Thursday, October 1, 2020

 

How did the geography student drown?..........His grades were below C-Level 🌊🌊


Who is the Penguin’s favorite aunt?.................................................Aunt-Artica ⛄🐧


What is the Capital of Mizoram?................................................................... M 😅😅


Where do fish keep their money?.................................................River-Banks 🌉🌉


What are Plateaus?..................................................Highest form of Flattery!! 🗻🗻

 

Jokes may be silly, but geography is surely not.


This is a very important subject. Our entire understanding of our surroundings is dependent on study of geography. A lot of visualization is needed to understand the subject and lot of things have to be understood and memorized to master the subject.

So, in this blog we are highlighting a few online resources which can be used to practice geography. This is in continuation of our blog series on Maths, Science, Englishand History. Hope you have checked out all those and you will now love the geography resources too.

Your comments motivate me and allows me to improve the quality and coverage of my blogs. If you like it, then please do comment and let me know what all other areas you would like me to cover in my blogs.

Here are my top picks of geography resources


1)      https://gramener.com/indiamap/

There is a single map resource on this site. It allows to you color code (and change the color code) of various states in the country. At second level, the tool allows you to color code various districts in each of the states and change their color code too. It is an extremely elementary tool, but can be quite engaging for students in lower class as they can play around with colors and in the process get a good hold over the names of various states and their districts.

The color codes are to be changed using numbers. Same numbers will denote the same color on the map. This is where teachers and parents can use this creatively to create competition in students or make them practice on individual basis. For e.g instructions can be given to students that states where rice grows are to be marked with same color or costal districts in Gujarat are to be marked with a specific color etc.


2)      https://mapmaker.nationalgeographic.org/

As we had the Nasa website in our blog on online science resources, National geographic makes its way into our list of online resources for geography. The Interactive Map Maker tool on National geographic is a very engaging tool. It gives you a world map to begin with. Point the cursor and its shows you the latitude and longitudes of the place. Click on various countries and it gives you a detailed write up on all those countries along with key highlights of each of these nations. Some countries are even covered with the help of a video. Students can paste legend on various parts of the map. The legends range from simple numbers to highlight location to images of various crops, industries, seasons etc. Even lines and various shapes can be drawn on the map. Text box are there to highlighted key aspects of some regions. Post this, the system allows you to save your maps and share it with your friends. Teachers can give an assignment of map plotting on this and all students can do their labelling share the screenshot or email the url back to their teachers. The site has recently been updated to be compatible with tablets too.

 

3)      https://www.3dgeography.co.uk/geography-of-india

This is not a core Indian curriculum-based site. The site covers geography topic on various countries like US, UK, Australia, Canada, Japan and Kenya. The section covering Indian geography is very comprehensive. It covers a lot of informative text and images. Various maps and images will help students understand geography very well. Facts of India is also a very interesting section. The videos and worksheet are also very different and have good graphics. Some worksheets are really engaging and will test out students understanding of geography.

The general information on various topics like the various water bodies, land forms, weather, forests etc. is also very useful to students. It may not be directly in context to Indian subcontinent, but nonetheless the conceptual clarity will surely follow.

Overall, this is a very well-designed geography content. The premium content is available on paid basis, but the free resources are quite good enough too.


4)      https://www.edudose.com/gk/indian-geography-quiz/

Edudose.com is a hard-core quizzing site. It has a good collection of questions on Indian geography. All questions are structured in MCQ format making it very engaging for students. There are no resources like videos or ppts or worksheets. Visit other sites for these resources and come back to this one to test how well you have understood the subject.

 

5)       https://www.tutorialspoint.com/geography/geography_online_quiz.htm

This is another quizzing site. However, compared to edudose.com this site has quizzes on various topics of geography like physical, climate, natural vegetation, soil, mineral, transport, disaster etc. This topic wise coverage makes the site easy to navigate. The type of questions are generally more relevant to higher classes. The additional feature, is that along with right answers, a brief explanation is also provided with each answer. This is very useful.

 

6)      https://www.twinkl.co.in/resources/ks2-around-the-world/ks2-around-the-world-asia/ks2-around-the-world-india

This is a site with a huge assortment of worksheets and handouts. The major content is directed towards the learning needs of primary section/lower classes. The worksheets can be easily downloaded and used for practicing geography. The resources are arranged grade wise and you will get a mix of subject coverage. Hence you can practice on a variety of subjects. The site requires registration and login to download each worksheet. Though, the registration is free of cost. Overall, this is a good worksheet collection and will help students for various subjects, along with geography too.


