GEMS of the week

Everyday while surfing the net (twitter, facebook, edmodo, blogs) I bookmark sites I find interesting (with diigo) and then when I have time to explore them I share them in LIFE FEAST.

These are the sites I've selected for this week's post:

• KIDS' FABLES- A site with fables written by children. The site is perfect for developing a project where students are invited to create their own fables. There's a page with guidelines which can help students create their own story. The site suggests a fable contest where the best fables are submitted to Kidsfables.com to be considered for publication. As an extension, you can record your students reading the fables (using AUDIOBOO) and publish them in a class blog.

TIME 10 QUESTIONS - another great inspiration for projects. This is a collection of videos where celebrities are asked 10 questions. You can ask students to predict the questions which will be asked and then watch the video for checking. You can also ask students to pretend they are going to interview someone famous, create the 10 questions and then roleplay the interview with a classmate pretending to be the celebrity. The interviews can be recorded with a digital camera and then published in youtube and/or a class blog. Students can even vote for the best interview.

• DIGITAL DIALECTS - The Digital Dialects website features free to use interactive game for learning languages (English, French, Italian, Russian, Japanese and many others.)

SMORIES -these are stories read by kids. The site can be used for listening and reading comprehension (as many of the stories are subtitled) or you can use this as an inspiration for a writing project where students create a story, record themselves reading it and submit the video to Smories.com.

EBOOK EXCHANGE- if you have a kindle or nook, this is a place where you can lend and borrow e-books. The fee you pay for borrowing or lending is sent to charity.

MESSAGEHOP- great tool for storytelling.

MY EXAMPLE

 FOLDING STORY - Start a story, fold the paper and pass. Sounds familiar? Well, you can do the same online. A group storytelling game.