Sunday, October 10, 2010

What is StarrMatica?

Maybe you have benefitted from our resource sharing on Twitter, become our Facebook fan, or had a conversation with me on #edchat or #elemchat—you may have interacted with our company in many ways but there is still a chance you may not know who we are or what we do. Well, this blog post is for you! If you use interactive technologies, a projector or computers in your classroom, StarrMatica was designed to help you.

If you are looking for the short answer: StarrMatica is a Prometheus award winning educational publishing company founded, owned and operated entirely by teachers on a mission to help fellow educators transform their classrooms with technology.

StarrMatica provides member teachers with an online library of over 3,800 K-6 reading and math simulations, animations, activities, games and assessments along with an easy to use search engine to find content by grade, topic, state standard, national core curriculum, and textbook curriculums.

StarrMatica is the only comprehensive interactive content library currently available that combines Flash animations and activities written by current classrooms teachers with a database of hand selected interactive content from the web.

All of our standards-aligned content is used by teachers for whole class instruction with interactive technologies and by students on computers at school and at home.

StarrMatica is used on every brand of interactive technology by thousands of teachers and students every day.

If you are looking for a more detailed answer, please read on for a visual walk through!

After logging into StarrMatica, teachers may choose from 43 3rd-6th grade reading and math curriculum topics in our index. Once a topic is chosen, the four gears along the top of the screen allow teachers to access different categories of resources that align to their chosen topic.



The LEARN category contains animations with voiceovers and sound effects that can be used to introduce or review specific concepts. Teachers may use controls in the bottom right corner to fast forward, rewind, pause and play the animation.



The PRACTICE category contains activities and games designed to provide practice opportunities for all concepts included in the LEARN section. Some activities are basic skill-based practice while others promote problem solving and higher order thinking skills

Grade levels are indicated by a series of stars.  Red S = 3rd Yellow T = 4th Green A = 5th Blue R = 6th


The TEST, which can be utilized as both a pre- and post-test, is directly aligned to the instructional and practice sections. It is an open response assessment that teachers can use whole class, or individual students can record their answers in text fields and print the test for teachers to review.



The RESOURCES category contains links to additional interactive resources related to the lesson topic that can be used to enhance or extend the lesson. All links are ad free and have been described, grade leveled, categorized, and checked for safety. 3,200 links are included in our database. They are grouped into three categories: Virtual Manipulatives, Practice Activities, and Games.

Teachers also have the ability to search our library of content by State Standards and the National Core Curriculum. A textbook curriculum search will be launched soon.


Teachers can also search our K-6 content library to find specific resources narrowed by subject, topic group and topic. For example, a first grade teacher can find reading resources that focus specifically on beginning sounds. A fourth grade teacher can find math resources that focus on measuring angles.  Star and circle symbols are used to indicate grade levels in this view as well. All teachers have access to the full library of content to meet the needs of every child in their classrooms.

Teachers have the option to use our classroom management system to assign students individual logins. With this feature, scores are recorded when students complete practice and test activities. A student’s first attempt and best attempt are recorded. Students and their parents can also view student progress scores by logging in at home.




Teachers can also use the management system to provide individualized basic facts practice for every student.




If you are interested in StarrMatica, give us a test drive. We are offering six half an hour webinar classes that come with a free four month membership just for attending! Webinars include: Manipulative Mania for K-2 Educators, Manipulative Mania for 3-6 Educators, Blooms Taxonomy With Online Resources for 3-6 Educators, Blooms Taxonomy With Online Resources for K-2 Educators, and Interactive Integration Ideas for K-6 Educators.

Click here to register, or click here to send me an email. I would love to hear from you!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Share Your Thoughts and Ideas!