Hope you will find these 6 websites useful to practice geography and have a better understanding of the concepts in the subject. I am sure your kids and your students will enjoy and get engaged with the subject using these resources.

Awaiting to hear from you all in the comments section

Happy Learning !!!

Saturday, September 26, 2020

History made easy through 5 online games and resources

  

I saw a class full of students, praying to God, “Almighty God, please save us all from World War III”

I was touched by their nobility of thought and compassion for humanity. I went to a kid, sat on my knees, praised him and asked who inspired such noble thoughts in them.

He said, “What noble thoughts! We are praying because we are already struggling with history of 2 world wars, can’t afford to add a third one to our curriculums!”

 

I am sure many of us would be able to relate to this. History has always been HIS-STORY 😊

Not that understanding our own lives was easier, that we need to understand about other’s lives. Not that Math and Matter was enough, that we have to now learn about Men. But that’s history for you. You may like it, despise it; but you can’t ignore it. The beauty of the subject is that It gives us a larger perspective to look at life; the bigger picture. And it helps us out in real life when we least expect it or even without us realizing how it has added to our thought process and perspective of life.

 

However, coming to our immediate concern of how to engage students for history. How to make learning history fun for them. Here is the latest addition in my series of blogs on free resources for various subjects. Below is the list of various sites which offer online videos, games, interactive quizzes and other resources for the study of Indian History.

 

1)      https://www.neok12.com/History-of-India.htm

NeoK12, as the name suggest is the ONE site that you need to visit for all your K12 needs. The site not only contains content for History, but also has a lot of content for subjects like Maths, Science, English etc. I didn’t discover this earlier, but this site is a definite addition to all my previous blogs on free resources for Maths, Scienceand English. The content is also richly covered using Interactive diagrams, flow chart games, vocabulary games, jigsaw puzzles, slide puzzles and lots of brain games.

Coming to history, the site majorly has collection of videos. The topics are ranging from ancient to medieval to modern history and the video quality and depth are reasonably good. All major dynasties and kingdoms are covered in the site along with some videos on prominent mathematicians of ancient India.

The website offers a variety of content in form of games, videos, worksheets, quizzes and activities to teach various topics of English grammar. Fun Stuff zone is a small collection of very engagingly designed activities to make grammar learning fun. The coverage is not very exhaustive though.

 

2)      http://indiaquiz.net/

India Quiz is a hard core quiz site. It has a quiz on history and along with that on a variety of topics. The depth in history is lacking and is surely not linked to any school curriculum. But it is interesting to test your history knowledge and explore. The other topics covered via quizzes are science, gk, culture, know india photo quiz, religion, geography, Indian states etc. It has a film quiz too for parents/teachers to relieve their exhaustion after attending to their kid’s history lessons 😊

 

3)      https://india.mrdonn.org/

Mrdonn.org is a very useful website to study History. In addition to world and American history, it has a special section on Indian history. It covers a variety of topic from Indus valley civilization to Indian scriptures and caste system. The majority of the focus is on ancient history. The content is provided as text to be read by students in question answer format and some online quizzes and games too.

For history teachers (and parents can also use it for home schooling), there are lot of resources like lesson plans, free clipart, interactive games and ready-made power point presentations on Indian history.

 

4)      https://www.studenthandouts.com/study-games/world-history/

Studenthandouts.com is a good site with a lot of resources. The history of world section of the site is particularly interesting for students who want to understand the world history. Although many topics covered may not be part of state board curriculums, but this site is a definite visit site if history is what interests you. The games do not have very high quality graphics; most of them are straightforward fill in the blanks or MCQ kind of questions but it gives a good coverage and allows to revise and understand world history in context.

Aside, the site also has resourceson maths, science in terms of games and printables. This also becomes a worthy addition to my previous blogs on online resources for maths and science. Hope you have checked those blogs !

 

5)      https://besthistorysites.net/

Now this one has a catch!

This is not a site with content, but this is a site which has links to almost 1200 history sites. The coverage is very very very exhaustive and covers a lot of world history. There are specific sections for History related to India. I won’t be able to guide you through this or comment on this, but if you are a real history freak, then you can explore endlessly. Happy exploring buddy!!

 

I hope these resources will help you to engage your kids for study of history. If you like this then please do check out my other blogs on resources for English, maths and science.

Also kindly share this with other parents, students and educators.

Your comments and subscription on my blog are always a big motivator 😊

Happy Gaming!!!

