Remove Ads and Change Viewing Options in Online Flash Games

Many teachers and parents want their child to practice skills with games that are available online for free. However, one of the main concerns I have as an educator is when I allow students to play these games and they come across advertising from outside websites (even with an Ad Blocker on). You know what I mean…the constant ads and it never fails…a kid is likely to click on one of those because they are shiny and blinking! Once they click on those ads, they are taken to a new site. This is especially difficult with younger students. Whenever I can, I like to create add-free games for my students when they go to the computer labs or for practice at home. I also like to increase the viewing size to a full screen so my students can see the game better. When you remove all of the ads and create a full screen for kids, it removes all distractions and allows them to focus on the learning game you want them to play. I searched for what feels like forever to figure out how to turn a flash game into its own file with a link. I finally figured it out! I hope this helps you as much as it’s helped me! It’s a bit more work, but so worth it! Here are the steps in creating your own links!

Step 1:

Install the Live HTTP Headers as an extension in Firefox.

Step 2:

Go to the site you wish to remove the ads and view full screen (see all the ads as well as the small screen in this game?)

(example: http://www.abcya.com/dolch_sight_word_bingo.htm)

Step 3:

Once you are in the game, Click on Tools, Live HTTP Headers

Step 4:

You will then come to a window that looks like this:

Step 5:

Now, it begins to generate the request. You need to save this as a .txt file.

Step 6:

Open the file and search for the URL that ends in .SWF. Once you find it, copy the link and paste it in a new browser window (you can use any browser now that you have the new link).

Step 7:

Paste your new link in your browser window and have fun! No ads and now it is in full screen!

 

100 Days of School with Technology

Are you looking for some fun ways to engage your students with the 100 Days of School by using Technology tools? Here are some fun ideas to get you excited about how you can use technology as a tool to create fun and engaging lessons and projects for students to interact with the number 100 (and all the numbers in between).

100 Gum Balls in Keynote I created this Keynote template that you can download here. You can use this on the Mac or iPad and have students practice inserting shapes using the circle tool. Students can format the circle by choosing a color. Next, they will practice using the copy/paste feature to re-create their circle. This is such an important skill for even the youngest of students. For a fun extension, students can animate the gum balls as the drop through the black slot! The gum ball machine is not clipart! It was created in Keynote with the “Draw with Pen” tool! Isn’t Keynote awesome!!!!

 

When I am 100 Years Old Using the app, Aging Booth, students can take a photo of themselves and see what they will look like when they are 100. From there, they can save their 100 year old photo to their camera roll and then use an app such as 30 Hands,  iMovie, or Explain Everything to tell a story about what they will have accomplished when they are 100 years old. For this example below, I had students create their photo and then Air Drop it to my iPad. From there, we created one large class recording in 30 Hands where students talked about what they would have accomplished with they are 100.

Personalize a 100 dollar bill with student’s photos. Click here to create 100 dollar bills. Once students save their image, they can drag it into a word processing app, such as Pages, and write about what they would do if they were president and had a 100 bill with their photo on it.

Example:

Typing and Formatting a Document Practice:

Type out a bulleted list of

• 100 Animals
• 100 Things that Make You Happy
• 100 Favorite Things to do for Fun

Web Activities (whole group on Smart Board or individual)

Give the Dog the Bone

100 Balloon Pop

Splat Square

Ghost Blasters

Number Grid Fireworks

100 Snowballs

Before 100 and After

 

 

Online Holiday Fun

Looking for some fun online activities for your students this week? I have browsed lots of holiday activities and sites and put my favorites on this one page. There are tons of holiday learning activities where students can get into the spirit of the holiday season while also learning and practicing various content areas. This is a great thing to have the week before Winter Break. Hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Click here to access online activities.

The site is broken up into these parts: Snowflakes, Snowmen, Gingerbread Houses/Cookies, Trees, and miscellaneous learning games.

Screen Shot of website