Tuesday, November 25, 2014

It's Here! PebbleGo Next from Capstone!

Two years ago we added Capstone's PebbleGo to the Van Meter School library collection as one of the wonderful resources that Heartland AEA brings to the area school districts. 

I have never seen any online database bring this much excitement, learning, and fun along with it! All of our youngest learners from Pre-K through 3rd grade loved everything about PebbleGo and we found them using it on the laptops and iPads all of the time at school and home.  
Last Friday Capstone brought this excitement to everyone again with its release of PebbleGo Next State & American Indians Studies!  

From the moment I heard they were creating this new database I couldn't wait for this day....and I just know all of you will be excited to check it out too!  
PebbleGo Next was created with our 3rd through 6th grade learners in mind giving them an amazing place to go to learn more about all 50 states and each American tribe.
Within PebbleGo Next, students can click on the map to navigate to the information they want to find.
They can explore the U.S. Regions or American Indian Culture Areas by selecting either on top of the map.
Once within the U.S Region or Culture Area, students are just a few clicks away from the articles.

They can click on a U.S. Region or Culture Area of the American Indian Tribe which will prompt them to narrow their search even further.
Once a state is selected within that region, PebbleGo Next will show the tribes within their Traditional and Present Location.  This is one of my favorite parts of this database....especially how you can look at each overlay at the same time.
I wanted to learn more about the Ute tribe so I clicked on the map which took me into the article.
Once in each article, PebbleGo Next takes the reader on a wonderful adventure through different topics such as Family Life, Traditions, and Modern Life.
 Each article includes a video...
famous person....
and timeline.  I learned so much about the Ute tribe from Colorado and several others as I navigated my way through PebbleGo Next.
To learn from the 50 different state articles, you go back to the map and click on the region and state. It is easy to use the "Search" box at the top of each page as well.
 I went to Iowa and was excited to learn new things about my Hawkeye State.
Within each state article, the reader learns about Landmarks, Geography and Weather, and even a Recipe or Song.  There is a video included for each state, along with an Ethnic Pie Chart, Famous People, Timeline, and....
Fast Facts, which will come in very handy for all of us.
Throughout the entire database, there are little speakers next to every entry which gives our reader live voice narration.
One of the BEST things Capstone has included with PebbleGo Next are the activities for each article. One is able to click "Print", type the responses, and print or save the sheet.
Three styles of citations are included with each article too. 
One more super fun thing I love about PebbleGo are the two buttons included on the front page below the map. 
Our young people can go to "Games" to find eight different games to play about the United States and American Indian Tribes.  
They can also answer the "Question of the Day", which is fun for them to see what others have answered.
Just like PebbleGo, Next is available through the browser on most devices too.
My son Hagan and I are having fun trying PebbleGo Next as our Thanksgiving break starts.  

I hope you take a little time to try it out too....I know you and your students will love it just as much as we do! 

2 comments:

  1. Awesome review of PebbleGo Next! I'm going to direct my teachers here instead of even trying to write my own. ;) I can't wait to show off PebbleGo Next to my students next week.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you my friend....I just love PebbleGo and now to have PebbleGo Next is so exciting! :) How did you students like it?

      I hope you are enjoying the holiday season.

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