Summer Activity

 

 
   

 

By popular request; enough free computer activities to keep you busy all summer. Learn to type! Design computer games! Learn to animate! Look at your house from space! Heck, take a trip to Mars!

 

Parents, if I got my wish, every 4-8 student would know how to type correctly. K-2 students should do activities that develop mouse skills, letter recognition, encourage keyboard use and hone reading skills. These links can do all of that and more. Have fun! **

 

Typing Software for the summer:

Typing Pal Pro Software – free trial software

KP Typing Tutor – free trial software

 

Games for Younger Children

Buy It with The Little Farmer

Riverdeep Software – free downloads – all ages, games

Games for younger kids from PBS

Game Goo – again, for younger kids

Literacy Hour – learning activities for K-3

More games for grades 1-5

 

For Older Students
ThinkFree Online Office This is a a free product that will let you create Office compatible documents online and save them. You can make Word, PowerPoint and Excel compatible documents. Great if you don't own Office, but need to work at home and bring the work to school.

Here is another "Office" type product that's free: Open Office.

Free Software by Mark Overmars (drawing, game design, motion game, tangrams, etc.)

Animation Tutorial using Paint (it is on your computer now)

Free Drawing Software – it really free and it is good drawing software.

JigZone – jigsaw puzzle making software-free-hours of fun with your pictures.

Celestia Astronomy Software – it’s free, it is GREAT! Learn about the universe. This is cool!

Google Earth – amazing maps of the earth made from satallite photographs. They also have Google Moon, Google Mars and more.

Download free extras for Windows Movie Maker – remember the countdown transition from class? This is where you get them.

Photo Story 3  Great program from Microsoft. Free is you have Windows XP – a cross between Movie Maker and Power Point. Makes cool movies with music.

Windows Media Player 10 – the latest update. Necessary to use Photo Story 3
Pivot Stick Figure Animator - you can stay busy for months with this - it's really fun and you can create your own animations.

If you like Pivot, you'll love DrawPlus 4.0. It's an one year old version of current animation software. You can animate real objects.

GIMP is very similar to PhotoShop, except it's free. Very advanced. Very cool.

Google Sketchup is available, along with a zillion other things, at: Google

 

 

**At the time the links were created all the above sites were deemed safe for student use by me. However, that is not a guarantee. Links were active when made. Students need rules and guidelines when using the Internet at home, just like at school. Talk to your kids about what is appropriate and not appropriate when using the Internet. Be familiar with using the History button on your browser and check usage frequently. Turn on Parental Control and keep your password safe from prying eyes. If you have any questions, contact me at: bgoodman@dysart.org

 

Remember: The family that computes together, stays together! :)