------------------------------------------------------------ An Online Educational Community A newsletter that educates parents, teachers, and students. June 2002 Issue #35 Austin Simms, Editor, mailto:editor@innovamultimedia.com ------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to the thirty-fifth issue of "An Online Educational Community". To read past issues of our newsletter, visit http://www.innovamultimedia.com/archive.htm or to learn more about us, check out our website at http://www.innovamultimedia.com If you think a friend might be interested in reading this newsletter, pass it along in whole or in part. You are receiving this newsletter because you requested a subscription. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, fill out the form at http://www.innovamultimedia.com/newsletr.htm Each month we will focus on a different educational theme and base our feature article and learning tips around that particular theme. ------------------------------------------------------------ IN THIS ISSUE ------------------------------------------------------------ => Feature => Contest - Win a Whale => This Month's Free Lesson Plans => More Great Education Web Sites => Whale Links for Whale Lovers => Whale Trivia => Feedback ------------------------------------------------------------ Feature ------------------------------------------------------------ Summer Learning Activities Well, the school year has finally come to an end and with it has arrived the beginning of the much anticipated summer vacation for students and teachers. Many students view this time of the year as a break from books as well as anything to do with education. Unfortunately, many of them subscribe to large doses of watching television and playing video games. Such overindulgence often means that much of the academic knowledge and skills that the students acquired throughout the school year will be forgotten during the summer break. As a result, teachers often find themselves having to re-teach those same skills during the first month or so of the next school year; thereby, losing a valuable month of covering new educational material. Unfortunately, with this annual break from learning occurring each summer during a child's educational career, the equivalent of a year's worth of re-teaching forgotten skills is required; time that could be better utilized learning new and more challenging material. So what can parents do to ensure that their child does not take a break from learning this summer? Here are some suggestions: - Limit the amount of time that the child spends watching television and playing video games. In other words, maintain the same time restrictions that you impose during the school year. Be consistent! - Encourage year-round reading. If you read to your child and your child reads to you thoughout the school year, maintain those daily shared reading activities during the summer break as well. Be sure to praise your child for reading! - Accompany your child on regular visits to the public library during the summer so that they can replenish their book supply. Have them proceed by reading to succeed! - Encourage your child to include educational programs in their television viewing (e.g., science, nature, and history programs). - Discuss community and world events with your child. - Play games that will enhance your child's spelling, vocabulary, mathematical, and general knowledge skills, such as: Scrabble, Monopoly, and Trivia games. - When travelling on vacation to other places, include visits to museums, zoos, and botanical gardens as part of your itinerary. Children particularly enjoy the interactive displays of science exhibits. Encourage the child to take photos and either write a short journal on the visit, or simply keep a list of captions to write on the back of the photographs once they have been developed. - Include the child in gardening activities. Let them set up their own garden and be responsible for the general upkeep of the plants, i.e., planting the seeds, fertilizing and watering the plants, and keeping records of plant growth. - Play car games to break the monotony of a long automobile trip. This is a great time to involve your child in the rapid recall of multiplication facts, words that rhyme, keeping a record of license plates from other provinces or states, etc. - Encourage your child to participate in sports or activity camps so that they can learn new things and improve on their social, academic, and athletic skills. While we all want our children to enjoy their summer vacation, it is of paramount importance that we do not let them take a three-month break from learning. By providing enriching, challenging, fun activities and encouraging a year-round love of learning, parents will ensure that their children will be well on their way towards succeeding in school and life. ------------------------------------------------------------ Contest - Win a Whale ------------------------------------------------------------ INNOVA Multimedia Ltd. is giving away TEN of our "A Whale of a Tale" educational software lessons and the latest version of LessonBuilder, a custom course-creation utility, as a FREE DOWNLOAD on our website! Visit http://www.innovamultimedia.com/lbuilder.htm to download your free copy. When you download LessonBuilder you are automatically entered in our contest to win a free CD-ROM from our "A Whale of a Tale" series. Good Luck! ------------------------------------------------------------ This Month's Free Lesson Plans ------------------------------------------------------------ Teachers, check out free "A Whale of a Tale" lesson plans on our website at http://www.innovamultimedia.com/lp_index.htm Dive into Math 3 - "Reading Numbers from 100 - 500" at http://www.innovamultimedia.com/math3d.htm encourages children to to read numerals from 100-500. Dive into Math 3 - "Selecting Metric Lengths" at http://www.innovamultimedia.com/math3e.htm encourages children to select the most appropriate unit of measure to measure length. ------------------------------------------------------------ More Great Education Web Sites ------------------------------------------------------------ Check out these INNOVA recommended resource sites: Summer Home Learning Recipes http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Recipes/reck-3.html Parents who are actively involved in their children's learning at home help their children become more successful learners in and out of school. Here are some reading, writing, math, and science Home Learning Recipe activities. These have been developed by the Home and School Institute. Parents of young children in prekindergarten through third grade find them to be easy and enjoyable ways to work with the school--using materials they have at home to build their children's skills. Monthly Activity Calendar: July 2002 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/activitycalendars/2002/jul.shtml This site contains a calendar of suggested activities for each day of the month of July. Simply click on the activity to go to crafts, printouts, Label Me! quizzes, and other activities. Calendars are also available for each month of the year. Canada Day Celebration http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/canada/ Canada Day is on July 1. Celebrate this country's heritage with learning, games, and crafts! ... The web site features coloring pages, crafts, word searches, graphics and history links. Kids Domain July 4th Fun! http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/july4/index.html This web page contains activities designed primarily for celebrating Independence Day on the 4th of July. Many of the materials can be used for other USA Patriotic times as well. ------------------------------------------------------------ Whale Links for Whale Lovers ------------------------------------------------------------ Check out these INNOVA recommended whale sites! Gray Whales with Winston http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/1953/index.html A guide to Gray Whales and Gray Whale watching. This site contains a list of many different facts about the Gray Whale and the way that it lives and survives. Orcas in Captivity http://members.aol.com/OrcaInfo/index.htm This site provides you with information on the Orca Whales in captivity and some of myths about them. It also contains a lot of statistics on the breeding of whales and other things you might want to know. ------------------------------------------------------------ Whale Trivia ------------------------------------------------------------ - A favorite act of a Killer Whale is spyhopping or poking its head out of the water to take a look around. - The False Killer Whale is smaller and thinner than the Killer Whale, and is almost all black. - The biggest of the baleen whales are called Rorquals. - The Blue Whale is about the length of three buses, the weight of twenty-five elephants, and the height of a two-story building. - Fifty people can stand on a Blue Whale’s tongue. - The Blue Whale’s nickname is “sulphur bottom”, named for its yellow underside ------------------------------------------------------------ Feedback ------------------------------------------------------------ If you have comments or suggestions concerning our online newsletter or website, please direct them to mailto:editor@innovamultimedia.com Your comments and suggestions will be published in the feedback section of future issues. Past Online issues can be found at http://www.innovamultimedia.com/archive.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ English Resources Newsletter for teachers and parents. Free opt-in monthly newsletter with free units and puzzles. To subscribe visit http://www.ies.tradeplaza.co.nz or email ies@tradeplaza.co.nz and write subscribe in the subject box. ------------------------------------------------------------ "An Online Educational Community" may only be redistributed in whole or in part in its unedited form. Written permission from the editor must be obtained to reprint or cite the information contained within this newsletter.

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