http://amyboehman.blogspot.com

Turkey Day is almost here, which means it’s time to start looking at interactive Christmas sites for kids.   There aren’t as many good sites for Christmas as there are for Thanksgiving, but let’s take a look at what I have found so far:

CELEBRATE WINTER HOLIDAYS by SCHOLASTIC

Celebrate winter holidays by Scholastic features Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa all on page complete with a teacher’s guide and holiday clip art for teachers to use. There are holiday articles to download on each holiday, as well as a section on printable crafts, recipes, and thinking questions.  Clearly this is my favorite among all of the sites listed here.  Check it out! 

TRIM A TREE with JAN BRETT

Trim a tree with Jan Brett at her homepage!  Using the tree template, kids click and drag the ornaments onto the tree.  When they are finished, kids can print their creation and give it to a friend.  Jan Brett, a popular children’s book author, has written several holiday books for kids including The Christmas Trolls and The Gingerbread Baby.  Her illustrations are gorgeous, and she has newsletters available for teachers to incorporate her books into lesson plans.  Her website is also full of interactive activities to match each of her books.  In addition, there is a whole page full of Christmas related activities besides “trim the tree“.

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD

At Santa’s Net there is an extensive list of how Christmas is celebrated around the world.  There is also a list of multicultural Christmas recipes and a list of how to say “Merry Christmas” in different languages.  There are Christmas songs, too, but they only are comprised of the lyrics - you can’t hear the music.  Bummer. 

NORTH POLE.COM

North Pole has several different activities all in one place!  I have not had time to explore the site since it is so big. Here is just a small list of what you can do here:

• Send a letter to Santa
• Send a holiday postcard
• Stories to read and color
• Games to play
• Recipes to bake
• Puzzles and Activities
• Sing Christmas Karaoke
• Visit the toy shop (disclaimer, this takes kids to Amazon.com)

If you have a favorite holiday site, feel free to let me know about it in the comments section!

RELATED POSTS

Make your own snowflake online

If you enjoyed this post, please follow me to my new blog address where I will continue to post new tech tips:

http://amyboehman.blogspot.com

 

 

Welcome, Fall!  October is here! 

To get into the Halloween spirit, why not carve a pumpkin online?  There are two sites that I have found that are fun. 

 The first one located at theoworlds has the most options for your pumpkin.  It gives you to option to cut “freeform” or with straight lines only. When you connect the lines of your cut, then the piece automatically falls out of your pumpkin.  You can change the background picture, add your own message, print your pumpkin, save it to view later, or send it to your friends in an email.  Don’t forget you can turn on and off the spooky background music! As you can see from the picture above, the pumpkin is realistic instead of a cartoon.  I like it!

The second pumkpin site is called the “Pumpkin Simulator“.  You have a cartoon pumpkin to carve on, and when you are finished, you click, “done”.  At that time, a lit candle is added to your pumpkin and spooky music plays.  It doesn’t have any of the other options as the first pumpkin site, but it still provides entertainment!  Happy Halloween!

http://amyboehman.blogspot.com

What happens when you mix winter and Web 2.0?  You get the Snowflake Generator, of course!  The website folds the paper for you, and provides you with a virtual pair of scissors.  Just start cutting along the edge of the paper, work your way in, and end at an edge when cutting your shapes.  You can preview your snowflake along the way to see if you like the cuts you have made.  How fun is this?

Also, the website gives you an opportunity to view the Snowflake Gallery, where you can print snowflakes made on the site, save the snowflake as a .jpg, or share one with a friend.  If it could only produce a real SNOW DAY to get you out of school, this site would be perfect.