December 2007 Karen R.
Dailey Technology Integration Specialist
he month of December is a special one for
obvious reasons but it also offers a wonderful
opportunity for integrating more technology into
your classroom to make your students truly
global citizens. This newsletter is dedicated to
technology integration success in your
classroom. I am here to help you feel
comfortable integrating more technology into
your curriculum so please feel free to ask me for
help. I’d love to be of any assistance. Merry
Integrating!
Christmas December 25th
Everything you need for integrating
Christmas activities is at this site:
http://www.vickiblackwell.com/xmas.html
Email Santa – children get instant reply – right
before their eyes
http://www.emailsanta.com/email_santa.asp
Decorate a snowman – after the activity, children
can print coloring sheet of their snowman
http://www.crayola.com/kids/games/console.cfm?
game=&ok=true
Cut a snowflake online. It can then be
saved as a jpg (as this one was),
printed and it becomes a part of their
gallery.
http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/
Christmas Around the World
To add multicultural dimension to this holiday try
these sites:
www.vickiblackwell.com/decdays/aroundtheworld.htm
www.the-north-pole.com/around/
www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm
www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/around.html
www.santaclaus.com/world.html
4 different Scavenger Hunts to learn about
Christmas Around the World
http://www.henry.k12.ga.us/pges/xmas_around.htm
Hanukkah December 5th – 12th
Jewish Holiday of Lights -- celebrating
the miracle of a little oil that lasted eight
days. This site offers information on
traditions, the menorah, eight blessings,
vocabulary including Hebrew writings, recipes,
crafts and a quiz about the holiday.
http://www.akhlah.com/holidays/hanukkah/hanukkah.php
A Christmas Tradition
For a nice online reading of
The Polar Express try
http://www.storylineonline.net/storyline/.
The Screen Actors Guild developed this site to
promote literacy. Lots of books are available but
this might be a treat to have Lou Diamond
Phillips read The Polar Express – while children
view the book in Microsoft Media Player. Lesson
plans and activities are also listed for each book.
Kwanzaa December 26th – January 1st
This site includes a simple power point type
presentation explaining the seven
candles representing the principles
of Kwanzaa as well as coloring
pages, super match-up and other
related Kwanzaa links:
http://www.lil-
fingers.com/holidays/kwanzaa/index.html
You can find other Kwanzaa resources and
lesson plans on http://www.teach-
nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/holidays/k
wanza/
Page 2 of December Technology Times
Sunday December 2nd on CBS
Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation,
Pictures of Hollis Woods adapted
from the Newbery Honor book. This
touching story is of Hollis Woods, a foster child,
who yearns for a home of her own. When Hollis
is sent to Josie, she'll do everything in her power
to make sure they stay together. Check out the
integrated language arts and visual arts from
Crayola for grades 3 – 6:
http://www.crayola.com/educators/media/D-
M_HollisWoods.pdf
Pearl Harbor Day December 7th
Multimedia Map and Time Line:
Photos, footage, firsthand accounts, and
narration bring the attack on Pearl Harbor in
Oahu, Hawaii, to life—moment by moment,
target by target. Well worth the visit for 3rd – 8th
graders.
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor
Winter Solstice December
22nd
Standing Still Sun
For early childhood try this Arthur cartoon version
of explanation:
http://pbskids.org/arthur/holiday/scrapbook/sols1.
html
The rest could visit this site to learn about the
Winter Solstice:
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_unive
rse/uts/winter.html&edu=elem
Karen R. Dailey, TIS @ Highlawn Elementary
For Early Learners
This site has many printable items for early
learning classrooms. Although much of the site
requires you to order the items or pay to
download files, there are lots of freebies. Here
you will find Christmas light bulb alphabet cards,
days of the weeks cards with Santas that you
can print on card stock and use with your
calendar center, file folder games, and much
more!
http://www.childcareland.com/free.html
Helpful Resource for Teachers:
Wow! This is an excellent site with tons of useful
resources for educators! Check it out!
http://www.vickiblackwell.com/
Internet Tip—
Always check Microsoft for updates by going to
http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/
default.aspx?ln=en-us
From here click Express to have it check your
computer for updates (it may take a few minutes).
When complete click on download updates or install
updates. You’ll get a message that says “installation
complete.” Always check on the left task pane to see
if there are additional updates and install those as
well.
Computer Troubleshooting Tips
Problem: Students often don't
realize Caps Lock is on until they
have typed several lines; they also
forget to capitalize titles and
proper nouns. Correcting capitalization errors can
take valuable teacher time and frustrate students.
Solution: Use Shift F3 to switch between Title Case,
Upper Case, and Lower Case.
Merry Christmas!