This is a sponsored post on behalf of Legends of Learning, however all opinions remain 100% ours.
As a parent and someone who helps teach in our co-op school, it’s hard to navigate this new world of technology at our fingertips. With screens at every turn, sometimes it feels like kids’ brains will turn to mush if parents and educators don’t actively prevent what we call the “zombie effect” of too much screen-time. This is a struggle we’ve dealt with for years as I know playing games can be extremely rich learning environments {hello, Oregon Trail of my youth}. But, sometimes it feels like even games aimed at young kids these days are devoid of any learning opportunities.
At our school, we have the math and reading apps covered thanks to generous donations from our community, but I was noticing recently how we didn’t have any science learning games to offer to the kids. So, I set out to find some on my own and landed on Legends of Learning, an education based program developed specifically for teachers and their students to explore and enhance their science curriculum.
Legends of Learning was developed using rigorous content quality testing process that included teachers, external curriculum experts, and their own internal academic team. Each group of games is reviewed to match the content standard, whether it is based on NGSS {Next Generation Science Standards} or specific state standards. And, because they value their users, they give an opportunity for educators and students to rate each title after playing and give feedback to the developers and other users.
After researching the program further, I realized that Legends of Learning platform checks off all of the boxes on my list of must-haves. It is easy to navigate, has different grade levels available to choose from, and has content that is relevant to our studies. Even better, it is entirely free for us to experience first hand for teachers and for students. I was so excited that I quickly created my own teacher account and played a few games to try it out myself before introducing it to the kids.
In just minutes of clicking around a bit and playing a few games, I found that the games and interface were everything I hoped they would be. It is set up specifically for teachers and I found it easy to find games that were directly correlated to curriculum we are covering in school right now. After playing a few games related to our current studies, I was surprised that I even learned a few things in my short amount of playtime that we hadn’t covered in the textbooks. I could definitely see this being a great learning tool for our classrooms to help them really understand the material and get excited about additional learning on the topics we cover.
The only thing missing from my research thus far was seeing how the students respond to it and what they absorb in the process. So, to start out my testing, I borrowed some extra kids and let my older two join in playing some games together. In my teacher’s account I added them as students and loaded some games for them, and then I launched them so they could try all the titles out for themselves before they earned some freeplay time.
The kids immediately began navigating through the system to find the games I had launched for them and then sat immersed in the games. I was surprised at how quickly they figured out how each game worked and how it tied into their classroom learning. Overall, I was very pleased with how easy it was for them to figure out the system and dive right in.
I also loved how they worked together as they went, helping each other learn by trial and error. And, because we all know that teachers can’t be everywhere at once, I especially liked how I can see what each child is working on. To them, it was just exciting that for once I was urging them to play on the computer, but I also knew how much they were learning as they played.
It was really cool was being able to watch their progress in my account and see what they were doing with real-time information at my fingertips. Knowing that they were playing learning games that directly related to our lesson plans made me so happy, and I loved hearing them process things in new ways that made it truly fun to learn.
With summer fast approaching, I know I’m going to be utilizing Legends of Learning throughout the break to help prevent “summer brain drain.” I know how hard it is for teachers to get children back into learning in fall and I like to do my part to keep the kids learning all year round. In addition to taking them on mini field trips, supplementing their learning with an occasional movie, and reading together as a family, I love that I now have Legends of Learning to turn to for science-related studies as well.
Get Legends of Learning
Are you an educator? If so, you need to sign up for a free account today and see how you can utilize their games for even better understanding of science related subjects. Even if you’re not an educator, I’m sure you know a few Legends of Learning that could benefit from a free game-based learning program to use in their classroom, right? Do that super hero a solid and make sure you tell them all about Legends of Learning and how it can enhance science curriculum for their students.
Sign up for Legends of Learning here and make a free account so you can bring these awesome science games to your classroom.
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