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Teach Compassion Using Online Games

Featured Author:

Kelly Tenkely

Kelly Tenkely graduated from Colorado Christian University with a Liberal Arts degree in Elementary Education. She started teaching in 2003 as a second grade teacher in a public school. In 2004 she made the switch to private school and took the only available opening as the technology teacher. Educational technology has since become her passion. She started a web site for her classroom and soon discovered that other teachers were using the site to aid technology in their classrooms.

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Kelly also trains teaching staff on integrating and implementing technology into the classroom. Training teachers on the use of technology in the classroom led to her blog, ilearntechnology.com, where she blogs daily about integrating technology into the classroom simply and effectively. When she is not blogging, searching for and playing with new technology, or on theapple.com Kelly enjoys scrapbooking, cooking, and spending time with her husband and dog (Aya).

More articles from this author:

• Its Back...and Online? Presenting Lite-Brite 2.0
• Back-to-School Prep with Jigsaw Planet
• Use Videos to Enliven Lessons, Engage Students

What is it?

I have posted before about a website called Free Rice. This vocabulary game has the added benefit of donating rice to help end world hunger. For each correct answer, Free Rice donates 20 grains of rice on your behalf. This isn’t the only website with a cause.

Aid to Children is a vocabulary game like Free Rice — for every correct answer, $0.25 are donated to children in need through World Vision. Free Poverty is a world geography game. See how many cups of water you can donate by testing your knowledge about the world. Each correct answer means that 10 cups of clean water have been donated on your behalf. Free Corn is another vocabulary game like Free Rice — for every 25 visits to the website, one kernel of corn is donated. Free Kibble is a trivia game. Every day your students play Bow Wow Trivia 20 pieces of kibble are donated to animal shelters to help feed their hungry dogs. Free Kibble Kat also donates 20 pieces of kibble per player each day — this time students are raising kibble for cats.

How to integrate these websites into the classroom

Each of the above websites offers a wonderful opportunity to teach students to look outside their own needs to the needs of others. Use these websites to teach your students compassion, about other cultures, and about helping those less fortunate. The websites will also be a great way for your students to practice vocabulary or geography. Encourage your students to play these games from home when they are “bored” or just for fun. See how much rice, money, corn, water, or kibble you can raise as a class. Use these figures to teach graphing and charting. You can also use the sites to teach persuasive writing. Students can create a “commercial” for the site, a poster advertising the site, etc. (I found a commercial that I made as an example for my students on Free Corn…small world!)

Using these websites with my class taught me just how compassionate and concerned my students are. It was wonderful to see my students come together around a common goal. Using these websites with a cause in your classroom is a real life character education lesson!

Tips

Bookmark these sites on classroom computers. Kids who finish their work early can sit and play one of the games while they wait for the next activity.

Discuss and share other technology tips here.