Ongoing List of Web Site Picks
Updated April 30, 2008

Free tutorials — www.guidesandtutorials.com A growing library of free tutorials for new and old resources.

ePals — www.epals.com A free site for acquiring pen pals from many countries. It also allows children to ask experts education-related questions.

Thinkwave Educators Gradebook — http://thinkwave.com Free online gradebook selected as “Best Bet for Educators” by USA Today.

The Jamestown Story — www.history.com/classroom/jamestownstory The site includes video clips, interactive maps and more.

CraftElf.com — www.craftelf.com Easy holiday craft ideas.

TeacherTube — www.teachertube.com It had to happen —YouTube for teachers!

Printables — www.teach-nology.com/printables/paper Offers border paper, patterns, etc.

Whyville, a social networking program with an educational twist — http://www.whyville.net.

School Time Games for many subjects for intermediate grades — http://www.schooltimegames.com.

Teachnology offers free worksheet generators and rubric generators — http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s Life Sciences Resources for 6th Grade — www.smithlifescience.com Offers lesson plans and more.

Science Fair Projects and Experiments — www.juliantrubin.com/fairprojects.html Offers sample projects and more.

To Learn English — www.tolearnenglish.com Includes placement tests and lessons for ESL students and teachers.

Science Resources — tryscience.org Find interactive science experiences and offline activity ideas.

Spelling Time — www.spellingtime.com Access a free spelling tutorial for grades 1-5, plus text-to- speech technology.

A Research Guide for Students — www.aresearchguide.com/1steps.html This is a great site for secondary students who want to learn how to write a research paper.

Free Tutorials, Guides and How-to’s — www.guidesandtutorials.com Find tutorials for Audacity, digital photography, RSS and more.

Scope Kindergarten Lessons — www.oakland.k12.mi.us/scope/index.html Access teacher-developed lesson plans for language arts, math, science and more.

Vocabulary Puzzles — www.vocabulary.com/schoolcalendar.html This site offers vocabulary puzzles and activities.

Environmental Kids Club — www.epa.gov/kids The Environmental Protection Agency’s site has activities for exploring and protecting the environment.

History and the OGT — http://lpdc.montgomery.k12.oh.us/history/ogt/index.htm Five types of history resources for the OGT are available.

Technology in Schools: What Research Says — http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/TechnologyinSchools
Report.pdf This 18-page report reviews research about the use of technology in our classrooms.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, Grades Pre-K to 12 — http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html This site offers hands-on math activities.

Google Accessible — http://labs.google.com/accessible User-friendly search results for those who are blind or visually impaired.

National Council on Economic Education — http://www.ncee.net Fabulous site for economics lesson plans.

Fractured Fairy Tales — http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/fairytales Take a fairy tale and definitely make it your own. Includes lesson plans.

Primary Source Materials on the Web — http://kathyschrock.net/navigating/index.htm

NASA Kids’ Club — http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html

Teachers’ Lab — http://www.learner.org/teacherslab

Navigating Primary-Source Materials on the Internet — http://kathyschrock.net/navigating/index.htm This hotlist is authored by Kathy Schrock.

Colonial House — http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse People live in a mock 1628 community.

Storyline Online — http://www.storylineonline.net Celebrities read stories to children.

Comic Creator — http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/index.html This is a really slick way to make your own comic strips.

Gliffy — http://www.gliffy.com Draw and share diagrams on the Web.

Alphabet Organizer — http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/alphabet Make up your own pages for an alphabet chart or book.

Voycabulary — www.voycabulary.com. This site converts all the words on a Web page into links so that you can automatically look them up in dictionary, thesaurus or other reference tool. It is really slick!

Global Warming Facts and Our Future — www.koshlandsciencemuseum.org/exhibitgcc. Use interactive displays to explore information about global warming.

Word Game Boards — 208.183.128.3/tutorials/gameboard.htm. This site offers an easy template for making board games. Some ready-made games are available.

CommonCent$ — www.statefarm.com/kidstuf/commoncents/grades.htm. This site introduces good money habits in a fun way. There are sections for K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

exZOOberance — www.exzooberance.com. Visit what is reportedly the largest “cyberzoo” in the world.

Pow Wow Dance Styles — library.thinkquest.org/3081/styles.htm. This site gives explanations of many of the traditional Native American dance styles and offers many links in the text.

Top Hits of 2005 on Office Online — office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA012309051033.

Creative Chemistry (good for intermediate or middle school) — www.creative-chemistry.org.uk.

Games and Puzzles — www.teachertools.org. Select the Games and Puzzles link.

In Math Hunt, students search Web sites to solve math problems at teacher.scholastic.com/mathhunt.

NetSmartz offers Internet safety tips at www.netsmartzkids.org/games.

Forms and Letters has customizable documents on discipline, academics and communications at www.teachertools.org/forms/index.html.

