Kidspiration 3: New Features

Kidspiration 3, the primary version of Inspiration, will be coming to FCPS as of this fall! Let me sum up some of the new features that will make a good program GREAT!

• Improved Record Option (so that you an record your voice longer on every textbox, and not just one per page)
• Easier to add text boxes
• Improved Teacher Control: on the teacher enabled menu, teachers can lock items into place so that they are not accidentally moved and placed on top of other items.
• Expanded symbol library of clip art
• Symbol search: now you can search for clip art by keyword like in Inspiration
• Word Guide: Look up word for definitions, synonyms, antonyms
• 5 New Math Tool Views!! (This is my favorite part): Color tiles, base 10 blocks, pattern blocks, fraction tiles, fraction boxes
• Math Text boxes: write fractions, division, and vertical math notations
• Step Work Space: allows teachers and students to show steps of a math problem in an easy to ready format
• Cross-out stamp: allows you to "cross out" items when showing subtraction, division, or regrouping
• Multiple Page feature: Now you can click through pages easily with up and down arrows, which allow you to open multiple documents in one window at a time
• More curriculum content, lesson plans, and teacher tools

The best improvement by far is the addition of the math tools. You can easily model equivalent fractions, or multi-step addition and subtraction with regrouping. The base 10 blocks can be color coded to show the top and bottom number of an addition problem. Use the "group" tool to group 10 ones together to make a rod. Use the "break apart" tool to separate rods into ones and flats into rods. No need to use physical manipulatives when you are teaching! Think of how easy it would be to clean this up after math!

I summarized some of these features from Peggy Wood, a Technology Resource Specialist from Cecil County, that I saw speak at MICCA this week. She has resources on her page. Thanks, Peggy, for one of the best sessions that I attended at MICCA!

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Kids and Cookies
Base 10 Block Games

“Kids and Cookies”: Easy Division Site for Kids

Check out this cool “Kids and Cookies” site!

Students are presented with a problem: they have friends coming over and cookies to share. You can choose how many friends you have and how many cookies you want to share among all of them. If your cookies don’t divide out equally, you can put the cookie on the cutting board and chop it into fractions to share equally among your friends. The best part is there are printable “friends” and “cookies” that go along with the site so that kids can follow along at their desks. Kids and Cookies would be a great supplemental resource to use with the book The Doorbell Rang.

Try using Kids and Cookies with your Interactive White Board as well!

RELATED POSTS:
Mandala Maker Perfect for Math Concepts
Division: Visual Representations Online
Online Math Manipulatives and Activities
Math Help Step-by-Step
Interactive Whiteboard Links
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Division: visual respresentations online

Teachers, what do you do when you are teaching division and your students just don’t get it? Just like we learned in college, you go back to manipulatives. Once children understand concrete examples, they can start moving to abstract problems. Until they get to that point, any visual examples you can provide the child will help. For example, the online E-Lab through Harcourt School Publishers is a wonderful opportunity for children to “see” division problems. The first site illustrates division with two digit divisors. (See picture below.)

The second site by E-Lab allows children to practice division with remainders depending in the problem you type in. (See picture below.) Very few sites give children a visual representation of how division works, so these sites are valuable resources to teachers. Happy dividing!