ChildCareGames.com

40 Best Online Libraries for Counselors "Counselors might work in schools, clinics or in private settings, and they might specialize in specific fields such as student, family or addiction counseling. But, they all look to use resources in their studies and in practice. The following 40 best online libraries for counselors can provide those resources, with free downloads of journal articles and books or tools to help build a counseling library of your choosing." From The Counseling Courier - "Blogging about counseling, therapy, psychology, and coaching". Thanks Lindsey Webster and Madison.

50 Fantastic Resources for New Teachers "The prospect of stepping into a classroom for the first time to teach elementary, middle school or high school students can range from daunting to completely terrifying. For the new teacher, nothing is more important than being prepared, with strong curriculum as well as reliable strategies for overcoming problems in the classroom. Fortunately, the Web is full of resources for teachers. We have looked at hundreds of educational websites in order to compile this list that contains 50 of the best ones. Use these sites to plan your math lesson, launch an arts and crafts project, or motivate those hard-to-reach students." Pretty good listing of sites indexed by school level. Thanks go to Nathan Grimm, Program Manager - SR Education Group in Kirkland, Washington.

A0KTeacher Stuff This Good Site has a large amount of "stuff." The home page has two columns. The column on the left concentrates on history mainly Texas and Southwest history, but there is more further down. The right column has their Teacher Freebies and Educational Material (lesson plans), Coloring Pages, and more miscellaneous good stuff.

A to Z Teacher Stuff From the site: " A to Z Teacher Stuff is teacher-created, and designed to help teachers find online resources more quickly and easily. We offer lesson plans, thematic units, teacher tips, discussion forums for teachers, downloadable teaching materials & eBooks, printable worksheets and blacklines, emergent reader books, themes, and more."

abcteach From the site: "This is the place for kids, parents, student teachers, and teachers. Free Printables: 5000+ free printable pages and worksheets." They also have a members-only section, membership $35/yr US.

Activity Village  Here's a site from the UK that will help out parents and teachers. "Welcome to Activity Village, where you will find coloring pages, home school resources, educational resources, kids crafts, puzzles, printables, Sudoku for kids and much, much more ... Click on the menu bars above to explore over 3000 pages of activities to help you keep your kids busy!"  Tons of coloring pages! The site has a popup to start, x it out or just subscribe.

After School Mathematics "The After School Math website is a full-featured math website for grades 5-8 created by after school staff and credentialed teachers. The site consists of 10 thematic activity modules, each with at least four activities. These content standard aligned activities are fun, hands-on, and provide opportunities for small group interaction, cooperation, and student leadership." Go for it!

Afterschool Training Toolkit "Use these research-based practices, sample lessons, video examples, and resources to support academic enrichment in afterschool." Valuable helps for literacy, math, science, arts, technology, homework, AND professional development for anyone doing organized after school programs for kids. From the National Center for Quality Afterschool. WGBH Boston, the revered PBS station, is also involved in this. This is a pretty useful site for grownups.

All About Money is a good, long listing of 40 money learning activities, both online and printable, with lesson plans, too. Broken into sections: Identifying Money, Counting Money, Using and Spending Money, Earning Money, Saving Money, and Additional Resources. Kudos to Interbank FX LLC of Salt Lake City, Utah for putting this together. Special thanks to Cara Chandler at Arroyo Vista Charter School in Chula Vista, California, and her 5th graders, especially Kyle!, for the email re: this site! You guys find the coolest things! Keep 'em coming!

All Science Fair Projects Here's a site that has searched for and categorized all kinds of science fair project links, and offers it to you free! 10 different topic sections, subcategories, lots of projects under each heading. Look for ideas here!

