February Features from Internet 4 Classrooms

February Blog | App of The Month | What's Happening |
New- Online Practice | New- Printables | New- Answer Keys |
Teacher Resources | Parent Resources | Technology Tips |
Other Areas of Interest | Common Core |
SAT and ACT Test Preparation

February brings Black History Month, Children's Dental Health Month, Valentine's Day, President's Day, and much more.

February Blog: Helping Young Students Get STEM Smart

Helping Young Students Get STEM Smart

This month's blog is Helping Young Students Get STEM Smart .

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are the foundation of many modern industries. There are still a lot of young students who lack access to quality STEM education resources or have difficulty understanding these topics. This blog post discusses why STEM education is essential for students to develop problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities that will help them succeed in their future career paths.

Guest Blogger Emma is a gardener, a bookkeeper, writer, and mother of three. She is spending her time mostly in her garden. When she is not there, you will find her working on developing her own line of homemade natural skincare products.

App of the Month

Every month we are going to feature a different, and hopefully FREE, iPad/iPod/iPhone/Android educational application. Visit our ever-changing app page.

The App of the Month for February is Lichess by lichess.org ( iOS and Android ).

Built for the love of chess, this app is open source and free for all.

• 150 000 individual users daily and growing fast.
  
  
• Play bullet, blitz, classical, and correspondence chess
  
  
• Play in arena tournaments
  
  
• Find, follow, challenge players
  
  
• See your games stats
  
  
• Practice with chess puzzles
  
  
• Many variants, available online and offline: Crazyhouse, Chess 960, King Of The Hill, Three-check, Antichess, Atomic chess, Horde, Racing Kings!
  
  
• Game analysis with local computer evaluation
  
  
• Server computer analysis with move annotations and game summary
  
  
• Opening explorer
  
  
• Play against offline computer
  
  
• Over The Board mode to play offline with a friend
  
  
• Standalone chess clock with multiple time settings
  
  
• Board editor
  
  
• Available in 80 languages
  
  
• Designed for both phones and tablets, supporting landscape mode
  
  
• 100% free, without ads, and opensource!
  

Chess variants are supported! Try them all:

• Crazyhouse: every time a piece is captured the capturing player gets a piece of the same type and of their color in their pocket.
  
  
• Chess960: pieces on the home rank are randomised.
  
  
• King Of The Hill: bring your king to the center to win.
  
  
• Threecheck: check the opponent king three times.
  
  
• Antichess: lose all your pieces to win.
  
  
• Atomic Chess: nuke the opponent.
  
  
• Horde: destroy the horde to win.
  
  
• Racing Kings: Race your king to the eighth rank to win.
  

Just like http://lichess.org, this application is open source, and respects user freedom. It is entirely free and without ads, now and forever.

Learn more about lichess philosophy: http://lichess.org/blog/U4skkUQAAEAAhIGz/why-is-lichess-free

Source code of the mobile application: https://github.com/veloce/lichobile

Source code of the website and server: https://github.com/ornicar/lila

Big thanks to the volunteers behind this app:

• Vincent Velociter (lead dev) https://github.com/veloce
  
  
• Renaud Bressand (design) https://twitter.com/RenaudBressand
  
  
• Thibault Duplessis (dev) https://github.com/ornicar
  
  
• Sebastien Renault (dev of stockfish plugin) https://github.com/srenault
  
  
• Mark Henle (dev) https://github.com/freefal
  

Check out the app page on http://lichess.org/mobile, and follow us on twitter for updates: https://twitter.com/lichessorg

Lichess is available for Apple and Android devices.

Compatibility: Requires iOS 13.0 or later on Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and Android version 5.1 and up on your Android device.

WHAT'S HAPPENING THIS MONTH?

Here are some of the February events that you can celebrate or make note of this month:

1. Black History Month
   
   Visit our Black History page. Find lesson plans, Black History activities and projects, timelines, quizzes, and tons of information. Some resources include Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, MLK, the role of African Americans in music, the Dred Scott Case, African flags, and an entire African American Odyssey exhibit exploring civil rights and slavery. Also find a Black History month lesson plan for every day in February by exploring our Who Is It list. Find other Famous African American Firsts here.