A Parent’s Primer to Computer Slang gives insight into online slang at www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx.

Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 16)

Comprehensive site — seattletimes.nwsource.com/mlk

Timeline — www.infoplease.com/spot/mlktime1.html

Biographical Sketch — www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/mlk/srs218.html

Chinese New Year (Jan. 29)

Celebration — www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/festival/newyear/newyear.html

Folktales — www.pitt.edu/~dash/china.html

Crafts and Activities — www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear

Museum of Online Museums (MOOM) offers a hotlist of many museums — from art and history museums to Manhole Covers of the World. Go to www.coudal.com/moom.php.

WildFinder is a searchable database of more than 26,000 wildlife species worldwide. You can search by place or by species at www.worldwildlife.org/wildfinder.

Podcast, a comprehensive, searchable directory of thousands of podcasts, is at www.podcast.net.

Ohio Graduation Test Intervention Support offers help with the social studies portion of the test. Go to www.montgomery.k12.oh.us/history/ogt/index.htm

United Nations InfoNation enables you to compare statistics for up to six nations. Go to www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation3

Resources: Winter Weather offers informative links at www.usatoday.com/weather/wwinter0.htm

Earth Science CenterControl Room offers information about disasters. Go to www.riverdeep.net/earthscience/data/earthscience/earthsciencecenter.html

Flashlight Readers is a Scholastic site that offers quizzes for popular books, children’s book ratings and a preschool section with educational games. Go to www.scholastic.com/flashlight.

Google Earth uses satellite imagery and maps to zoom in to specific geographic locations. Access it by clicking “more” at the Google home page. Check it out at www.google.com.

Fact Monster is a very easy-to-use online almanac, atlas, dictionary and encyclopedia for kids. It also has a homework center, games, quizzes and much more. Go to www.factmonster.com.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It’s hard to believe — but true. Give it a try at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

Diane Evans’ Book Journal has links to many things “literature.” Evans is a columnist at the Akron Beacon Journal. Go to http://forums.prospero.com/kr-ohio_ evans/start.

Surviving Auschwitz: Five Personal Journeys tells the stories of five extraordinary people and includes video interviews. Go to www.vhf.org/survivingauschwitz.

Free Stuff for Educators — Find maps, posters, test guides and much more at www.kalama.com/~zimba/freeforteachers.htm.

GameGoo (K-2) — Find really cute educational games with lots of sound and motion at www.cogcon.com/gamegoo/gooeyhome.html.

Digital History — This oral history site has primary sources, recorded oral histories and handouts. Go to www.digitalhistory.uh.edu.

Citation Machine — A new site that provides a template for making citations in both MLA and APA formats. Go to landmark-project.com/citation_machine.

Tools and Templates — Lots of templates to make awards, flyers, graphic organizers and more at education-world.com/tools_templates/index.shtml.

Printable Crafts for Kids — Offers a variety of fun, printable children’s crafts including projects with educational themes. Go to dltk-kids.com.

Mars Rover  Re-create the excitement of discovery from the Mars rover missions at www.pbs.org/nova/mars. Lots of pictures and a companion teachers guide are at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs.

Electricity and Energy  FirstEnergy Corp.’s Web site offers a wealth of information and free materials, all keyed to standards. Go to www.firstenergycorp.com/education.

Microsoft Template Page  Access a variety of templates for creating calendars, business cards, certificates and more at office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates.

Instant Poetry Forms Very slick tool! Select the type of poetry you want, fill in the template and the poem is created in the correct format. Go to ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/Poetry.htm.

My First Resume Template that helps elementary students create a resume. Go to careerkids.com/resume.html.

ProFusion This site searches the “hidden Web,” which includes databases and directories that are not picked up by search engines. Go to profusion.com.

Fry’s Readability Graph  If you need to figure out the readability of a book, you can now get the graph and the directions for use online at www.kathyschrock.net/fry/fry.html.

The Toymaker  Access many patterns for paper toys, cards, boxes, baskets, bags and more at www.thetoymaker.com.

Teaching American History  Dayton Public Schools and Think TV in Dayton created this site. It matches events in American history with both the standards that are taught and the appropriate Web sites for that standard and topic (grades 5-9). The site is: www.dps.k12.oh.us/academic/secsoc/americanhistory/teaching_01.htm.

Microsoft Free Stuff offers games that can be downloaded onto your computer. Sample topics include exploring Mars, volcanoes, whales, dolphins and bugs. Go to www.microsoft.com/kids/freestuff/default.asp.

Great Web Sites for Kids is sponsored by the American Library Association. Go to www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsiteskids.htm.

Problem-Based Learning Checklist helps you to fill in the blanks to make your own checklist for your use or for student use. Go to www.pblchecklist.4teachers.org.