WildFiles.tv
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- K–5
- Subjects
- science (biology and life science), teaching methods (discovery learning)
- Provider
- Reel Girls Media
- Special requirements
- Macromedia Flash and Quicktime are required to view this site.
Legal
This catalog record is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license applies to the content of this page only and does not apply to the referenced website.
Sign up for a free membership to explore the animal kingdom on this cool interactive kids' website about animals. Go to the virtual clubhouse and get to know fun facts about wild animals or learn about the secrets that make animals so cool. Watch video clips of animals in their natural habitats, play games like build-a-creature, and see how much you already know. Animal yoga, games, and puzzles are other activities for learning about animals. There are printable magazines about animals, as well as art and poems by kids. A guide for teachers and parents, brightly colored graphics, animation, audio, and minimal use of text make this site useful and fun. In the section for teachers and parents, there are learning objectives. This site is one that explores the human relationship with the natural world.
Educator's guide
Wildfiles is designed to promote environmental consciousness while encouraging exploration, problem solving and creativity.After selecting English or Fran�ais on this Canadian site, students are greeted with a friendly clubhouse environment. File cabinet drawers, the magazines on the coffee table, and computer screens are the entrances to the various interactive and informative sections of the site.
Wild Life, available by clicking on the top file drawer, contains the most complete information about the animals. When you find the animal hidden in a scene, you can access an in-depth introduction to that creature. Habitat, reproduction, diet, predators, and more are beautifully presented with images, QuickTime movies, and illustrations. The information is presented in a manner that will really appeal to students; they will love reading the "gross stuff" about copraphagy among beavers as much as the viewing the video clips of beaver kits nursing. Animals are primarily native to Canada; some of those listed include the bison, musk ox, barred owl, wolf, and black bear.
More animal facts are available in the Cool Facts area, linked through the backpack image. Organized by animal species, the cool facts include a glossary feature -- highlighted words that are defined when the student moves the cursor to a position over the word. If a child is reading about tarantulas and needs help to understand "extra-oral digestion" or "urticating" hairs they have definitions readily available. (Ok, not just kids; I had to look up the definitions of those terms!) All terms defined throughout the site are available in the Wild Words section, which can be accessed by clicking on the green book on the table in the Clubhouse.
Information about animals is reinforced through activities in a variety of formats -- online, print, and backyard experiments. Wild Stuff, linked through the bottom file drawer, includes crosswords, word scrambles, "match the call with the caller," story creation, jokes, and more. The e-Zine is a colorful, printable document with articles, student writing, and artwork, as well as puzzles to complete. Students are invited to submit poetry and art for consideration, examples can be seen in the Kids Gallery, accessed by clicking on the bulletin board in the clubhouse. Finally, click on the microscope to visit the Backyard Scientist area. Here you will find an Ask the Expert feature, as well a Hands-on Science experiments to try at home related to the ecosystems, environmental issues or animal behaviors discussed elsewhere on the site.
