Bring SecretBuilders in the Class

One of the challenges of today's internet generation is finding wholesome sites that have educational and entertainment value - something you good feel about introducing to kids that they also want to do. We think SecretBuilders is just that site. The immersion in cultural literacy is so subtle that the kids learn without knowing it.

We have many more plans to expand on what we are doing but here a few tools to get you started right away. The best part is that SecretBuilders can be adapted to any age group so you can use it in multiple classrooms to meet a wide variety of needs.

• Help Your Class, Help Your School
• Get Your Children Published
• Foster the Creative, Competitive Spirit in Children
• Bring Shakespeare to Your Class
• Learning through Immersion
• Interactive Demos
• SecretBuilders Entrepreneurship Program

 

Help Your Class, Help Your School

The SecretBuilders charity program, One For All, allows children to raise money for your school as they practice and improve their own math, English and logic skills. The program is simple: for every question a child answers correctly, they generate money for your school. The game playing environment - clever pop-ups and visual -- allows for fun while learning while a scoreboard allows kids to monitor their personal best. In addition to schools, we also have social charities that kids can choose as beneficiaries - from environmental to educational, and we plan to add more.

We are also going to be adding geography, language and art based questions. Let us know if you have any other ideas!

 

Get Your Children Published

Our online magazine, The Crooked Pencil, is full of writing opportunities on topics ranging from stories and poems to school essays and plays. Our unique interactive magazine design allows kids to read and comment on each other's works in a safe, moderated environment. So pick a topic, have your class write and then read and review each other's work online. The fun environment will have them rushing to do their homework! This is also a great tool to allow kids to share their writings with family members!

Coming soon: An Editor's pick section that will allow us to highlight the best in children's writing.

 

Foster the Creative, Competitive Spirit in Children

SecretBuilders art and writing contests are a fun and engaging way to supplement your lesson plans. Themes always have an educational component and the great prizes also motivate kids to win for themselves and their school!

Here are our current contests: the Kid Inventor Challenge where kids design a toy that will become a "real" toy in SecretBuilders; Help the Kelp in partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to restore life to the Kelp Forest; and the Frank 'n Stein's Gallery, an art coloring contest.

Check out our past winners at the Contest homepage and check in often as new contests are always being introduced!

 

Bring Shakespeare to Your Class

At SecretBuilders we don't think kids of any age are too young to be introduced to the great minds of yesterday. Shakespeare, Galileo, Copernicus are just some of the characters that live and play in SecretBuilders. They chat with players (in fact we have been told by many "older" users that we have one of the best AI chat systems!) as well challenge them through mini quizzes and quests about themselves. Come chat with Verne and see for yourself! We will be adding many, many more of the greatest and best from world art and literature.

 

Learning through Immersion

Learning by immersion is always more powerful and on SecretBuilders children will be introduced to concepts in such fun, subtle ways that they won't even know they've learned a piece of history, a famous line from literature or something about art. SecretBuilders is not meant to be an educational site but through our activities, quests and games their school education will be enriched.

In addition to the AI character interactions mentioned under Shakespeare, you can:

• Assign a quest to your class and then discuss the literature and art encountered there; new quests will be added monthly. We are also developing a feature that will allow educators to browse the topics covered in each quest.
• Tour Frank N Stein's Art Gallery together; we will be adding more paintings as well as more interactive features on the artwork such as puzzles. We have just partnered with Art in Action so look for more great art activities and lessons coming soon!.
• Allow kids to play our art- based puzzle games as computer-time rewards.
• Use BuildIt! as part of your brainstorming and review and recommend lesson plans. This unique SecretBuilders feature allows kids to help build out the virtual world with their ideas and perspectives. Pick an aspect of our site; discuss it as a class and then have each child suggest what they would do differently or better. Much of what you see on SecretBuilders today was generated by a child's imagination (and a little development help from us!) so your kids will know that someone is listening to their ideas!

Additionally, we have used every opportunity we can in our site to blend together the education factor and the fun factor. Here are just some examples:

• Our bones and boogers collections teach kids about dinosaurs and monster folklore;
• Trying to win a raffle means first reading the ticket which contains an interesting factoid;
• In world rollovers impart educational or cultural knowledge;
• Complete with descriptions, all of our furniture is "green" and our food is "organic";

 

Interactive Demos - Coming Soon

SecretBuilders can organize interactive demonstrations of the website at your school. Website demonstrations can be done in classrooms, computer labs or school libraries. In addition, one of our artists or developers can talk with your class about the creative process and the importance of being creative. We will talk with the children about how ideas and concepts are developed into the final product. These interactive discussions always get children excited about guessing how long it takes to develop certain parts of the SecretBuilders website.

 

SecretBuilders Entrepreneurship Program - Coming Soon

[ Coming Soon ]