Enhance Google Maps with ScribbleMaps

I am doing Geography with my kids at the moment and obviously we use Google Maps quite regularly.  I recently discovered ScribbleMaps and now use this as my default Google Maps application as it offers everything that Google Maps does but has a handy little tool kit overlay that allows me to scribble, annotate, type or whatever I would like to do over the top.  That is as simple and as complicated as ScribbleMaps is but it's pretty cool nonetheless.



Interactive Greek Mythology for Students

What is it? I came across Winged Sandals a number of years ago and was really impressed by the amount of effort and detail that had been put into this beautiful site retelling Ancient Greek Mythology.  My kids learnt the stories of Zeus, Athena, Medusa, Icarus and Achilles.  Dicovering who they were and most importantly the message behind their tale of fate or bravery.  Then all of the sudden it just disappeared for around 4 years.

The great news is that it is back and better than ever.  Winged Sandals has beautiful animated stories, a games section where you can replay some of the most famous events of Greek History, Make & Do for teachers to get creative with their students, a who's who? of Monsters, Gods and Mortals, A history Section and even a chance to ask the Oracle a question about life.

There is a good units worth of work here for teachers to offer their students and best of all your  students will really love the interactivity and edgy artwork behind the site.

How can I use this with my students? I find this a great tool for literacy to teach students about fables and mythology.  They can use this site to read see and hear the most important stories of Greek mythology then discussing as a group what the message and meaning was behind the story and how to subtly work into a tale.  Obviously for History teachers there is a wealth of great content here and anyone studying any form of philosophy or political science will need to pop in for a visit too.

I personally think there is something here for people aged  6 to 106 and would strongly recommend taking a look at Winged Sandals today.  Let us know what you think too.



Relive the Gallipoli landing interactively - Excellent History Site

Gallipoli the first day is a great interactive site from ABC that really gives a geographic and historically accurate recall of the landing and subsequent battles and evacuation. The purpose of this lesson is to engage students in this rich history, research and retell in their own words.  Click here to access the lesson Planner

Digital DaVinci - Interactive lessons for students

What is it? Universal Leonardo is a celebration of one of the greatest minds of all time aimed at deepening our understanding of Leonardo da Vinci through a series of European exhibitions, sscientific research and web-based resources.  It contains interactive activities, research content, interesting games and tools and resources that will enable you to discover and solve some of the mysteries surrounding his vast amount of artistic and scientific work as well as his deeply debated personal life.

How can I integrate this into my classroom? There is plenty of opportunities to tie in mathematical concepts such as symmetry and tessellation through the games area and then explore some scientific concepts such as flight and anatomy.  Obviously there is plenty here for history students and those studying biology and other areas of science to appreciate the insight and appreciation of Da Vinci's contribution to science over 500 hundred years ago and compare and contrast what we know today.  And I haven't even mentioned the art...

Check it out today here