American Sign Language Learning Aid Link goes to the program page. Download the program here. This is the Windows version, there are others. "A set of programs designed to help the beginner ASL student learn ASL. It is composed of two parts: ASLLA-Dictionary and ASLLA-Fingerspeller. ASLLA-Dict allows the student to look up English->ASL sign. ASLLA-Fspell allows the beginner to practice seeing fingerspelling." Thanks to Andy Uehara, who wrote these programs and is deaf, if that matters to you. Cool. A short manual and other info may be found inside the unzipped program folder. Found it on Sourceforge.

Apples4theteacher.com - A Primary Website " We are adding more educational resources for teachers and kids (preK-grade 6) every day. Excuse our 'dust' as we move into high gear! Our site includes interactive learning games, quizzes, and worksheet generator tools by subject (creative arts, foreign languages, language arts, math, science, social studies), articles, literacy coloring pages and more."

Arbor Day Foundation Youth Education Learn about trees here! Lesson plans, activities to download, online games for older kids, lots more.

Artists Helping Children "Children & Art Resources for the Budding Child Artist" Tons and tons of arts and crafts resources for kids! There should be something in here for whatever you have in mind.

BBC Skillwise "Improve your English and maths with Skillswise. Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and games to help improve your skills." From one central location, you can access all the BBC Schools quizzes! Also has a Tutor Center with lesson plans, tracking sheets, and more. Links to a Games page with 50 MORE math(s) and literacy activities. Thank you, BBC

Basic Venn Diagrams Here's a quick introduction and suggestions for lessons, for lower grades. Venn diagrams are a quick graphic way to teach basic elements of logic. A good grounding in principles of logic is essential to developing critical thinking skills.

Biology Corner is a resource site for biology and other science teachers. It has lesson plans, web lessons, web quests, images, and quizzes. Quote from the site: " I've been making it a personal mission to locate and compile interactive science education sites. Some web programs like Flash can create some amazing virtual labs that students can really benefit from. You will find many of these places in the section under internet lessons, all of which utilize fantastic websites to help students understand scientific concepts. "

BooBah from the UK. This site is for preschool folks. Lots of color and sound. Good fine motor skills training, using a mouse. Windows users will need to teach the difference between left and right clicking, though. Educational Freeeware has an excellent writeup on them here, with screenshots.

BrainCake Welcome to the Girls' Math & Science Partnership, a program of Carnegie Science Center. Based in Pittsburgh, "BrainCake is an online sisterhood for girls 11 – 17 and stakeholders focused on girls’ inclusion in the areas of math, science, technology, and engineering. BrainCake.org features forums, programs, scholarships, virtual mentoring, girl blogs, podcasts, homework help, research and resources in a framework that integrates pop culture, science, and learning."

Brain Workshop "What if a simple mental exercise could improve your memory and intelligence? A recent study published in PNAS, an important scientific journal, shows that a particular memory task called Dual N-Back may actually improve working memory (short term memory) and fluid intelligence. This finding is important because fluid intelligence was previously thought to be unchangeable. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the dual n-back task also enhances focus and attention and may help improve the symptoms of ADHD/ADD. The game involves remembering a sequence of spoken letters and a sequence of positions of a square at the same time. Brain Workshop is a free open-source version of the Dual N-Back mental exercise. Easy download, easy install. Another SourceForge discovery.

Building A Classroom Community and Bully-Free Zone A great set of lessons from PBS. "For grades 3-7. Almost all children, at some point in their childhood, will experience or be affected by bullying behaviors. For the safety and welfare of ALL children in a positive learning environment, it is essential for teachers to establish a learning community void of bullying behaviors and to facilitate a sense of community in the classroom. This includes teaching children skills to deal with bullies, as well as promoting positive social skills such as cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution."

Bullying from BrainPOP Junior. This is a good free video lesson aimed at K-3 kids. Covers bullying and what they can do about it.

BULLYING: THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO from Miss O and Friends is for teens & tweens, with advice from girls of that age. Worth reading.

Busy Teachers' Web site K-12 "This Site is designed: (1) to provide teachers with direct source materials, lesson plans / classroom activities with a minimum of site-to-site linking, and (2) to provide an enjoyable and rewarding experience for the teacher who is learning to use the Internet." With 23 categories and several (or more) sites in each, this site will help teachers and parents.