2. Children's Dental Health Month
   
   Take a look at "Crawford Brushes His Teeth" on our Kindergarten Science page. It's an interactive online book from Crawford the Cat where students can choose to read it themselves or have the computer read out loud. It discusses how to brush your teeth and how to floss. Use dental health month as an opportunity to find health and the body lesson plans and activities: "A Brush Chart" and "Brush Chart to Color" offer tooth charts that you can print out and color. "Bright Smiles, Bright Futures" is a link to teacher's content on the Colgate site. Learn how the body works - especially your teeth, cavities, braces, and more with these fun facts and activities.
   
3. American Heart Month
   
   Teach students about the human heart and the importance of taking care of their bodies with our health resources section for grades K - 12. Included are links to everything from the human body and the heart to the dangers of smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, obesity, adolescence and more. There are physical education resources as well. For the upper levels I4C has resources about and anatomy videos of the heart in our Biology section, specifically "The Heart: an Online Exploration", "Heart and Circulation", "Heart Transplant from NOVA" and "Heart Videos". Find a map of the heart, the circulatory system, and how it all works together.
   
4. Groundhog Day (2/2)
   
   You can find out why we celebrate Groundhog Day and why the groundhog was chosen to be the face of the holiday.





5. National Inventors' Day (2/11)
   
   Did you know that National Inventors' Day is in honor of Thomas Edison's birthday? Learn about Thomas Edison, other famous inventors, and famous inventions. You can also check out our Inventors page to find lesson plans and other activities.





6. Valentine's Day (2/14)
   
   I4C has a great page of Valentine's Day lessons, crafts, online games and Valentine's printables. Have your students write a story using the phrases of 5 or 6 heart candy message pieces . Get creative!


7. Presidents' Day (2/20)
   
   Celebrate two presidents that have February birthdays- Abraham Lincoln (2/12) and George Washington (2/22). Find lesson plans, history, timelines, reading exercises, and quizzes on both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Celebrate Presidents' Day with these puzzles, printable fact cards, printable biographies and prompts, coloring pages, web quests, and more.

New- ONLINE PRACTICE AT I4C

Internet4Classrooms now offers Online Practice and Interactives, covering Kindergarten to Eighth Grade Common Core Mathematics. Look for a rapidly growing variety of thousands of practice quizzes tied to the Common Core State Standards, School Subjects, Activities, and Holidays.

Check out our Online Practice Quizzes. More grades and subjects coming soon.

New Online Practice Quizzes Made Available in August

We have released many new online quizzes during the last months supporting the Common Core Standards.

Try them out, and then use them with your students as:

• Bell Ringers,
• In Class Assignments,
• Homework or
• Extra Credit.

Here is a list of the newest quizzes by grade.

New- COMMON CORE MATHEMATICS PRINTABLES AT I4C

Internet4Classrooms offers Printables, covering Kindergarten to Sixth Grade Mathematics. Look for a rapidly growing variety of thousands of practice worksheets tied to the Common Core State Standards, School Subjects, Activities, and Holidays.

Check out our Common Core Printables. More grades and subjects coming soon.

New Printables Worksheets Made Available in August

We have released thousands of new printables worksheets during the last months supporting the Common Core Standards.

Try them out, and then use them with your students as:

• Bell Ringers,
• In Class Assignments,
• Homework or
• Extra Credit.

Here is a list of the newest worksheet sets by grade.

New- Answer Keys




New Worksheet Answer Keys Made Available in August

We have released thousands of new answer keys for our printables worksheets during the last months supporting the Common Core Standards.

Remember that you can sign up for answer key access here: https://i4c.xyz/n89msyv.

Here is a list of the newest answer key sets by grade.





TEACHER RESOURCES



1. February honors Black History Month. As we mentioned in the section above, I4C has a large page of resources dedicated to Black History month and African American History. Take our online Black History Quiz. Discover 500 Famous African American Mathematicians. Click on the many links to timelines, historical exhibits, and Black History teacher resources.
2. In need of project ideas for the second half of the school year? We have them: subject areas, inventors, biographies, middle/high school level projects, and countries and continents.


