I signed our building up for a free trial of Scholastic’s Book Flix. Here is the description of the site:

Scholastic BookFlix is a new online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks from Weston Woods with related nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning. The engaging way to link fact and fiction, BookFlix reinforces early reading skills and introduces children to a world of knowledge and exploration.

You can access the free trial at http://bookflix.scholastic.com/freetrial. I will send you the username and password in an email message. I hope you enjoy this service. I think it is pretty great. We have the trial through December, so take advantage of it! Once you have used it with your students, please give me some feedback on what you think of it by commenting on this blog post. I want to know what you think about it before I would invest money in the service.

Enjoy!

Cindy

There is a great project called One Laptop Per Child that tries to provide technology to children in developing countries. They have created an amazingly inexpensive, highly durable laptop that gives these children access to Internet resources and great computer tools to use for learning. For a brief time, starting November 12th, you can purchase two laptops – one that will be donated to one of these developing countries, and one that will be sent to you. Here is the info from their website:

Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home.

If you would like to participate in their program, sign up for the reminder email now at http://www.xogiving.org/.