Specific Ideas for Using Webkinz Pets for Learning - Turning Toys into Tools: Teaching with Technology

You've contemplated how excited children are about these Webkinz pets. You've pondered how that could impact your classroom. Yet, you still aren't sure how to go about using this toy in school.

In the following paragraphs I am going to give you specific ideas for using this toy for learning purposes.

First, the world of Webkinz has an extensive economy based on Kinzcash. You must earn cash to support your pets. So, just maintaining a log of Kinzcash earned and spent is a learning tool for children. Earning Kinzcash happens by engaging in the games and visiting the employment office.

There are two main types of games in the arcade section. One type is just arcade type games, and the others have educational value. Some with educational value include "Quizzy's Word Challenge," "Booger Gets an A" (addition math facts), "Home Before Dark" (visual geometry skills), "Get Eleven Solitaire" and many more. With recording sheets students could keep track of their progress.

Food is an important aspect of caring for your pets. Within the land of Webkinz you can even grow your own food in your garden. You must tend your plants, water them, weed them, and then harvest. If you don't take good care of them you'll have to dig up the garden and start again. Monitoring plants is another way that the world of Webkinz is educational.

Needs and wants are inevitable in caring for your pets. There are so many neat items that you can purchase for your pets but you will have to determine the need and if you can afford the item. By setting goals and saving, you can earn enough Kinzcash to purchase the special items. Children can practice this with their Webkinz pet, and then hopefully apply this to their own lives.

Another educational tie for using Webkinz pets in the classroom revolves around the study of animals. There are all types of animal pets now, including herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. What a fun way to sort and study animals!

If we look for a moment beyond the virtual world of Webkinz we can tie these pets into writing instruction with activities such as "Make me Love Your Pet...write a descriptive paragraph about your favorite webkinz pet" or "Webkinz Theater...write and perform a play with your pets" or nonfiction animal reports.

Many of these activities are perfect during Literacy Work Station time when students are engaged in an array of various activities. I would encourage you to have each student keep a folder just for Webkinz activities.

Most children have their own Webkinz pets and would be able to participate in these activities on their own logins and accounts. For those children that don't, a class pet or two would allow all students to participate and enjoy the experience.

Whereas most people would think that the Webkinz pets and activities are geared for younger children, that isn't the case. Due to the large number of adults who are addicted to playing Webkinz, I believe that there are activities that people of all ages can benefit and learn from inside the land of Webkinz!

Kathy Cothran is an elementary media specialist committed to helping teachers turn toys into learning tools. Her vast teaching experience ranges from preschool through Master's level education classes.

Download the free "Webkinz Activity Sampler" at http://turningtoysintotools.com

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!

It's finally here! The moment so many of you have been waiting for!

Curious yet as to what has arrived??

Have you ever stood in front of your class presenting an action-filled lesson only to feel like your students were more interested in their toys and life outside of school?

How will it change your enthusiasm for teaching if your students are eagerly awaiting the start of every school day?

Well, I'm very excited to announce that "Hands-On Learning with Webkinz" is now available in ebook format! This is over 85 pages of activities ready for you to use tomorrow, whether you are teaching or running a Girl Scout function, or having a birthday party with the Webkinz theme!

Download at: http://turningtoysintotools.com
Use the coupon code 48HOURS to receive your 20% discount!

After the first book "Using Webkinz in the Classroom" was released, I had so many questions about more activities using the Webkinz pets if you had a group of kids with you, or a theme day at school, or a birthday party! Then, another teacher emailed me and told me she was teaching summer school with the Webkinz theme, which led to the collaboration for this book. You'll notice that this newest book is co-authored by Caroline Laurin-Young.

In honor of the launch of this newest book, this new ebook and the original, "Using Webkinz in the Classroom" ebooks will be available at a 20% discount for just the next 48 hours. Use the coupon code 48HOURS to receive your discount! After that they will return to regular price!

