Parent Power Hour!

Presented by Cathy Knutson, OHE's Digital Literacy Specialist

*** New App To Parent Power Hour This Year!

^^^ Returning App From Past Power Hours

Children who are given the opportunity to build and "make", develop their spacial reasoning and engineering skills along with patience, ingenuity, confidence, and tenacity. Plus, they have fun! It doesn't need to cost a great deal. Building with cereal boxes and tape (lots of tape!), along with other low and no cost objects around the home, is a fabulous way to make!

Tinkercad is a program for building 3D designs. It is intended for creating designs for a 3D printer, however it doesn't require a 3D printer! Our OHE students will learn Tinkercad in 4th and 5th grade. Giving all of our students an opportunity to play with the web app at home would be fun and help them become more confident as 3D designers!

This website curates smart videos for curious minds of all ages! It is just plain fun! It has science, engineering and maker videos along with many other random but super interesting videos!

Spatulatta is a cooking website for kids, complete with recipes!

Wonderopolis asks and answers questions that children are naturally curious about!

DK Findout! is a web tool that supports curriculum and research with engaging content delivery.

Put your child in charge of documenting your next family outing. Have them take photos and movies and create a video masterpiece with a movie creation app! Clips is free on an iOS (Apple) device, but there are similar apps on android phones as well. Your child can thread together photos and movies into one movie, add text, music, and fun effects! They will love the end product and with have a blast creating this family keepsake!

National Gallery of Art iPad app for kids gives children the opportunity to design in the style of the masters!

With the Telestory App, children choose their character (costume), write the script on cue cards, and record themselves reading their cue cards. It's great moviemaking magic, easy to use, and it's just plain fun!

This free "go to" photo editor is easy to use and doesn't require any child login. Children can quickly crop, resize, and add effects to photos. Online @ pixlr.com/express , iPad App & Chrome App

With Big Huge Labs, you child can create homemade gifts with their photos!

Free online only. Storybird give children the opportunity to create stories by inspiring them with artwork from illustrators from around the world. This easy to use free website makes creative writing engaging for children. Storybird.com (Free, Online Only & Storybird Chrome App)

Sometime children want to illustrate a story or sketch their notes. It is great to have a "go to" drawing program that is easy to use! Sketchpad is a free web based draw program. I really like the fact that it includes the layering feature for students to try. (Free, Online & Sketchpad Chrome App)

Duolingo is a great way for your child to begin learning a foreign language (reading and pronunciation) and it is free!

Use your family's Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to teach your child about social media dos and don'ts. Discuss the positive power of their digital footprint while also sharing some of the pitfalls. Have them take a photo & write a tweet or post for the family. Use your social media to prepare your child for a future when they will be using it without you. By interacting with it early and under your supervision, your child will be more likely to act responsibly when the training wheels are taken off.

This web-based storytelling/map building tool which gives children the opportunity to easily create maps and plan family vacations. https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/ (Free, Online Only)

Khan Academy is the perfect place for your child to go when they are struggling with concepts from school.

FreeRice.com gets students thinking about helping others and ending world hunger while supporting their basic facts like multiplication and vocabulary.

http://www.factmonster.com/states.html Specifically, try the math fact flash cards!

http://www.arcademics.com/games/

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/ Specifically, pay attention to the Games & Tools link on the side panel!

This collection of web based eBooks can be read aloud in many different languages with a variety of text complexity and subjects that will interest elementary students. www.uniteforliteracy.com

I was recently reminded of this fabulous geography game. Geoguessr (App or Online) Students can see the world and guess the location to get points. They can gather clues from the signage, cars, and terrain. I encourage them to open a second tab in Chrome, to do research on languages & location signs that they are seeing. Super easy to introduce and just let students explore. Even host a little class contest for the high score! (Free Geoguessr Online & Geoguessr iPad App)

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/games/

http://www.funbrain.com/

http://www.abcya.com/

When you allow your children to use Google, set the search settings to "safe search".