Financial literacy is a critical life skill, and sharing personal finance lessons with students will prepare them to be financially responsible adults. Learning about money can start with the youngest students as they learn to count and identify different types of money, and the differences between wants and needs. As students progress to middle school and personal finances become more important, it is crucial that they learn how checking and savings accounts work, especially online accounts. High school students benefit from understanding the power of compound interest, as well as financial accounting, stocks and other economic factors.
April is Financial Literacy Month. Help your students be more financially literate with Thinkfinity.org’s special collection of finance-related lessons and interactive games.
Visit the Thinkfinity Community
Join the Economics & Personal Finance group and start discussing:
2011 marks the sesquicentennial or 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The years of the Civil War were a time of great conflict for our nation. Using primary sources, lessons and interactives from Thinkfinity.org, immerse your students in the Civil War, and help them understand how its outcome continues to impact their lives to this day.
Recommended Civil War Resources:
Visit the Thinkfinity Community Join the group History Explorers and discuss: How do you teach secession?
Civil War Webinar for Teachers
Join us for the Civil War Stories from the Smithsonian’s History Explorer webinar on April 20th at 4pm or April 23 at 1pm. Learn from an educator at the National Museum of American History, a Thinfinity.org partner, and explore the museum’s interactives, videos, artifacts and lesson plans on the Civil War. Sign up for the 30-minute webinar.
Music inspires students’ creativity and encourages learning. To help incorporate music in the classroom, check out our special collection of music-related lessons, activities and podcasts. Share the love of music with students while making learning fun.
- Encourage students to learn the Connection Between Poetry and Music as they develop language fluency skills. (Grades 3-5)
- Show students that Seeing Music is actually possible as they view the math behind the music in this math-related lesson. (Grades 9-12)
- Listen to a podcast and learn how computers can now produce music without a human composer in Computer Composer. (Grades 6-12)
Visit the Thinkfinity Community
Visit us today and see what other educators are discussing.
Thinkfinity Professional Development
Visit our complete lineup of free webinars and get started today.
Celebrate the 60th anniversary of National Engineers Week from February 20-26, 2011. From the tallest skyscrapers to the longest bridges, engineers put their skills to work to design the infrastructure that keeps our lives moving along smoothly.
As you develop your STEM-related classroom activities, make sure to check out the special engineering collection below, and show your students how fun engineering can really be!
Are you part of the Thinkfinity Community? Visit us today and read the discussion: How do you encourage K-12 students to pursue engineering?
Interested in learning about more Thinkfinity resources that support 21st century skills? Sign up for a free 1-hour webinar.
2011 marks the 22nd National African American Read-In. During February, schools, libraries and community organizations across the country organize read-ins that feature African American writers as a tie-in with the celebration of Black History Month. Learn more about the African American Read-In, or explore related resources from Thinkfinity below.
Special African American Read-in Resource Collection
Are you part of the Thinkfinity Community? Visit us today and see what other educators are discussing about great African Americans and join the discussion.
Celebrate Black History Month with your students by sharing the hard work, struggles and successes of African Americans throughout history. This extensive collection of resources from Thinkfinity offers lessons, activities and primary source items that range from W.E.B Du Bois, the NAACP, National African American Read-in, Brown v. Board of Education and many more. Explore the Black History Month collection below.
Share the achievements of great African Americans with your students. Explore EDSITEment’s collection of 23 Black History lessons. (Grades: 6-12)
Letter Generator, the popular tool from ReadWriteThink, now offers save capabilities that allow students to save letters to computer and removable storage drives or to email them. Student can revise previously completed work or work on projects outside of the classroom. In addition to Letter Generator, the Acrostic Poems tool also offers the save capability.
Here are some great lessons to use with Letter Generator. Try it today!
Are you part of the Thinkfinity Community? Visit today and read more about the interactive Letter Generator and the new save capability.
Interested in professional development? Visit our complete lineup of free webinars and get started today!
What Are Your Classroom Goals For 2011?
Perhaps you are committed to try a new collaborative tool this year, or maybe you are focused on improving your students’ reading scores. Share your goals in the Thinkfinity Community, and see how others can help you succeed.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
If your goal is to…become more comfortable with your students using interactive whiteboards:
Try our Interactive Whiteboards feature and discussion.
If your goal is to…learn more about 21st century skills:
Try participating in our Reaching 21st Century Students with Verizon Thinkfinity webinar.
If your goal is to…start using blogs with your students:
Try our Discussion: How are you using blogs? or join the group, Blogging with Elementary Students.
We want to hear from you! Post your goal today.
Learning Science Has Never Been So Fun!
Take your science classroom online and watch your students engage in critical, scientific thinking through interactive play. Test your knowledge of the systems of the body with All Systems are Go! Or build a spacecraft that can withstand the trip to Mercury with Make a Mission. Finally, add A Touch of Class to students’ day to reinforce plant and animal classification.
Recommended Science Interactives:
- After 6-8th grade students build a spacecraft for their mission to Mercury, they can explore the planet’s geological structure in detail with GeoHunter.
- Then use a collection of Interactive Science Tools to collect data and track activity with a bar graph.
- After the mission to Mercury is complete, experience a rocket launch to find out how gravity really feels in Gravity Launch.
National Geography Awareness Week
Celebrate National Geography Awareness Week from November 14-20 with lesson plans, interactives and podcasts from Verizon Thinkfinity. Freshwater is an important issue in the 21st century and is the theme for this year’s celebration. Brought to you by our partner, National Geographic, National Geography Awareness Week highlights the importance of geography and provides lesson plans, activities and interactives to help enhance at-home and classroom geography education. Start exploring today!
Are You a Part of the Thinkfinity Community? Visit or join the World Geography group and check out ideas for creating exciting lesson plans and activities with other educators and parents. Sign up for the Community today!
Looking for professional development opportunities? Verizon Thinkfinity offers webinars to meet your professional development needs. Sign up for a webinar today!