Lessons for American Heart Month
February is American Heart Month, a time to raise awareness about the importance of keeping our hearts healthy and free from disease. This month is especially important for our young ones since they are making more and more choices about what they eat and how to stay active.
Qwizdom OKTOPUS is providing a FREE lesson and question set to help you give attention to heart health with your students. Use OKTOPUS annotation and collaboration software to present a short lesson and question sets and review causes of heart disease, including pertinent vocabulary, and a few tips on how to keep our hearts healthy. Click here for the free lessons: American Heart Month
If you don’t already have Qwizdom OKTOPUS, get a Free Trial. Then register an online account in OKTOPUS to access more free content and get a 30-Day trial of OKTOPUS Blend with Premium Common Core-aligned activities.
Explore and experience Qwizdom OKTOPUS today, starting with your free lesson for American Heart Month. Go to www.qwizdomoktopus.com
Lessons to Support African American History Month
February is designated as African American History Month, a time to recognize and pay tribute to the African Americans who have made positive and profound impacts on American history. This month can also be used to focus on the achievements and contributions of the many activists, artists, authors, educators, musicians, poets, scientists, and writers who not only overcame challenges but showed that challenges only made for stronger impacts and outcomes for all people.
Qwizdom OKTOPUS is providing FREE learning packages to support your teaching goals for African American History Month. Use OKTOPUS annotation and collaboration software to present these activities focused on the accomplishments of some famous African Americans and periods of time that reflect the powerful African American experience. The package is separated into lessons for K-5 and grades 6 and up, but any lesson can be modified to use for all learners. Click on the links to get your activities:
Get a Free Trial of OKTOPUS. Then register an online account in OKTOPUS to access free content and get a 30-Day trial of OKTOPUS Blend with Premium Common Core-aligned activities.
Explore and experience Qwizdom OKTOPUS today, starting with your free lessons for African American History Month. Go to www.qwizdomoktopus.com
National Houseplant Appreciation Day
Have “green thumb” bragging rights? Or have goals of becoming one? Why not share your affinity for cultivating plants, as well as the science behind it, with your students?
Qwizdom OKTOPUS is providing a FREE learning package on plants to use with your interactive displays. Use OKTOPUS annotation and collaboration software to present the lessons and deliver the question sets focused on parts of a plant, plant growth, and seeds. Click on the link to get your activities: Houseplant Appreciation Day activities
Get a Free Trial of OKTOPUS. Then register an online account in OKTOPUS to access free content and get a 30-Day trial of OKTOPUS Blend with Premium standards-aligned activities.
Explore and experience OKTOPUS today, starting with your free lessons for National Houseplant Appreciation Day. Go to www.qwizdomoktopus.com.
Lessons to Support Native American Heritage Month
November is designated as Native American Heritage Month, a time to explore the distinctive cultures, histories, and traditions of Native people. This month can also be used to focus on the history and current circumstances of the different tribes in America, including the challenges Native people have faced and how they have overcome those challenges.
Qwizdom is providing a FREE learning package on Native Americans to use with your interactive displays. Use OKTOPUS annotation and collaboration software to present these activities, which include lessons and questions focused on the history of regional tribal groups, as well as to begin and/or continue your discussion on Native people. Click on the link to get your activities: NAHM_2019
Get a Free Trial of OKTOPUS. Then register an online account in OKTOPUS to access free content and get a 30-Day trial of OKTOPUS Blend with Premium Common Core-aligned activities.
Explore and experience OKTOPUS today, starting with your free lessons for Native American Heritage Month. Go to www.qwizdomoktopus.com.
Lessons to Encourage Healthy Living
With our quickly changing world, technology has become a major part of our children’s day. Whether at home, school, or even during extracurricular activities, our children are interacting with some type of technology such as smart phones, laptops, and interactive boards. These interactions tend to mostly engage their mental ability, but is that all they need? To help our children be balanced and healthy individuals, we need to also engage them in physical activities, thus the need for National Child Health Day. Child Health Day is observed the first Monday in October and this year, it’s today – October 7, 2019.
To help you observe this day with your students, we are providing FREE activities to use with your interactive displays. Activities include lessons and questions focused on exercise and physical health, keeping healthy, and nutrition. Click on the link to get your activities: Child Health Day.
Use OKTOPUS annotation and collaboration software to present activities, which can give you insight in what your students are understanding via immediate feedback. Redirect, reteach, or review the lessons after today to keep your students thinking about their physical activity and the need to maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
Get a Free Trial of OKTOPUS. Then register an online account in OKTOPUS to access free content and get a 30-Day trial of OKTOPUS Blend with Premium Common Core-aligned activities.
“You can’t educate a child who isn’t healthy, and you can’t keep a child healthy who isn’t educated.” –
Jocelyn Elders
Explore and experience OKTOPUS today, starting with your free lessons for National Child Health Day. Go to www.qwizdomoktopus.com.