Saturday, August 22, 2020

8 Free Online Games and Tools to Improve English Grammar and Communication Skills

“I know such English that I will leave the British behind. You see sir, I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English, I can run English, because English is such a funny language. Bhairo becomes Byron because their minds are very narrow”

-      Amitabh Bachchan (Namak Halal; 1982)

I am sure this will take many of us down the memory lane. One the most hilarious performance of Amit Ji, which makes him the living legend that he is.


We all see such funny posters around us when we go out to eat Chainis Food or Cold Bear or Child Beer or when you are driving through an Accident Porn Area or when you go to a Her cutting Salon or Her Katting Salon or pay Twonty Rupees for Afternoon Snakes or when you go for a Blood Taste (Thank god its only Blood!).

 

So welcome to my blog to improve English Langveg 😊

 

Jokes apart. In continuation to my earlier blogs for free maths and science online games and tools, this one is for English language. Below is the list of 8 websites which will allow your kids to work on their English skills in a fun manner. Parents can use this at home or teacher conducting online classes can use this during the class with screen sharing available in various online tools


1)     https://www.gamestolearnenglish.com


The site offers one of the simplest user interfaces for learning English and playing games to improve grammar and English skills. The games are simple and easy to play. It covers a variety of topics like Vocabulary, phrases, spellings, past present and future tenses, prepositions, phrases. The content is structured in modules like question making, vocab games, phrases games, spelling games and Describers. Overall, the site is very elementary and useful to kids in lower classes

 

2)      www.duolingo.com

 

Are you a parent from Non-English background?

Do you teach student who come from Non-English background and struggle with basic English?

Good News for you all!!    Duolingo is here!!

As name suggest, the site allows you to learn English using another language as a base. And Hindi is available to learn English. The website uses Hindi(and many other languages too) as a base to teach English to you. Very interesting way to hone your English skills and help your kids learn better. The graphics are eyecatching and the whole experience is very pleasing. What is more fun than to learn in your mother tongue 😊


3)      https://www.eslgamesplus.com/

 

ESL Games + website offers a good collection of games and other supporting material to master English language grammar and skills. The assortment of games is good and very huge. Most of the games take a lot of time to open up but it is worth your time. The zombie, space, war zone and racing games will surely engage a lot of kids. The topic coverage is also very exhaustive covering primary and secondary level topics too. In addition to the usual videos and worksheets, this site also offers a lot of quizzes and power point presentation

 

4)     https://www.funenglishgames.com/grammargames.html

 

The website offers a variety of content in form of games, videos, worksheets, quizzes and activities to teach various topics of English grammar. Fun Stuff zone is a small collection of very engagingly designed activities to make grammar learning fun. The coverage is not very exhaustive though.


5)      https://www.englishclub.com/esl-games/grammar/

 

Welcome to English Club and take a cocktail of English grammar. The website, which is very compatible and user friendly in the mobile interface, is very comprehensive in coverage of English grammar. Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, tenses, prepositions, part of speech etc topics are covered using a lot of simple games. The website also offers a lot of content to work on Listening, speaking, reading and writing skills too. There are lot of audios, videos and supporting content to help students masters all the 4 skills for English language.

 

6)     https://www.helpfulgames.com/subjects/english/

 

The website has a good collection of games to improve English skill. Not much content is related to grammar, but most of it is pertaining to improving your English communication skills. This site seems to be useful for kids in lower classes or individuals who want to focus only on improving their English communication skills.

 

7)     https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/grammar-practice

 

What is a better place to learn English than Good Old Britain? So here we have English grammar games and learning modules from British Council itself. The site come across as one of the most comprehensive coverage of various grammar topics with very engaging games. The topics are listed in Alphabetic index for easy of searching. Along with games it has songs, videos, stories, flashcards, worksheets etc to make English grammar fun. Kids can learn to read and write using given assignments. There are modules for vocabulary building, spelling practice and improving pronunciation. The content is targeted for students in the age group of 6 to 17.


