Text-To-Speech is a powerful computer option, particularly valuable for struggling readers and students with visual issues. Once and while though, you’ll hear a word pronounced incorrectly, most often if it’s a proper name or a technical term. You can correct the pronunciation of a word in Clicker 5®, IntelliTools Classroom Suite®, and My Own Bookshelf®. Detailed instructions and screenshots for all three!

The Inventions activity set uses the story of the invention of Velcro® by George de Mestral to explore the process of invention and what it takes to be a successful inventor. The anchor book, How Things Get Invented, is available at two reading levels, grades 2-3 and grades 4-5. There are also comprehension tests and a Cloze Pro® activity. The final piece of the Inventions activity set are writing activities in both Classroom Suite and Clicker 5 format, entitled Could I Be An Inventor? Bonus: Vocabulary list with definitions!

If you have several related grid sets, it makes sense to link them as an integrated study unit. This can be moved as a unit, so it is easy to share. It can be copied into the Clicker 5 shared files folder, so that it appears in Clicker Explorer. It can have a menu grid with links to all the activities of the unit, and instructions telling the student which to open first. Detailed instructional PDF. Bonus: Menu grid template!

Just in time for Halloween, this fun activity lets students create digital jack-o’-lanterns. In all, nine different faces are possible. The artwork is very three dimensional and realistic. Once a jack-o’-lantern is finished, students add a lighted candle, and finally gets to see what their creation will look like on Halloween night. Bonuses: Zip files of both the art and creepy sounds!

In The Animals Game, a fun science activity, students pick an animal and make the computer guess its name. It’s really a test of the student’s grasp of animal characteristics, but with a twist so that the student runs the show. Students answer questions yes or no, and the computer quickly closes in on the answer. Bonus: Clip art collection and flow chart.

Design Layers shows you how to decide what goes in front of what in your Classroom Suite activities. The tip download is a short Classroom Suite activity that will teach you how to use design layers with a frame animation in about 15 minutes! There is a demonstration, with screen shot instructions, and then you can try it for yourself.

Mountain Bike Race takes the reader to the top of a mountain and down the trails to the bottom on a mountain bike. The reading level is 3rd to 4th grade, but the story would interest older students as well. The reader sees the scenery from a bike rider’s viewpoint, and movies of the bike coming up the lift, the racers starting down, and the end of the race make this a vivid and real experience. Bonus: Collection of photos from the story, plus extra mountain scenes!

Feathers is a science activity explaining how birds and people use feathers. Movies let students see close-up views of birds in flight, a diving bird, and penguins walking about on the ice. Then photos of many different feathers challenge students to guess which bird they belong to. Each feather photo leads to a page with a photo and movie of the bird. Bonus: Collection of the bird and feather photos used and a set of off-computer match cards!

The interactive book Showertime! challenges the reader to find and place all the items needed to get ready to take a shower. To make the experience more interesting, the student reading and controlling the story actually goes into the shower, turns on the water, and sees and hears the water flowing, via animated movies. Bonus: Clip art collection from story!