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Reptiles is a complete study unit, with a content portion, eight writing templates, a comprehension activity, a math activity, and a simple explore activity. The 12 activities plus launcher for Reptiles will import into Classroom Suite, or the ITAN Player, as a single unit. Reptiles was developed in IntelliTools Classroom Suite v. 3.2. |
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 | Once Reptiles has been imported, a student would open the Reptiles Unit Launcher. All the activities are easily accessible from this launcher. The opening page of the launcher has buttons leading to the main components of the unit: Reptiles Introduction, My Books, More Writing Activities, and a button leading to three Other Activities.
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 Cover of the Reptiles introduction book |
 Reptiles introduction table of contents |
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| Introduction to Reptiles is the core content piece of the unit, with facts and photos about the reptiles as a group, and a separate discussion of the characteristics and habits of snakes, lizards, crocodiles and alligators, and turtles and tortoises. The Table of Contents format gives students quick access to each topic. They may later refer back to this activity for facts to use when they are writing. The 29 page introduction includes a custom IntelliKeys® overlay. Note that there is a comprehension activity for this introduction, located within Other Activities. |
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 Page from the "Reptiles Introduction" topic |
 Page from "Lizards and Crocodilians" |
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Reptiles Writing Books
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| Upon completing the Reptiles Introduction book and its comprehension activity, children have four books to choose from for further research and writing. These include: My Reptile Book, My Lizard Book, My Turtle and Tortoise Book, and My Snake Book. Students will take great pride in completing these writing templates, and may choose to print the books when they are finished. |
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 My Snake Book cover |
 A photo and movie of a Black Mamba |
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| In each book a series of high-quality photographs is presented on consecutive pages, and on some pages there are dramatic movies as well. The name of the reptile on each page is provided to get students started in writing about it. In the example above from My Snake Book, a close-up photo and movie of a black mamaba, the world's deadliest snake, is sure to prompt students to write. |
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 Cover of My Reptile Book |
 Students write about the American Alligator |
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| A Read All button lets students hear what they have written. As in all of the activities, switch scanning is fully supported. The writing books are designed to display an on-screen keyboard if needed. Additionally, a custom IntelliKeys® overlay is provided. |
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 Cover of My Lizard Book |
 Photos introduce students to new animals, like this Gila Monster. |
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| A button leads back to the Reptiles Introduction, in case students want to look back at one of the topics. The books also are designed with a "Google" button. This allows the child to click on the button and go to the web to conduct research on their writing topic. We are also providing a list of appropriate websites to teachers so that they can guide the student. |
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 Cover of My Turtle and Tortoise Book |
 Here students write about a Western Painted Turtle. |
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Additionally, the writing books are designed with bibliography pages where students will be shown the proper formatting for referencing websites, books and other resources. Students access the four bibliography pages by clicking a button on the book cover. The format of these four books was designed to meet national curriculum standards for writing and expressive communications, including the organizing, writing, editing of written materials. They also meet national standards for using a computer to develop and publish written materials. |
 Bibliography page |
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| Beyond these initial books, we are providing four more writing activities activities, on several writing levels. All these activities are switch accessible, and have custom IntelliKeys® overlays. |
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 Reptiles in the News writing page | Reptiles in the News is based upon the IntelliTools® "Science in the News" template, with the addition of an onscreen keyboard. Students use a toolbar containing two background pictures and reptile clip art to create their own scene. Once the scene is created, clicking a camera button takes a picture of the scene and drops it into another page formatted like a newspaper, where the students can write an article about their scene. The activity has a custom IntelliKeys® overlay.
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| Writing in Science - Reptiles is based upon the IntelliTalk 3® "Writing in Science" template. A toolbar with reptile-related clipart and a words toolbar support children as they express their own ideas in written form using the computer keyboard and/or toolbar supports. A custom IntelliKeys® overlay for this activity is included.
|  Writing in Science - Reptiles page |
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| Two more writing activities are based on an original Parts Of A... template developed by Learning Magic. In this non-linear template, the user drops a magnifier graphic onto one of the marked parts of the photo background. The activity then moves a page which has a magnified view of the part and a space in which to write about it. |
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 First page of Parts of a Lizard |
 A magnified part page where students write. |
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| Students write a paragraph about each marked part of the animal. One of the two writing templates built in this format is Parts of a Lizard, featuring a leopard lizard students will have met in the Reptiles introduction, and written about in the My Lizard Book. The second template is Parts of a Tortoise, with a Sulcata tortoise that students have previously read and written about. Multiple photos of and encounters with the various reptiles serve to reinforce the information in the Reptiles study unit. |
 First page of Parts of a Tortoise |
 Students write about the tortoise's shell on this page. |
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Other Activities
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| Three additional activities round out the Reptiles study unit. These include a comprehension activity based on Reptiles Introduction called Reptiles Review, a Reptiles Fractions activity, and a Reptiles Explore activity. |
 Reptiles Review cover |
 A question page from Reptiles Review. |
| Reptiles Review is a short comprehension activity, that would probably be used soon after students complete the Reptiles Introduction. There is a short discussion page, and then five multiple choice questions about reptiles. This activity was built in the Learning Magic 5 Question template from the Comprehension CD. The interface has been kept uncluttered to optimize it for scanners, and there is a custom IntelliKeys overlay. Students can jump to each question, have the page read aloud, or go back and read the short reading selection again.
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| Reptile Fractions is based upon the IntelliMathics 3® "Fractions" template. Students go on a field trip to a reptile zoo and are presented with various facts about the reptiles they see there. From the information presented on each page, children will have the opportunity to produce corresponding fractions that match the information given and then reduce the fractions to the least common denominator. |
 Reptile Fractions page |
 Reptiles Explore page |
Reptiles Explore is based on the IntelliPics Studio 3® "Explore Concepts" template. Reptiles clip art is presented in a toolbar along with a toolbar containing a number of background photos that would be appropriate habitat for reptiles. Children can then explore and practice the concepts of movement, size, color, and numbers across multiple backgrounds. Several IntelliQuizzes are available in the activity. A teacher can choose which elements are displayed or choose an IntelliQuiz from a special Teacher Mode. This is the simplest level activity in the study unit.
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The activities all will run on the ITAN Player included on the CD, but either IntelliTools Classroom Suite® or the full version of a component application are needed to modify activities. IntelliTools Classroom Suite® or the full version of the applicable component application are also needed for data collection and reporting in the supplemental Reptile Review, Explore and Fractions activities. |
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| Download A Demo Of The Reptiles CD! |
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Because of the wide spectrum of activities in this study unit, we felt that no single activity from Reptiles would serve as a representative sample. Accordingly, we have prepared a demo for Reptiles including pages from launcher, the introduction, the four writing books,the four additional writing activities, the comprehension test, math activitiy, and the Explore activity. Download the Reptiles Demo right here! (13 MB download) |
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