A note about free stuff: if you won't use it, please don't ask for it. A lot of these programs have limits or wait lists, and you might be preventing another Cheaper Teacher from getting a great deal. If you don't think you'll use it but know someone who will, that's fine... but please don't order something just because it's free.
Aaaannnddd.... on with the Freebies!
FREE from the Smarty-Pantses at Harvard Medical Center's Department For Change comes an enviro-friendly DVD for students in Elementary and possibly Middle School grades, depending on level of maturity. The synopsis offered by the website is as follows:
A storyteller, played by Academy Award winner Linda Hunt, speaks to us of a spell that has been cast that has caused everyone to forget about the importance of the ocean. One little girl, however, is determined to find a way to break the spell. She embarks on a journey to the sea with a magical shell that shows her how our health and well-being depend on the marine environment, and explains how the ocean is under threat. Arriving at her destination, the girl helps us realize how we can all break the spell and save the ocean, and ourselves.
This video has the potential to be a little corny, but it's only a bit over 9 minutes long and it could open up some good discussions with the kids about protecting the oceans and other environmental topics. Amazon also has a book by the same title, but I don't know if it's related. If you think you can use this DVD in your class, you can order one from Harvard here.
Everyone loves space. NASA is capitalizing on that by offering teachers some FREE space posters for their classrooms to get kids excited about becoming future astronauts and physicists and rocket scientists and other crazy cool jobs. Let's just hope the kids don't turn out like Lisa Nowack!
Anyway, I digress. This poster has a nifty back side (not pictured) that gives lots of cool information about space and has some literacy tie-in stuff. I'm not sure I'll use it in my classroom, to be honest, as my school frowns on any decorative posters that are not charts made with the kids. But I do think this could be awesome for the Prize Box, or could potentially be used for a few lessons and then put away. Depending on size, if you hang it, you might want to have it laminated so it will last from year-to-year. You can pick yours up at the NASA Discovery & New Frontiers website.
That's all for now on Free Stuff Wednesday! Hope some of you can use some of this!
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