Let me tell you a little about how I like to find fun things for
students to do in class to start the day off right. I think that the old saying is that Breakfast
is the most important meal of the day and that students need it to start the
day off in a good way. Well I think that
we also need to start their classroom day off right as well. Something that feeds their minds when they
get to school just as much as breakfast does before school.
About a year and a half ago, give or take a month, I was
introduced to Wonderopolis by a co-worker as a site that offered up something
different. What they offered was short
video clips that talked about some things that most people just wondered about. I learned about the site in January of 2011
but the site had been up since October with its first wonder, Why are Flamingo
Pink? That launched on Oct 4, 2010.
Wonderopolis is… “a program brought to life by the National Center for
Family Literacy, engages and inspires families in the pursuit of education and
learning together.” It also a product of Verizon Thinkfinity which… “offer
comprehensive teaching and learning resources created by our content partners –
the most respected organizations in each academic subject and literacy.”
In January of 2011 I started talking to teachers about how
to use Wonderopolis in the classroom and how it could benefit the students as
the day begins. I talked to the teachers
and showed them the website and their eyes were wide open by all of the
information. Many times I would show the
site to them and they immediately would start talking about how to connect what
was on the site with what they were working on in class at the time. As this was going on I would show them how
they could search through all of the Wonders either with a keyword search or
through the category options along the left side of the page. The teachers were amazed at how much
information was available to them as they looked at each of the wonders. There is a description of the wonder, some
additional questions, did you know section, some vocabulary words and even some
fun project ideas to go along with the wonder of the day.
I really enjoy the site and will continue to share it with
as many teachers as I talk with. The
site offers so many additional resources associated with the wonders that even
though they are meant to be short lesson starters, it is more often than not
they can be turned into full blown lesson designed in conjunction with the
curriculum.
With all that being said, go to Wonderopolis and see for
yourself. I can be sure that there is
something on the site which will add to your daily instruction. Who knows you may even explore beyond the
site to some of the other resources available from Verizon Thinkfinity and
extend the learning even further.