CPM home page, in case you need it.

An editorial word about the above:

College Preparatory Math: This outfit is taking over US public school math programs like wildfire. It's a sort of revenge of the right-brained math-phobes or something. Teachers and parents can google "CPM" to get a fair and balanced idea of why so many educators and other parents are unimpressed. Our own opinion is that students need a firm grounding in the fundamentals (for example, knowing their math facts/times tables/terminology - by whatever method they learn them) before venturing into group learning and constructivism. Maybe CPM is right for your kids. If you think it's not, and your school district is already doing it, you'll have to transfer your kids or homeschool them. Our math section still has, and will always have, links to very many traditional and newer-method math drill and practice sites. All this is just our own personal opinion, and another reasonable adult may well have another, differing opinion. (That'll satisfy the lawyers.)

Cal Ripken. Sr. Foundation  This site is a curriculum guide for middle school.  It uses baseball and softball based activities/lesson plans to cover health, mathematics, and physics.  All activities are PDF file downloads.  There is quite a lot of good "stuff" in here! Thanks, Shelly.

Campaign for Real Beauty from the Dove soap people.  "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does." Parents: You NEED to see this site! This site seeks to educate you and your daughters about mass media beauty industry brainwashing. Your daughter does not need all these cosmetics. Warning: Adults should watch the "Onslaught" video first, in case you decide it would be too intense for your girls. We think this is a "good site," and that it addresses a serious social problem. At the top of the window, above the models, choose Features > Videos. If you see a window with all their videos, go to Filter By and choose Self-Esteem. If you click Under Pressure, you view their short commercial and then all four CFRB videos will play in turn. (thanks go to Kayla Westby for this site suggestion)

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site - Reviews and teaching ideas for kids' books. A collection of reviews of great books for kids, and classroom activities and lesson plans for teachers about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.

Chemistry for Grades 11-12 from Curriki. "This course contains resources, including slideshows, reviews, labs, worksheets, activities, quizzes, and diagnostics, for high school chemistry students. Units include Lab Setup and Safety; Nomenclature; Chemical Reactions and Balancing; Metric Systems & Conversions; Periodic Table and Trends; Atomic Structure; Nuclear Chemistry; Acids, Bases, & Salts; Bonding; Percent Composition; Solutions, Molarity, and Concentrations; Stoichiometry; Energy; Gas Laws; Reaction Rates and Equilibrium; Electron Configuration; and Redox Reactions." Starts with a diagnostic test (.doc file) to measure prior knowledge. The whole course is right there - no downloads, no pdf files, just click on the folder.

Chemistry from Curriki. This is a high school-level chem course from South Africa, for grades 10 - 12. Comes in PDF files organized in five folders. Covers most chem topics, as well as earth science, chemical industry, and gold mining (hey, it's South Africa.) Click the page's Information tab to learn more. Part of reviewer Comments: "This FHSST (Free High School Science Texts) Chemistry textbook contains a full course of material in the form of a 23-chapter textbook to be used in grades 10 through 12. The text can be freely modified and distributed, so long as no one attempts to limit its later distribution. The collection covers three main topics (Matter and Materials, Chemical Change, Chemical Systems) and then within those topics, they are broken down into G10, G11, and G12 chapters. The material is also available in folders organized by grade level. Each chapter is available for download as a .pdf document. Throughout each clear and comprehensive chapter are embedded activities, worked examples and exercises for exploration and assessment." Not aligned to US state standards but still very good.

The Children's Literature Web Guide from the University of Calgary. "The Children's Literature Web Guide is an attempt to gather together and categorize the growing number of Internet resources related to books for Children and Young Adults." Lots of websites, discussion boards, book awards, best sellers, teaching ideas. Nice to look at and well organized.

