Tools for Educators.com

<b> Forum for discussing activities and games that work well in the classroom </b>

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mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:14 pm

I added a surf by vocabulary section to the site and that might make finding what you need easier.
Those are just some. There are 30+ categories on the site and you can access all of the worksheet makers via the specific categories.
Last edited by mesmark on Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

Syl
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Post by Syl » Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:23 pm

Mark, I want to thank you for sharing your absolutely amazing site. I've been visiting it, there are so many tools, it's awesome!

Keep up the excellent work and thank you again.

Syl

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:15 pm

Syl wrote:Mark, I want to thank you for sharing your absolutely amazing site. I've been visiting it, there are so many tools, it's awesome!

Keep up the excellent work and thank you again.

Syl
Syl - Thanks! I'm glad the site is helpful.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:49 am

Change the text hints! On the text only version of the word search maker, you can now write free text that will be entered below the puzzle instead of just the word that's in the puzzle.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that if you want the students to search for the word 'running', you can just enter the word, hit make it, and in the puzzle and in the hints section, the maker will enter 'running'

Now, if you choose the free text hint option (simply by writing in it) and you type:
'He is (run) now.'

and hit 'Make it!'

In the puzzle the word 'running' will be entered, but below the puzzle, you'll see the problem for the students, not the word 'running':

He is (run) now.


Then the students have to answer the question (choose the correct verb form in this case) and then find the word.

It's a bit like an intermediate step between word searches and crosswords. With crosswords the students have to know how to spell the word, but in this format, the students just need to be able to recognize the word, plus it's a little bit more fun that a crossword, imo. Also, since it takes a little time to find the word, the students are focused on the word a little longer than with a crossword.


The possibilities aren't endless, but there's a whole bunch more :D

puzzle word : question and the puzzle word is the answer
puzzle word : problem/fill in the blank like the one above
puzzle word : jumbled spelling
puzzle word : definition
puzzle word : translation into L1 (tried it with Japanese and it worked)
puzzle word : description of the item
puzzle word : synonym/antonym

I hope it's helpful.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:54 pm

I've added a maze maker to Tools for Educators.com!

The maze will travel through 6, 9, or 12 content squares. You can add images to the content quares or type in text. As the students do the maze they'll perform some language task associated with the content in the content squares!

Image

That's not all. With the 6 or 9 content squares version, you can add questions below the maze about the content in the squares. You can just leave a space for them to write the word. You can write a lists of words and students have to circle the word that matches with the order in the maze. And many other possibilities. The best part is they won't know what to answer/do until they actually do the maze.

You can choose the maze size as well. So you can create easier mazes for younger students and more difficult mazes for older students.

The maze maker will generate a different maze each time and not only that, but it will also change paths through the content squares.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:01 am

Almost late but still a little time left ...

There's a free Easter worksheets page where you can make worksheets to supplement your Easter lessons.

I hope it helps.
Last edited by mesmark on Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:39 pm

the new crossword maker!

The crossword maker used to be pretty blah and hard to work with, but there are quite a few new features that really make it useful now.


Same as before, you can choose from any category and make crosswords using MES English flashcard images. There is also a simple text only version.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Image



But, now, you can also add a small text string above the image! So you can have a question about the image or just include jumbled spelling to help the students.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Image



There is a check box, just before you hit 'Get crossword' that says, 'Include a word search'. If you check this box, you'll get both a crossword and a word search. That's a pretty nice feature that I don't believe any other makers out there have.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Image


Also,you can enter two words (police officer, for example) or even a sentence for the answer. The crossword maker will add a gray square to mark word boundries for you. So, you can use a picture of a cat. Then, in the 'hints' field, type "What's this?" and for the answer, you can type a full sentence, "It's a cat." for example.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Image

A little warning on that is that if the sentences are too long, the puzzle boxes will get really small. It's best to only do that for short simple sentences.


Let me know what you think.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:57 am

Here's a visual explanation of how to use the dominoes from the Domino Maker at www.toolsforeducators.com.


Image

If you make some cards with the same word and picture (which you should) those pieces can be played horizontally creating new rows to build on.

Image


If you don't have a domino like either of those items, you draw a domino from the pile. Then play moves to the next player.

The goal of the game is to get rid of all of your pieces first.


For language practice, as a student plays a domino they have to use one of the words in a sentence. Or, to make it more difficult they have to use both of the words in a sentence. They have to make a question where the answer is one of the words on the domino, as another example.

juchoo
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Post by juchoo » Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:02 am

Thanks so much for creating this site. It's really very useful. Haven't checked out all the features yet, but I've tried the crossword-puzzle generator and it's great! Thank you!

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:03 am

There's a new style of board game available at Tools for Educators.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Image

Like the other snaking board game styles, you can create game boards with images only, images and 4 text boxes or all text.


How to play the game:

The game is optimally designed for 4 players.

The teacher designates how many laps the students need to run. Let's say 5 laps.

- Each player places a game piece in one of the four start positions.
- One player rolls a die and enters the game board in a clockwise direction.
- When a player lands on a spcae they complete the learning target associate with that space.
- Play moves to the next player.

- If one player lands on another player (lands on the same place another player is occupying.) The other players man gets knocked back to their start position and has to restart that lap.

So if I was midway around on lap 2 and you landed on my marker/space, I'd go back to my start position and start over on lap 2. You would continue from the spot where I was.


- Each player has to go around for 5 laps. On the fifth lap the player can enter their goal, the finish circle.

They do not need to roll an exact number to enter the goal, but that kind of rule is up to you or the group.


- The first player to finish the game is the winner.

You can continue until all racers have finished or you can stop the race when one crosses the finish line.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:00 am

There is a new featured site spot called the guest tool on Tools for Educators. You can find great tools from around the web, in addition to all of the worksheet makers you can find on Tools for Educators.com.

Also, it's Easter week. If you need printable Easter worksheets, there are plenty there or check out MES-English's Easter printables section.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:29 pm

I've added a comic strip maker or dialog worksheet maker

Image

It's a quick and easy online program. You just open the maker, typ in your text and hit the print button. You can make dialogs with 6 exchanges
  • A:
    B:
    A:
    B:
    A:
    B:
I'm hoping to have an option of 8 exchanges as well.

There are a few choices for conversation participants
  • boy - girl
    girl - boy
    boy - boy
    girl - girl
It has 3 font size options (in comic sans.) The large font is for single sentences. The medium sized font for 1-2 sentences per turn. The smallest font is for longer turns. The text can be moved around so that you can center it in the speech bubble.

You can also format the page for printing Letter (the default) or A4.

I'm still working on it, so if you have any suggestions for making it better or more useful, please let me know

dialog worksheet template

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Fri Nov 12, 2010 4:04 am

I added a new printable picture dictionary worksheet maker to the site

Image

You can create picture dictionary pages with 12, 16 or up to 20 vocabulary words per category. Over 40 categories or a full list of 2,000+ images.

I hope that helps.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Fri Dec 17, 2010 3:07 pm

I added 200 more images to Tools for Educators.

The new images include: bathroom items, buildings, living room items, hair styles and descriptions, superhero vocabulary and plural nouns.

I hope it's helpful.

mesmark
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Post by mesmark » Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:01 am

I updated the domino maker slightly. There's a new text only version. You can use that to make double sided text dominoes. With those you can choose to make dominoes with dots (like real dominoes) or the default is blank which would give you dominoes like the regular imaged based versions.

Image

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