On Your Mark, Get Set…It’s a New School Year!
On Your Mark, Get Set…It’s a New School Year!
Do you feel that? The anticipation of another school year beginning, a fresh start with up-to-date class displays and bulletin boards, new students ready to reveal their personalities, and a full bag of “teacher tricks” to manage the learning. So, what else do you need? Ready-to-use lessons that cover a variety of topics and can be facilitated as a whole class, in small groups, or independently. The best part? They’re free! Use the lessons with your OKTOPUS annotation and collaboration software for interactive displays and start the school year on a positive(ly fun and engaging).
The grades K-2 and grades 3-5 packages each consists of eight activities that touch on topics in Reading and Language Arts, Math, and Science. The grades 6-8 package consists of eight activities that delve into topics in Math, Science, and Social Studies.
Click for on the link for each package:
To inject some fun while learning, try OKTOPUS GameZones. Up to four different activities from different subjects can be chosen to play as a class, with a partner, or individually. Click and watch this video to learn how this feature works with your interactive panel:
Get a Free Trial of OKTOPUS which includes Game Zones. Then register an online account in OKTOPUS to access free content and get a 30-Day trial of OKTOPUS Blend with Premium Common Core-aligned activities.
“You’ll never get bored when you try something new. There’s really no limit to what you can do.” – Dr. Seuss
As you start your new school year, cling to that excitement of incorporating new ideas, new strategies, and new resources. OKTOPUS can help keep that excitement going with easy-to-use, subject-specific annotation tools, cross platform capability, and enhanced multi-touch performance. You can even generate data reports for each lesson, including the option of viewing data by question. You’ll be able to see where your students are today and where they need to go! Explore and experience OKTOPUS today. Go to www.qwizdomoktopus.com.
Let’s Wrap This Up!
It’s the end of the school year and testing is OVER! That’s right…O-V-E-R, OVER. So, now what? For most, this time of the year means cleaning out desks, taking down bulletin boards, and trying to keep your students focused on something education-related. With just a couple of weeks left, how about wrapping up the academic year with free OKTOPUS lessons? The lessons are ready to present on your interactive board and are perfect for both collaboration and 1:1 interaction.
Grades K-2 Wrap-Up:
The K-2 Wrap-Up Math and Language Arts lessons in this package touch on many of the concepts and skills taught throughout the year. Many are aligned to learning standards that you’ve most likely focused on this year:
Click here to access the free lesson package: K-2 Wrap Up
Grades 3-5 Wrap-Up:
The Gr 3-5 Wrap-Up has lessons that deal with Language Arts, Math, and Science topics and skills you have worked hard to tackle during the year. Many are aligned to learning standards that you’ve most likely focused on:
Click here to access the free lesson package: Gr 3-5 Wrap Up
GameZones
For increased review and work towards mastery, try OKTOPUS GameZones. You or your students can choose up to four different games from different subjects to play as a class, with a partner, or individually. Click and watch this video — GameZones – to learn how this feature works with your interactive panel.
Get a Free Trial of OKTOPUS which includes Game Zones. Then register an online account in OKTOPUS to access free content and get a 30-Day trial of OKTOPUS Blend with Premium CCSS-aligned activities.
So, as another year draws to a close, keep the learning going with OKTOPUS premade lessons. You can generate data reports for each lesson, including viewing data by question, and see how far your students have come. Go into the summer break knowing that your students progressed and are ready for the next school year. Enjoy!
OKTOPUS Premium Interactive Whiteboard Lessons
As educators, we are constantly on the hunt for activities and plans that can add to our repertoire of lessons. This is probably done more when we’re preparing our students for state standardized assessments. Besides using released sample questions and practice tests, we look for activities that don’t require much work on our part (we already have a lot going on!). Enter Qwizdom OKTOPUS Blend, which includes thousands of lessons that can be used with any interactive whiteboard, touch panel or projector. These lessons meet many state learning standards that students are expected to master in Reading, Math, and Science. You, too, can get your hands on these “click and play” lessons! To do so, take these easy steps:
- Upgrade your current OKTOPUS license to OKTOPUS Blend. This will give you access to thousands of premium lessons that are focused on state standards and key concepts integral to a successful learning experience.
- In OKTOPUS, click on “Standard Tools” then choose “Lessons” from the drop-down menu.
- Click on the icon for “Lessons.”
- Search for a concept or skill that your class needs to review or is struggling with. Results will populate and the Premium lessons will appear first.
- You can click on “Preview” to see all of the slides included in the lesson. You’ll find that the lessons are focused, simple to understand, and get to the heart of the skill or concept.
- Click “Download” and save the lesson to your PC.