Choosy Kids "The mission of Choosy Kids, LLC is to promote the development of healthy preferences. We are committed to providing products and services that promote healthy decision making and healthy, active lifestyles. We recognize that the first five years of life lay the foundation for learning and behavior preferences that may last a life- time; therefore we focus primarily on young children and the adults who make decisions on their behalf." All kinds of good things and activities for children and parents. We love their music and videos!

Classroom Resources from the National Science Foundation. "...a diverse collection of lessons and web resources for classroom teachers, their students, and students’ families. Materials are arranged by subject area to help you quickly find resources in your interest area, and then use them to create lesson plans or at-home activities."

Coloring for kids Free, printable coloring book pages ! You can choose from 1000's of printable coloring pages. Coloring pages for children of all ages with drawings to print and color. A large selection of colorings so your children can find their favorite cartoons . More than 10,000 printable coloring sheets.

Columbia Education Center (of Portland, OR) Teacher-submitted lesson plans. Text files so you can Save or Print with no hassles. Anywhere from 50 to 90 plans per category. Lesson Plans are broken out into these categories: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Miscellaneous. "These lesson plans were created by teachers for use in their own classrooms. We hope that you'll find some of these useful in your classroom as well."

Common Core State Standards Initiative "The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy." At last count (11/2010), 39 states and the District of Columbia have adopted these standards. The standards are in two areas: English/Language Arts and Mathematics. Learn more at the site.

Common Errors in English Usage "The aim of this site is to help you avoid low grades, lost employment opportunities, lost business, and titters of amusement at the way you write or speak." You should read over the intro page at least once before going on to the list of errors. The errors list page is alphabetized and very comprehensive. A very useful tool and an aid to better American English. We should all thank Professor Paul Brians of WSU Pullman.

Computer Lab Favorites from Scholastic.com! "Here are all the quick, compelling one-session activities you need to incorporate interactive learning and technology into your curriculum. Each activity requires no prep and can be completed in 15-30 minutes... Use these 50+ activities in the computer lab." The ones we played are good! Tabbed by subject!

Cool School Free from Curriki - a site you need to see! "Part computer game, part educational classroom tool, COOL SCHOOL: Where Peace Rules! is a whimsical interactive game where children, ages five to seven (grades K-2), journey to the fanciful world of Cool School, where everything -- from erasers to desks to books to basketballs -- are alive and full of personality. Here, in a vibrant and fun setting, children are taught invaluable social, communication, and problem-solving skills that promote conflict resolution through negotiation, compromise, cooperation, and reconciliation." Lots more at their web page. We played this and it was great. It's a BIG download.

Curriki The Global Education & Learning Community. Go there and get plenty of lesson plans/activities/PPT's/ideas! "At Curriki, the sole mission is to educate. By building a world class learning environment that is community developed and supported, and publishing it for free on the Web, Curriki works to ensure that anyone, from anywhere can participate. This is about No Child, Parent or Teacher Held Back. This is about delivering access to free, quality curricula so that kids can go as fast as they can." These people are going at light speed. You truly owe it to yourself to investigate this site.

Cyberbullying Free from Brainpop. Good video on this subject with advice for kids.

CyberGuides From the site: " CyberGuides are supplementary, standards-based, web-delivered units of instruction centered on core works of literature. Each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition, standards, a task and a process by which it may be completed, teacher-selected web sites and a rubric, based on California Language Arts Content Standards."

Cyberkidz "is an educational platform for boys and girls in the age of 4 till 12 years. By playing the educational games, children will practise subjects they learn in elementary school (PK-5)." The games are sorted by year from age 4 to 12, using a sliding bar. There are dozens of fun, playable games in every curriculum category, with new ones being added. This is an excellent site from the Netherlands.

