This web 2.0 tools is hosted by the New York Zoos and Aquarium which includes: The Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and The New York Aquarium. The intended audience is children however I think any adult using this page would have fun at least one time. The purpose of this site is to promote literacy, provide information about animals, identify anatomy, as well as encouraging play and creativity.
The page opens and the user is prompted to make several selections to “build your wild self.” Get started by inserting your name on the template and selecting gender and skin tone. A blank body will appear and then the user must continue adding parts. Each time you make a selection the user gets to hear a funny noise, which usually identifies the animal the part came from. This feature can be turned down. Once your creature is complete press I am done and the learning begins. The user is now redirected to a page that provides information about each animal part that they have selected. The image can be saved, printed, and emailed.
This tool has many applications for the classroom. Literacy is a main goal in many school districts. This could be used as a reading activity that would then be followed with a writing assignment. Students could make up a short story about the creature they have become. The fun part is that the creature can be printed out for an illustration. Students could share their stories with the class to practice reading out load.
There are also applications with science. The web tool is sponsored by the NY zoo system and includes links to each zoo. This site can be used as an introduction to animal classification or a pre-zoo visit. When the student is building their creature they are learning anatomy by identifying different body parts and where they should be. A more creative focus for an art teacher would be to I am an first have students “build their wild self” on this site to warm up and practice and follow up by asking them to draw or sculpt a creature in a similar concept.
Hi Micheline- Ok, I admit, I really enjoyed this one. I particularly like the idea of using it in a writing prompt and printing out the composite picture they created. It would be perfect for me to use because our school is practicing writing prompts all through this year in grades K-12. It's called "Writing across the Curriculum" and the data will be used in our re-certification process. So, Thank you, this one is going down on my list.
ReplyDeleteMicheline, I like this application. I went to the site and created on, too. It was very cute; both of my teenage children were over beside me before I had been on the site for 2 minutes. I can see that this one would be very engaging. I currently do an art lesson in which students create a character (we reinforce ideas of fiction, characters, writing), make up a name for the character and write a short story about it. This takes about 3 classes to do, then another part of a class to tell some of our stories. This would be a wonderful way to do a similar lesson, maybe starting out with a Maurice Sendak story. We often start or finish a lesson with a book in the early grades. I do this one with first through third and sometimes fourth.
ReplyDeleteThe information in the sidebar about each animal is written on about a second or third grade level; that’s appropriate also.
Once a student is done, there is an option to send a copy to a friend. A picture of the creature is sent. I sent mine to myself and copied the pic; I will paste it in my blog. A student also has the option of printing his or her picture. This is a quite nice little software program for using with elementary students and I plan on using it.
I thought that this was a great website. I can see all the different ways to use this in the classroom. I teach first grade and I can already see the the creations they would make. I also like the fact that after their creation is done, it tells them all about the different parts of the animals they choose. What a great way to tie science and literacy together. I would be able to have them create themselves and then write about it. WHen we go on our field trip to the Phoenix Zoo they have to find at least three of the animals they picked. This was a great tool!!! Thank you for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteThis is on my list to go back to in December:) Great find!
ReplyDelete