8)     http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/index.html

 

ESL Games World offers a very detailed coverage of grammar topics in gaming format. Tenses, conjunctions, Active-Passive, Articles, Modals, Prepositions, Gerunds, Infinitives, Adjectives, Adverbs etc are the topics covered. The site also offers PPT games and Printable games to add to the regular offerings given by most websites. The home page of the site also indicates that they keep updating and offering new games/formats regularly. Games take time to load up, but the coverage is very comprehensive


Hope this blog will help your kids practice and improve their english skills in a fun way. As teachers, you can also assign this or use this with screen sharing during your online classes. Hope you are using the tools for conducting online classes. And also the Indian apps to conduct online classes


If you like this, then please comment and share this with other teachers and parents

Happy Learning !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Science free online games and resources for Indian schools and students

How does the Ocean say Hello? .........................It Waves👋🌊

I made a chemistry joke ..................................There was no reaction 😰

Which planet is married? ................................. Saturn !!! It has rings 💍🖸

Why one should not drink water while studying?.......Concentration decreases 
                                                                             on adding water
Don't have an argument with Phi? ..............................Because it is Irrational

Why can't one trust atoms?........................Because they make up everything

Jokes are always fun. 

And so can be teaching science to your kids and students now. I am sure you are using the math online games in my previous blog. Now, go through this list of 7 websites which will make science learning fun for your kids and students during and post online classes. Refer the end of this article to see how to implement this with your kids or with your class

This is a free site, with no login required and covers major topics in science through a lot of games which eventually end up testing a student's understanding of science and technology. Covering topics for lower classes and primary section, the site has a lot of interactive games and video tutorials. The site also offers a lot of experiments, facts, quizzes(non-interactive), DIY projects with videos, lessons, and tons of images.

Overall a fully packed, science self-study package is available for kids. The most interesting feature is the Detective Games. Put on your Sherlock Holmes Cap!!!

Note: The Detective games were not working when i tried. Better luck to you.



Yes....you read it right !!!

It is NASA..... National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Spaceplace from NASA has everything that you ever wanted your kid to know about Earth and her Heavenly neighbors. To add to it, the graphics are top notch and the content is exhaustively covered through Games, Simulations, DIY craft activities, Worksheets, Handouts and Videos.

The glossary of all terms related to Earth and space is a particularly useful tool. Parents and educators can explore and access a lot of additional teaching material using the link to access other NASA resources.


If you are looking for simulation-oriented games, this is the site for you. The games are designed on naturally existing phenomenon but allows the kid to play with his own creativity in the same. Habitat maker, Solar system maker, Insect maker, Dinosaur maker etc. will surely spark creativity in your kids and engage them very well with these topics of science. The games are less, but worth your time.


The site consists of very limited no. of games. It covers some very basic topics. It has a major focus on animal, plants and human anatomy related games. Some games like creating ocean allows the kids to explore their creativity.


As name suggest, there are variety of games for kids. Subjects other than science are also covered. Hence the coverage of science games is lesser. However, the games are engaging and generally targets kids from kg till class 2 only. The unique features are science songs and some experimental games.


This site offers games to touch upon topics in science. Most of the games do not explore topics in depth, but enough to instigate curiosity and familiarity with the concepts of science. For e.g. the games related to space, do not explain much but helps the students to be familiar with most of the extraterrestrial objects. In short, these are good elementary games and videos which can be used while introducing the topic to the kids for the first time.

The other PBS parent website has some good tips and tricks for parents to deal and handle their kids learning, while at home. Some sections are a good read for parents. 


If you want your kid and students to learn about animals, this is the site to be in. National geography powered Kids site comes with obvously a lot of documentary videos. Additionally, there are quizzes on animals, personality quizzes (it is not what you think it is) and other fun activities. Most of it is very new and refreshing. You may or may not like it depending on your own taste. Most of the content is designed for an International audience and hence a few things might not seem relevant(especially few quiz questions).

But overall, it has good content. And you can blindly trust this to be a highly authentic and genuine content.

Hope this helps engage your kids and students in science study at home during these Covid-19 times. 

If you are an educator, you can share this sites for your students to practice science post conducing online classes. You can also check out 100% Indian apps and tools to conduct online classes too.

If you are a parent, you can selectively share a few sites depending on what grade your kid studies in. 

You can also share it with other parents who have kids from KG till class 8.

If you want me to write on any specific topics, please do put a comment below. Till then catch my next blog on coming Saturday. 

Please follow and subscribe this blog

Happy Learning !!!

Thursday, June 11, 2020

7 Free Online Games and learning resources for Maths of Primary Section

Those who think that winning an argument with one's Boss or Spouse is tough......try engaging a kid for a maths practice session for 15 mins.

I can't help with the former, but for latter......Definitely yes.

In my previous post i had discussed about various tools to conduct online classes and my subsequent post covered 100% Indian apps for online classes. However, for subject like maths, Online or Physical classroom teaching does not suffice. A lot of practice needs to be done by the kids after the class is over......and all maths teachers and parents will know that this is one of the toughest job.

