TuxPaint

I love being able to do doodling and art. So here is a free site for one of the cutest art programs.

Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (for example, preschool and K-6 in the US, key stages 1 & 2 in the UK). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program. Kids are presented with a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative.

Make sure that when you download this you also download the stamps. They are so much fun!

Address is: http://www.tuxpaint.org/

Windows to the Universe website

I can not believe it but I forgot to put the address in my blog! Please forgive me.
The address is: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/

Software for teaching beginning concepts

Sebran ABC is a lovely download that can teach some very nice basic concepts.

It's never too early for your child to become familiar with letters and numbers. Sebran's ABC's colorful pictures, pleasant music, and gentle games teach letters, numbers, simple math, and rudiments of reading.

The address is: http://www.wartoft.nu/software/sebran/

Try this out and see if your students or children enjoy having a great way to both have fun and learn at the same time.

A great On-line site

Here is a great on-line site.

Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system covering the Earth and Space sciences for use by the general public. Windows to the Universe has been in development since 1995. Our goal is to build an internet site that includes a rich array of documents, including images, movies, animations, and data sets, that explore the Earth and Space sciences and the historical and cultural ties between science, exploration, and the human experience. Our site is appropriate for use in libraries, museums, schools, homes, and the workplace. Students and teachers may find the site especially helpful in their studying (and teaching!) Earth and Space sciences. Because we have users of all ages, the site is written in three reading levels approximating elementary, middle school and high school reading levels. These levels may be chosen by using the upper button bar of each page of the main site.

Powerpoint Add-on

Well, since I already talked about WordTalk I might as well talk about PowerTalk.

PowerTalk is a free program that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows.

You just download and install PowerTalk and while you open and run the presentation as usual it speaks the text on your slides. The advantage over other generic 'Text To Speech' programs is that PowerTalk is able to speak text as it appears and can also speak hidden text attached to images.

You can find PowerTalk at: http://fullmeasure.co.uk/PowerTalk/

Windows Users - You need Word to talk

Good afternoon everyone,
Have you ever wanted your Word documents to talk? You need WordTalk. You can find this program at http://www.wordtalk.org.uk/.

WordTalk is a free plug-in developed for use with all versions of Microsoft Word (from Word 97 upwards), which can help people with reading difficulties use Microsoft Word more effectively. It will speak the text of the document and will highlight it as it goes. It contains a talking dictionary to help decide which word spelling is most appropriate. It sits neatly in your toolbar and is highly configurable, allowing you to adjust the highlight colours, the voice and the speed of the speech.

I hope that you will find this tool useful for your students and yourselves.