- In the sidebar, click the paper icon and choose “Open” to open the new lesson. You are ready to present!
Most of our Premium Lessons include a short, concentrated lesson followed by a set of questions. You can click through the lesson in the Presentation setting as your students view on their devices. When they answer the lesson questions, you can quickly find out how much the students are absorbing.
Periodic Table for Middle School Science starts with a mini-lesson including a graphic of the periodic table and an explanation of how elements are arranged. Various images engage the learner and help them sound down the new information. At any time during the presentation, click the collaboration icon on the feedback indicator to allow students to annotate on the slide and add to the active participation aspect of their learning.
Many of the questions include an explanation to the correct answer, which can help clarify any misunderstandings students may have.
OKTOPUS also enables you to add blank slides to the end of the lesson if you want to continue the discussion. Really, the presentation can stop at the end of the lesson but sometimes our students can surprise us (!) and want to do a little more. Why not?
OKTOPUS Premium Lessons can be used to reinforce commonly tested concepts and skills via whole class discussion, small group review, or individually in self-paced mode. They are available in Science, Language Arts, and Math. So, as you sit and think about what to use so your students feel confident and positive when the dreaded testing window arrives, consider OKTOPUS Premium lessons. They are focused, simple, and can take less than 15 minutes to present. Need convincing? Watch this video: Lessons for Touch Panels and Whiteboards – OKTOPUS Software.
Learn more at www.qwizdomoktopus.com.
OKTOPUS Lessons for Preschool, Kindergarten and more
OKTOPUS Preschool, Kindergarten Lessons and More
For this month’s blog I wanted to give you some ideas on how you can use Qwizdom OKTOPUS with your Preschool – 4 Grade students. Did you know that there are free activities available online? I will walk you through how to download and edit these premade lessons. I also created a couple of fun, sample lessons for Kindergarten and Preschool students that include songs, counting and reading practice. Last but not least, I created a 4th Grade Math Lesson that lets students practice identifying triangles.
Download Free Lessons and Add Interactive Widgets
There are free Math, Science and Language Arts lessons available online. The majority of activities are geared towards Kindergarten – 5 but some can be used for Preschool, too. To access these lessons, follow the instructions below.
Step 1: Create a free online account.
- Open OKTOPUS, go to the Settings / Login To My Account.
- Click ‘Not Registered.’
- Complete the form, including choice of state, district and school.
- If you have a product key, click Yes and enter your key, if not, click No.
- Agree to terms and click ‘Submit.’
- Click ‘activate account’ link in the verification email.
- Re-open OKTOPUS, go to Settings / Login To My Account. Enter username (email) and password setup in registration.
- Check the ‘Save Credentials box.
Step 2: Search for Lessons
Now that you created an account and are logged in, go to the ‘Lessons’ tab and select the Lessons Search icon.
Type a keyword into the search field. If you would like to refine your search, click on Advanced Search, select
Grade, Subject and then click ‘Go’.
Here are some helpful search terms for free content:
Counting, Alphabet, Greater Than, Ordinal Numbers, Measurement, Patterns, Classifying, Basic Shapes, Calendar, Telling Time, Fractions, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Capitals, Consonants, Vowels, Parts of Speech, Nouns, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Plants, Trees, Seasons, Animals, Temperature, Earth, Electricity and Dinosaurs
There are 2 types of content: Free Content (available to anyone with an OKTOPUS license in the US) and
Premium Content (which requires a Blend subscription).
Use the page numbers to scroll to the free content.
Step 3: Preview and Download Lessons
Click Preview to quickly view all instruction and question slides. Answer slides are not available for preview.
Click ‘Download’ and the activity will be downloaded to your computer. In OKTOPUS, go to the File menu, select Open and
browse to the newly downloaded activity (.qap).
I downloaded an Alphabet lesson and then added some interactive slides to the end of the activity so students can practice their ABCs. Such activities include building words and matching.
Preschool Circle Time Activities
For preschool, you could use OKTOPUS to bring your circle-time songs to life or create simple interactive games. I created a short lesson that includes ‘There Was an Old Lady, 5 Little Monkeys, Frog Counting Game’ and more. Click on the link below to download the activity and add your favorite circle time songs and activities.
Download Preschool Games Lesson
Calendar, Attendance, Weather and More
You could use OKTOPUS as a way to start the day. You could have students check in, add dates, report the weather, practice the days of the week and learn about seasons. Here is a lesson that you can download and modify to work with your morning routine.
Identifying Triangles
Here is a fun lesson where students can measure angles and sides of a triangle using a protractor and ruler to identify the triangle.
Download Classify Triangles Lesson
What types of activities have you created? Do you want to share your work? Email info@qwizdom.com your favorite OKTOPUS activity or share it on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t forget to tag #Qwizdom #QwizdomOKTOPUS. Happy teaching everyone!