Download at: http://turningtoysintotools.com

Visit the website and download your copy today. For those of you who would prefer the paperback version, it will be available in the next couple of weeks on Amazon.


Download at: http://turningtoysintotools.com
Also available at: http://teachingwithwebkinz.com


Kathy Cothran
"The Original Gadget Girl"
http://theoriginalgadgetgirl.com

Vocabulary Building and World Hunger?

Are you wondering about the connection between vocabulary building and world hunger? Interestingly enough, I came across this great resource! Whether you are a teacher, retired, business person, construction worker, or stay-at-home mom, working with words is a great way to keep your brain active and engaged.

I love it when I find a site where I can have fun, learn and also do something good for the world, and that's just what I found at www.freerice.com. With freerice.com you play a game to improve your vocabulary. For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to hungry people through the UN World Food Program! If you're online playing games anyway, you might as well play this one. You'll learn some new words, and help feed some people in need at the same time!

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com. To learn more about the world hunger problem, and the solutions they have in place to help, visit their site.

FreeRice.com

If you happen to be a teacher reading this, you might consider having students keep track of how many grains of rice they can earn. Then, in the FAQ section of the site, it tells you how much rice (in grams) it takes to feed one person, and how many grains of rice are in a gram. So, while learning vocabulary (and they aren't easy words...sorry lower el teachers..) your students could keep track and graph how many people in the world they are helping.

So, try it out! See how many pieces of rice you can earn. I played until I earned 1,000 pieces of rice. And, I thought that I had a pretty healthy vocabulary, yet, I found I have plenty of room for improvement!
Kathy Cothran
"The Original Gadget Girl"
http://theoriginalgadgetgirl.com

Webkinz in the Classroom: Turning Toys into Tools/Teaching with Technology

Have you ever stood in front of your class presenting an action-filled lesson only to feel like your students were more interested in their toys and life outside of school?

So often the aspects of life that excite children the most are banned or excluded from the school curriculum. What would happen to our classrooms and the engagement levels of our students if we turn toys into learning tools? When I look inside the bags my daughters carry around with them everywhere I see their digital camera, Nintendo DS, phone, Webkinz pets, and an iPod. This made me ponder this idea: what if I could harness the enthusiasm kids have for their toys and turn them into learning tools?

As I was listening to my daughters play online one day I realized that the games they were playing weren’t all arcade games but many are educational! Imagine that! Kids are raving about something that is actually educational too! I knew I needed to find out more.

If you aren’t familiar with Webkinz pets, they are stuffed animals that come with an access code attached. You visit the Webkinz webpage and adopt your pet which gives you a virtual, animated pet identical to your stuffed animal. You must care for the health, hunger, and happiness of your pets. Within the world of Webkinz there is an extensive economy built around KinzCash. With the Kinzcash you earn from playing games you can purchase all kinds of items along with the food that your pet requires. If you aren’t familiar with the world of Webkinz, ask any eight to ten-year-old child to give you a guided tour. Children are experts and usually very excited to teach something to an adult.

So I started asking kids what they would think about participating in some Webkinz-based activities during school. The faces of children were lighting up around me (which is every educator’s desire, right?) and this clearly showed me that students would be excited to learn through these activities.

I began to create activities based on the world of Webkinz. Many of the activities could be utilized during literacy work stations. Whether children are building words in Quizzy’s Word World, answering questions in Quizzy’s Questions, creating a play with their pets, practicing math facts and typing, graphing their pet’s hunger, growing plants in their gardens, mapping their house, or keeping track of their kinzcash, they would be learning!

Adopting classroom pets is an excellent way to begin using Webkinz pets in your classroom. In many cases, you will find that almost every child in your class probably has at least one Webkinz pet of their own. I have surveyed class after class of children and it is not easy to find a child that doesn’t have at least one pet until you reach some sixth grade boys. Even then, the activities are good for that age group and beyond, so you may need a couple pets with unique logins for those students to use. I’ve even heard of high-school classes using Quizzy’s Questions and Quizzy’s Word World.

