better learners. The key for these kids is emotional intelligence: knowing what emotions are, how they work, and how to use them and manage them for social interaction and learning. Students also need the capacity to recognize other people's emotions, to discriminate among the different feelings, and to label them appropriately. This collection of top-notch apps and games will help students with everything from anger management to emotion identification to meditation.

Subject:: Education; Health Education
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Game
Author:: Common Sense Education
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

For Teachers – Mathigon

For Teachers – Mathigon

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Use the tabs along the top to navigate from Overview to Video Tutorials to Lessons.

*polypad now has Canadian money.

Subject:: Math
Material Type:: Primary Source
Author:: Mathigon
Date Added:: 03/31/2021

Interactive Family Activities Checklist

Interactive Family Activities Checklist

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What Is It?
This checklist from Respectful Ways contains 14 activities for families to foster creativity, prompt discussion, expand children's imaginations, and cultivate social-emotional growth. Respectful Ways created these fun, interactive activities to guide family members through the process of recognizing and navigating negative feelings, understanding the origins of emotions, and help everyone cope with stress.

Subject:: Education; Health Education
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Teaching/Learning Strategy
Author:: Respectful Ways
Date Added:: 02/03/2021

Lifehacker: Do everything better

Lifehacker: Do everything better

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Lifehacker is an online resource offering advice on money, health, travel, cooking, entertainment, and anything else related to the modern world. Lifehacker's advice runs the gamut from home repairs to productivity to how DNA tests can affect your exercise routine. It's also a great place to catch up on the latest films, music, and TV shows.

Whatever your fancy, students are sure to find something enlightening, trendy, or off the beaten path.

Subject:: Education
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Reading
Author:: Lifehacker
Date Added:: 03/01/2021

Living Planet @ School - WWF

Living Planet @ School - WWF

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A national program that works with educators to cultivate environmental action and stewardship among students. Living Planet @ School calls teachers and students into action to help nature thrive with hands-on activities in the school community.
Make discoveries about many different animals, various habitats, topics regarding climate, tech challenges and more.
For both primary and secondary school students.

Subject:: Science; Environmental Science
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Unit of Study
Author:: World Wildlife Federation; WWF
Date Added:: 02/08/2021

Mathigon – Textbook of the Future

Mathigon – Textbook of the Future

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This award winning math site is searchable by grade level (6-8, 9-10, 11-12), course content and activities. It encourages:
Active Learning
- The unique content format makes learning more interactive than ever before. Students can explore, discover and actively engage in problem solving and creativity.
Personalization
- The content can seamlessly adapt to different students, allowing everyone to achieve mastery. A virtual personal tutor gives real-time hints and encouragement.
Storytelling
- Every course has a captivating narrative and is full of colourful illustrations. Discover all the real-life applications of mathematics, and why it is incredibly beautiful.

Just a few topics include:
- Virtual manipulatives (including Canadian money)
- multiplication flash cards
- Fractals
- timeline of mathematics
- graph theory
- Pascal's triangle
- Factris
- Fibonacci
- circles and pi
- origami
- Platonic Solids
- Symmetry
- Probability
- Cylinders

Subject:: Math
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Simulation
Author:: Mathigon
Date Added:: 03/01/2021

My Jelly Brain complete book with link to educator resources.pdf

My Jelly Brain complete book with link to educator resources.pdf

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"This is a story of Mark and his Brain. At the age of 10, Mark sustained a brain injury which left him with some significant physical impairments. In this story we see how Mark and his Brain recover and overcome these injuries. We learn how to keep our brains safe, and we learn the importance of
including and accepting others.

My Jelly Brain is suitable for children aged 3 to 8 years. It is a read-aloud for the younger children however the older children could read this independently. My Jelly Brain is a teaching tool used to meet many of the Department of Education curriculum teaching outcomes (here in Nova Scotia) in multiple subjects up to and including grade 3. Although I expect that the educational curriculum may vary slightly from province to province, in Nova Scotia the book aligns with...many subjects and outcomes."