And since our kids are going to use maths and number skills throughout their lives, we cannot compromise on the practice of maths. 

So, I have tried to explore and find out some good websites which allows students to practice and hone their maths skills. And since nothing engages a young mind more than games, i have tried to identify 7 sites which offer lots of online maths games (in addition to videos and worksheets)

Lets game...

It covers all major topics of maths in primary section. It has Games, Videos, Worksheets and blogs on innovative maths teaching. The best part of this site is that the entire content is categorised from KG till Class 7. This makes it extremely easy for teachers and parents both to guide the students properly to use this site. No sign-up/login required.


2) www.mathgames.com

One of the largest collection on online games for maths. All games are segregated class-wise as well as skill wise. A student/teacher/parent can chose to play games on basis of fundamental number skills too. Worksheets are available but no videos. No login is required.


Unique feature of this site is it offers gaming arcade. Students can play some really cool games, accumulate points, cross levels….its a lot of fun!!! This feature however requires one to sign-up and login.


3) www.matific.com

This is a good site but a paid one. Good news is due to Covid-19, a free complimentary access of 7 days for parents and 60 days for teachers is provided by the site. The site has a good compilation of games/episodes, worksheet and word problems. The unique aspect of the site is various DIY workshops. Students can model a lot of things like fractions etc and hone their number skills and easily related with a lot of concepts. It also comes with reports which can help a parent monitor the progress of their kids.

 

4) www.splashlearn.com

The site offers maths games from KG till class 5. The collection of games is good and the graphics are of very high quality. The site requires a sign up, but it is free. The best feature of the site is it allows you to allocate days and time that your kid wants to commit to study maths. The site also keeps a tab on this and keeps the parent updated via the parent dashboard. A very useful feature, if our kids are as we were during our school days 😊

 

5) www.themathsfactor.com

Based on the UK curriculum for maths, the site has some good games. The coverage is not very exhaustive from Indian curriculum point of view, but there are enough games to cover the basic skills and concepts in maths. The site has paid content, but currently it is made free for all. The site needs sign up and there is a parent login also through which parents can monitor the progress of their kids. There are a few interesting blogs also on making maths more interesting

 

6) www.education.com

This is another very interesting site for maths. Lots of worksheets and online games are given, categorised grade and topic wise. Interesting features are the guided lessons which enables the student (with some help from the parent) to learn on their own. Also there are ready to use lesson plans, with step by step activities to enable learning. This will be extremely useful to parents who are trying to teach their kids for the first time, that too without the kid going to the physical school. 


In addition to this, there are lot of Hands-on activities, Interactive stories, online exercises, printable workbooks, science projects and song videos. The only catch is that the site has 2 versions; basic and premium. Certain features are not fully accessible in the basic version. Basic is totally free and premium is charged.

 

7) www.mathplayground.com

 This site contains maths content from grade 1 to 6. Videos and online games are interesting. The most unique aspects are story math and math arcade. Story math consists of word problems which can be solved by creating online models. The model making process is very easy and gives a very good perspective of the problem to the students, making it very easy for them to understand and solve word problems. The math arcade consist of online multiplayer games taking maths practice for students on a full on gaming level. I myself got hooked to it 😊


How you can use these resources?

1) Schools & Teachers: 


2) Parents: 

  • Use the teacher recommended games for the current class of your kid
  • Use all the games of previous grades, to ensure that your kid revises all the concepts that they studied last year. 

3) Others:

  • Share this blog with anyone who is a maths educator or a parent of kids from KG till class 8

Use the below options given at the end of the blog to share it using Facebook, Twitter, email etc.


Hope this blog is helpful to you all. Please do share your feedback in the comments section at the end of the blog. Also mention any other topic that might be worth covering in my next post, publishing every saturday

If you liked it then please do follow and subscribe my blog using the options given at the top right side of the blog. Screenshot given below



Happy Learning !!!

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Indian Apps for Conducting Online Classes in Schools

आत्मनिर्भर भारत: Call to Develop Indian Apps 

Last few weeks have been exciting and we saw the entire teaching fraternity demonstrating their ability to move from traditional to digital platform for teaching in a very short span of time. Hats off to our teachers !!!

I tried comparing the existing apps for online classes in my last blog. Çlick here to view it. Since all of them were Non-Indian apps, i am trying to compare the Indian alternatives available so far. 

A word of caution. Most Indian apps are very new and yet to stand the test of time and huge inflow of users. Many are yet in their Beta version and will improve over time. So kindly take note of this before using them 

Hope this helps








Happy Learning !!!