3. Keep your students and yourself healthy this cold and flu season! Here are some great tips to share with your students and their parents.


4. Looking for lesson plans to bring in the new year? We have a whole page dedicated to lesson plans by grades and subjects.


5. Are you using our Site Map? Don't forget it's an easy and quick way to search alphabetically by topic.


6. Be sure to check out I4C's collection of free educational iPhone and iPad apps.


7. Remember to visit our Teacher Tools section. This home page contains all the topics you need to use during the school year.


8. Go to our grade level help for lesson plans, activities, instructionals, and tools organized by grade and subject.



PARENT RESOURCES




1. Are you looking for Valentine's day crafts you can do at home? We have them!
2. Celebrate Black History month with printables, projects, and crafts you can do with your kids to honor this important month.
3. Work puzzles in to your day! I4C has word search and crossword puzzle makers and tons of brain teasers!


4. Want to reinforce a concept with your child? Check out our Grade Level Skill Help page for tons of resources in math and language arts covering a variety of topics.


5. Be sure to check out I4C's collection of free educational iPhone and iPad apps for you and your child.


6. You can always visit our Parent Resources page to get grade level practice sites, find online sources, and information pertaining to homework, special needs, reading help, and more.


7. Don't forget our Technology Tutorial section in case you need refresher courses in your computer skills.





TECHNOLOGY TIPS



1. 8 Great Chess Apps for Beginners and Grand Masters:
   The millennia-old pastime of chess has been enjoying an explosion of interest. Whether people are longing for any engaging hobby to keep themselves sane, or they fell prey to a popular Netflix drama about a chess prodigy, competition is heating up. The game is the same no matter which of these chess apps you choose, but features differ. Some apps and platforms target a more committed audience, while others are simpler and may suit those seeking to dabble against a less competitive crowd.
   
   Learn more in the article found: HERE


2. How Can I Teach Chess Online Using Chess.com?:
   Chess.com provides robust teaching tools for chess coaches and trainers of all levels and experience. This article is a guide to our most commonly used tools, employed by many of the world's leading online chess teachers: Interactive Analysis Board, Analysis, Puzzles, Opening Explorer, Game Explorer, Lessons, Drills.
   
   Learn more by visiting: HERE.


3. How To Get Better at Chess: Ultimate Improvement Guide:
   While simply playing chess is surely fun and exiting, something in us drives us to constantly get better in the royal game. It really doesn’t matter whether you’re a total beginner or on the edge of getting your last Grandmaster norm – there is always room for improvement. But improving your chess skills isn’t a simple task; is more than just playing the game regularly. This article takes a scientific approach to getting better at chess, breaking down what exactly it takes to improve.
   
   You can find out more: HERE.






We also have other basic instruction in Microsoft Office, including Word 2007, Excel 2007, Powerpoint 2007.





OTHER AREAS OF INTEREST



1. Resources for Educators - In this section you can find classroom resources for Exceptional Children, Smartboards, Character Education, Web 2.0 Resources and other topics.
2. Resources for Parents - Parents can find resources
   on assisting their children with homework, time management, Internet Safety, subject area resources, grade level resources and more.




Common Core State Standards at I4C




Our Common Core State Standards are full of resources for every individual standard. Students can take control of their own learning by clicking on the page with the standard number, and choosing their own resource to practice that skill.




Check out our Common Core Math High School Algebra Standards, Common Core Math Standards, and Common Core ELA Standards.




SAT and ACT Test Preparation

Free Online Practice Resources for ACT Tests and SAT Tests. I4C now offers free SAT and ACT vocabulary and math quizzes. Join our SAT and ACT Test Preparation program and log in as much as you'd like. Students can take practice tests on 5000 vocabulary words or over 1000 math problems. Parents and Mentors can log in to monitor your scores - including seeing which vocabulary words that were missed. Interactive quizzes allow the test taker to retake and study as much as they want.




Sign Up Here for ACT Test & SAT Test Preparation.