Amazingly, there are many adults who find themselves addicted to the world of Webkinz. So, if this is possible, there must be activities to engage students of all ages. I have played many of the games and can’t even come close to the high scores, indicating to me that there are more than just children playing! I wonder if these adults have the stuffed animal sitting on their lap while they play like my daughters often do!

How will it change your enthusiasm for teaching if your students are eagerly awaiting the start of every school day?

Visit http://teachingwithwebkinz.com for more information and to sign up for email tips on using technology with your students.

Reflection of the 4th of July

I hope the 4th of July brought you time to refresh and revive yourself and your family. Relaxation is supposed to be just that, relaxing. So often we get tied up in activities that actually bring us more stress during a time when we are supposed to give our bodies and brains a chance to relax. Think about that for a moment. When is the last time that you really, really, let your mind have time to relax? A time to ponder? To wonder? To think beyond today to the past, and to the future? From where we've come to where we'll go?

Below you will find a message in reflection of the 4th of July from a lady I highly respect, Susan Kovalik. She's always looked at education just a bit differently than the masses, and in a way that I prefer. So, if you didn't take a moment to ponder or contemplate, or wonder this past weekend, read what she has to say and give yourself that gift, if only for a few moments.
Kathy

From Susan:
As I observed the various venues where large numbers of people gathered to celebrate the 4th of July I was struck by the diversity of people: young, old, past military personnel, varied nationalities, current Olympic contenders, people in wheelchairs and children riding on the shoulders of the parents.

We have so much to celebrate in relation to the world-at-large. A nation only 232 years old that is vibrant, that believes that all children deserve an education, that is a beacon of opportunity for all those who come to this country for a better life for themselves and their families.
We are unique in the world.

On this weekend I revisit some of my many books on citizenship and patriotism and try to recapture the struggle and hardship taken on by so many who came before us and once again realize that we must never stop looking for ways to make sure our students understand their responsibility for the future.

Abraham Lincoln once said, " The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

What is our philosophy as a nation committed to this incredible goal of education for all?

Will all our students have an opportunity to extend their classroom studies into the community in form of social action? Will they all know "where in the world" the countries are that influential in what happens in America? Can they identify acts of leadership, citizenship and stewardship at home and abroad?
Are they studying science at a deep enough level to understand the issues surrounding global warming? Can they ask deep questions and understand deep answers? Does their A+ represent a veneer of understanding or an integrated look at the content they are studying?

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
Thomas Jefferson

In the classrooms of America we hold the responsibility of a free and knowledgeable society. I have always believed that the last week of school should center on freedom, patriotism, citizenship, liberty, something to ponder as all of the celebrations marking these critically important ideas comes after school is out.

Have a restful summer and remember how young our country is and what amazing things we have accomplished.

Sincerely, Susan Kovalik

Print on Demand *I've Got the Book Written! What Do I Do Next?

Are you one of the people who have written a book but don’t have any idea what to do next? Have you sent your manuscript out to publishing houses and received those rejection letters in return?

There is a solution, and not one that will cost you tons of money. Actually, publishing your book into paperback format and offering it for sale on Amazon as print on demand could cost you less than a week’s worth of coffee at Starbucks!

I had written a book for teachers and children based on a current trend and an agent told me that even if the book were accepted, it wouldn’t become available until 2009. Now why would I want to wait that long for a trendy-topic book?

As I lamented this fact, my friend, Daniel Hall, introduced me to a process called “Print on Demand” through a company, CreateSpace, where I could upload my finished inside book pages (in pdf format), upload a cover design, and after approving a proof copy, begin to sell my book personally and on Anazon! I’m sure there are other companies that do the same thing, but I just happen to use CreateSpace (and no, they aren’t paying me to say that!)

