This website is geared mostly towards first grade students learning to read, but is also used with preschool and up to second grade students. Starfall has many opportunities for young students to develop reading skills through stories to hear being read while on the site, to phonics activities that accompany the stories. The website also has seasonal links to complete literacy activities based on holidays and monthly events. Teachers also have the opportunity to order color booklets of the stories used on the website and also can order writing journals to use in conjunction with the website.
This website allows students to develop their interest in science and explore many topics of interest. Parents and teachers can preview weekly activities and features before allowing children to use the site. Students develop scientific inquiry skills based on science content. There are online activities, videos, online games and printables available on the site. The sites weekly feature when I explored was tools and measurement. The activities that I surveyed seemed to be very thorough and allow for student development with science content while at the same time peaking their interest.
This site allows students to pose questions to the character “Earl”. When questions are answered by Earl, there are links within the answer to explore even more information about the information given. Students can also read any of the other questions posed by other people to gain even more information. The questions that I viewed while on the website were from an elementary student perspective and would be a good place to allow students to ask those questions that would require more research or are not able to be answered by the teacher right away.
This site is an interactive website that allows students to practice and improve math skills. Students practice various math concepts which range from addition to algebra based on level and ability. Students can complete flash card activities, math word find puzzles, various games in the game room(for operations practice-,+,x,etc.), and there is also a homework helper link. Worksheets and flash cards can also be printed to give even more practice with math skills.
This site has educational games in many subject areas. It is designed for early elementary level students and provides practice in the following areas: spelling, grammar, vocabulary, writing, math, science, social studies, music, logic, and other miscellaneous areas.The site also allows teachers or parents to choose games for the students based on age and level. The games can also be previewed to check for appropriateness for the students.
This site creates slideshows on a variety of subjects. The subjects range from science/nature, animals, top stories, sports, entertainment, and a “grab bag” with random slideshows. The slide shows give descriptions under each slide to give more information to enhance the picture being viewed. Students can read and see pictures from recent news or current events. The site is very “kid friendly” and would be very informative for any student.
This site has lesson plans for teachers to use when teaching current events. There are also printable graphic organizers to enhance the lesson plans. Students can also use this website to research and develop their knowledge of current events. Students can become a “correspondent” to “get the scoop” on various topics chosen by the site. The stories the students research and develop can be posted on the site and be read by other students accessing the website. This site would definitely enhance current events lessons and allow students to become more proficient with writing and presenting information.
This is a site for teachers to order the “Time for Kids” newspapers. Teachers can also develop lessons based on the newspaper topics and print worksheets to use in conjunction with the lessons. The worksheets cover many topics which range from animals to weather. Students can also use the site to read about current events, complete games and activities based on the articles on the site. Students can also read and answer trivia questions and use the homework helper link to assist with assignments.
This is a site that schools, teachers, or parents have to subscribe to in order to gain access. When a subscription is purchased educational movies can be viewed on a range of topics. The movies also have links to quizzes, games, and activities to develop critical thinking and inquiry skills. All movies or stories are read aloud to allow all levels of students to be able to read or hear the information. After reading some of the comments posted from parents and teachers, brainpop seems like an interesting site to use to develop students ability to ask questions and find out answers to many topics.
This site is considered a “technology lab” for young students. The lab is basically links to safe, kid-friendly websites on a variety of topics. The topics students can search in are the following:“Explore Our World”, “Music Kids Love”, “Fun In The Kitchen”, “Cool Science & Math”, “Games”, “Reading”, “Art”, “Techie Pad”. I feel that if I used this site I would probably be very close to my students to be sure they are able to find appropriate sites on the topics they are interested in. I would also find sites to use with students and have the sites in my “ favorites” section to allow for easy access when I want to use the site with my students.
This site is one that requires a subscription to access most of the links and resources. Some of the information is available without a subscription but a lot of the most useful information is only accessible with the purchase of a subscription to the site. The part of the website that I have found can be accessed without purchase. This section has rebus rhymes that can be read online or printed for use in the classroom. A rebus story is very useful to teachers when trying to enhance their reading instruction. The stories have words and pictures substituted for words within sentences to enhance fluency and assist with learning to read. The teacher can use the site as a resource to develop lessons in reading or students can use the site to read the stories posted.
This site is geared towards teachers trying to develop their ability to integrate technology in their classrooms. There are online resources and tools, web lessons to teach a variety of topics, links to create quizzes, rubrics, or calendars, professional development resources, assistance with teaching English Language Learners, at-risk or special needs students. There are links for creating letters in other languages to assist with parents unable to read or speak English very well. The tools on the website would be very helpful for teachers who want a site that has many resources to assist with organization and/or ease in creating documents for classroom use.
This site is one that requires a subscription for home or school use. The site features tips, tools, and best practices to enhance curriculum and daily lessons. The information presented is lesson plans on a variety of topics, video tutorials, classroom tools section to assist in any classroom, and newsletters of current educational topics. The site also has printables and curriculum-based content to support teachers.
This site has a wide range of information for teachers. Teachers can access lots of links on any the following topics: lesson planning, professional development opportunities, technology integration, and various school issues. The site also has printables, web quests, articles, templates for printing, and website recommendations. This is another site that would be useful for teachers to spend some time to explore and determine areas that would be useful or interesting professionally and within their classroom.
Appropriate for Elementary, middle, or high school age students
This is a site developed by Discovery Education/Communication, for educators to access digital recordings and videos on a wide range of topics. A school must have a license to gain access and provide passwords to teachers. The videos can be searched on any topic of interest to the educator. The videos can be downloaded and saved to a flash drive to have for later and continued use. The videos range from just a few minutes in length to 20 minutes or more. This site would be a very useful to teachers to enhance instruction and also bring technology into lessons.
16. Spelling City website-This is a great website to practice weekly spelling words. Search for the words by searching using my name or our school name. www.spellingcity.com
17 Ticket to Read website- A reading and phonics website that we use at school. Your child will have to login with their username and password which will be sent home. http://www.tickettoread.com/