You will need to download the book to read it.

TEACHER RESOURCES - copy and paste this url into your web browser - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16gU5-_ZDR79y44y7rC2os546fDmpQhWX

Subject:: English Language Arts; Science
Material Type:: Primary Source
Author:: Betty-Ann Buott; Mark Selvidge
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

ReadTheory - Free Reading Comprehension Practice for Students and Teachers

ReadTheory - Free Reading Comprehension Practice for Students and Teachers

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Improve your students’ Reading Comprehension. It’s free.

Sign up for ReadTheory and get personalized reading comprehension exercises for K-12 and ESL students.

The program offers reading comprehension worksheets & tests that are free, printable and accessible online - Grades 1-12

Also offered is a whole section on remote teaching.

Teachers from all around the world are using ReadTheory to help their students improve their reading comprehension skills in a fun way that keeps them attentive and motivated.

Subject:: English Language Arts
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Assessment; Homework/Assignment
Author:: ReadTheory
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

ReadWorks

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ReadWorks assists teachers in differentiating reading instruction with high-quality texts and lessons K-12.

Sign up for free and use ReadWorks in 3 Ways:
- Digital Classes - Students can highlight, annotate, and complete assignments online. Teachers can access progress reports & automatic grading.
- Print - Easily print any of our content and curriculum to share with your students.
- Projector - Project or use your smartboard for classroom instruction.

Find passages for the topics you’re teaching (STEM, Poetry, Social Studies, Literary Fiction, Arts, Holidays & Events)

Subject:: English Language Arts
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment; Reading
Author:: ReadWorks
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

Rewordify - Understand what you read

Rewordify - Understand what you read

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Rewordify.com helps with reading comprehension and vocabulary development by simplifying English to a lower reading level. It lets you reword a sentence or reword a paragraph. It will simplify English by reducing text complexity. It's a dictionary alternative that will improve comprehension and teach vocabulary. It's an important part of reading instruction and vocabulary instruction for ESL students, people with reading disabilities, people with a learning disability, or anyone who wants to improve reading skill.

Rewordify.com simplifies difficult English. Enter hard sentences (or whole chapters) into the yellow box at the top of the page. (You can also enter a web site URL.) Click Rewordify text and you'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding. The reworded words are highlighted— click them to hear and learn the original harder word. You can change how the highlighting works to match the way you learn!

Rewordify.com can display simplified versions of web pages. Our state-of-the-art web filtering technology blocks millions of inappropriate sites and questionable language, to protect kids online and keep them reading only what they should be reading.

Subject:: Language Education (ESL); English Language Arts
Material Type:: Activity/Lab; Homework/Assignment
Author:: Rewordify
Date Added:: 03/23/2021

UNICEF Kid Power - Get Active. Save Lives.

UNICEF Kid Power - Get Active. Save Lives.

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For every 10 activities that your class participates in, a high-density nutrition pack is sent out to a child in need. Such rich connections to Social Studies, Mental Wellness, and Physical Activity! And the teacher account is free and compatible with Clever as well.

How It Works:
1. Sign Up & Play Videos
Teachers, groups/clubs and parents sign up. Then, all kids have to do is watch (and interact with) our Kid Power Up videos in class or at home.
2. Unlock Global Impact
For every 10 videos you play, you unlock 1 Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) packet. We deliver this life-saving, vitamin-rich food to severely malnourished children around the world.
3. Earn Local Impact
YOU decide which local causes your coins benefit!

As you play videos, you also earn virtual coins to allocate in our Kid Power Exchange®. Choose to support food banks or deliver PPE masks (both essential to COVID-19 relief), or plant trees for your local community!

Subject:: Education; Health Education; Physical Education; Social Studies
Material Type:: Activity/Lab
Author:: Unicef; UNICEF Kid Power
Date Added:: 03/23/2021