Are you thinking to yourself, “That sounds too easy, and my mom taught me that anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is?”

I am here to tell you that the print on demand process is easy. The hardest part is writing your book. You may need a little technical help formatting your book if you are scared of your computer. You can find a high-school student who can do that for you! After you put your book into production, all you do is check your account to see if you sold books while you were sleeping, while you were traveling, or spending time with your family. With print on demand publishing, every time someone purchases your book from Amazon, the company prints one and sends it to the buyer along with the other books purchased.

The other extremely important aspect of print on demand publishing is that you control the rights to your book. You also earn a much higher percentage of royalties than the traditional method; although print-on-demand companies won’t ever call you and offer you a million dollars to write your next book! (Or, if they do, I’ve missed that call. Maybe I should check my voice mail?) Then, at the end of the month, you receive the money from the previous month’s royalties deposited directly into your bank account.

In the olden days of self publishing you had to pay a large up-front fee and also agree to purchase thousands of copies of your book which you would peddle from the trunk of your car or store in your garage. And while I can still buy as many copies of my books as I’d like for a reduced price, I only purchase what I anticipate needing month by month.

You can do this!

If you need a few tips to get your book started so you can reach the point of being ready to publish, visit http://howtopublishonline.com and download the free tips sheet for starting your writing project.

iPods in School

iPods in School
Turning Toys into Tools: Teaching with Technology

By Kathy Cothran

Everywhere you go in the world today, you see people with iPods connected to them. Do you ever wonder what they are listening to? Maybe you assume they have some crazy music pumping into their brain? What if they are listening to award-winning works of literature? Reading is imperative to becoming a successful and productive citizen.

Students who struggle with reading will struggle in most subject areas in school and in many avenues of life. Using audio books to improve reading fluency with all readers promotes success for students in most areas of life. Intervening early improves student achievement along with self-esteem.

Audio books are an excellent solution for teachers to use when attempting to instruct students of differing ability levels and with different learning challenges such as struggling, reluctant, below-grade readers, bilingual students, special needs children as well as those children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorders or Dyslexia.

The iPods in School program started at DeKeyser Elementary in early 2007 with 25 iPod Shuffles and some audio books. Children in second and third grades check out the book and the iPod for use outside of school. Students document whether they read along with the audio book, or just listen, and whether they discuss the book with their parent after listening. These books and iPods are in great demand within these two grade levels. The excitement for reading is immense and parents and children report pleasure in the project.

In addition to listening to books commonly found in the library, I would like to expand the program to include the textbooks from different classes and grade levels to help those students who need to either hear the text again, or are struggling to read it the first time.

Research (from Boston Public Schools) proves that audio books accelerate reading gains. Data shows that audio books can improve reading comprehension by 34% as it bridges the gap for students attempting to read text above their individual reading level. Listening to oral reading is also proven to help students acquire new vocabulary while stimulating vocabulary development by allowing opportunities for students to hear and see words multiple times. Research tells us that effective fluency instruction begins with modeled reading. Audio-assisted reading can provide unlimited practice for students, while silent independent reading alone has not shown to increase reading fluency. Finally, audio books create motivated readers.

There are at least four ways iPods in school increases student achievement and motivation; independent reading, shared or small-group reading, whole class listening, and lending out the audio books for home use.

“Do you have any brand new audio books?" "Which one is your favorite?" "Have you listened to this one? It has a great person with lots of expression reading!" These are common questions from seven-, eight-, and nine-year old children engaged in our iPods in School program. In addition to improvement in reading scores and motivation for reading, seeing the eager children begging for iPods and audio books to check out of the library makes the program extremely worthwhile.

With the cost of the iPod Shuffle decreasing to just $49, this cost of implementing this program is not extreme.

If you are interested in the acceptable use policy that I use with my students and the other record-keeping documents, you can download them free at the following site: http://ipodsinschool.com

Find out how more toys can be turned into learning tools at http://turningtoysintotools.com