DNA Interactive Amazing! Stupendous! Colossal! And other wow-type adjectives! This site for secondary and up students and teachers covers everything about DNA. Many videos, animations, and interactive games to play. There are 15 lesson plans ready for download, too. Really, this site could be used to help teach classes in genetics and human origins. Then there's the opportunity for educators to join the site community and create their own lessons and web pages for teaching the material.

Davidson Institute for Talent Development Got gifted kids? These good people, the original Math Blasters, want to help. "Our mission is to recognize, nurture and support profoundly gifted young people and to provide opportunities for them to develop their talents to make a positive difference."

Developing Biology From Curriki. "This course contains resources for teaching high school biology, from Developing Curriculum, Inc. It includes activities, labs, slide shows and worksheets on the topics of: Microscopes; Biochemistry; Cells; Cellular Transport; DNA; Photosynthesis and Respiration; Mitosis and Meiosis; Genetics; and Evolution." Lots of PowerPoints and .doc files, but it's all good information. Good resources for a teacher who knows the subject but is in a hurry to get something together.

Diagramming Sentences Once upon a time, all grade school students were taught this. Like Latin, it's coming back into style in the educational community. Benefits include a better understanding of sentence structure, better parsing, better writing, and better public speaking. This page contains a decent Power Point about diagramming.

Discovery Education from the Discovery Channel. Featuring Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators, Puzzlemaker for printable crossword puzzles, clip art, Lesson Plan Library, Brain Boosters, Learning Adventures, Science Fair Central, lots more! You need to visit this site if you haven't already.

Dolch Word Lists from Jan Brett. "11 full-sized, printable lists with Jan Brett artwork." Great Jan Brett art, 20 words per page.

Dolch words page from Education Oasis. "Dolch "Basic Sight Words" are the 220 most frequently occurring words in children's books, excluding nouns. Because many of the words do not follow decoding rules, they cannot be sounded out. Thus, they are learned by sight. Dolch sight words comprise 52-75 percent of all words found in children's books." These can be printed out for your use.

DonorsChoose Teachers, ask and you may receive! Sort of like grants, without the paperwork! "Here, teachers submit ideas for materials or experiences that their student need to learn." Individual or corporate donors then "choose a project and make it a classroom reality." Teachers and donors, click on Help to submit a request or to contribute.

ESL/TOEFL pages from the British Council and the BBC. Excellent source for plans and ideas for teaching English as a foreign/second/new language. Good source for grammar basics, too.

e-Learning for Kids This is wonderful! "e-Learning for Kids is a global nonprofit foundation dedicated to free and fun online learning for kids of all ages. (math, science, reading, health and life skills and computers, )... Children from 5-12 build and improve basic skills with the best quality e-learning courseware. Parents and educators have a pre-screened source of articles, research, and related links. People in the business of education contribute their expertise." Dozens of online learning games in math, language arts, science, computer, health & life skills (lots), and learning English. Found this at The Bishops School hotlist site.

Early Learning "This page features early learning websites for young toddlers and pre-schoolers. Fun ways to introduce your toddler to their abc, 123, shapes and colours with great games, downloads and flash cards." Also sites for older children. There are some wonderful things on here, many of which were new to us! Part of allkids, a fine learning & shopping site from the UK.

Earth Systems Science Curriculum Five units and 34 individual detailed lesson plans for earth science, ready to go! Could be modified for different ages. "...a multitude of hands-on investigative units and activities..." Scroll your mouse over "Earth Systems Science Curriculum" on the site to learn more. Check out the printable lesson plans, of course! Another fine example of what you can find at Curriki!

Echos d’école is a great site from France. It has at least 93 educational games split into ages 3 and over and ages 8 and over. Games cover 11 different curriculum areas and were fun to play. There are games for iPhones and iPads as well. In English, Spanish, and French. Money is in euros which was refreshing - and the arithmetic is the same everywhere. This is our third site from La Belle France, they are all excellent - maybe France is a gold mine of good sites! Thanks to Michel for the email about this site. Merci.

Education Oasis An oasis for teachers thirsty for ideas! Lesson plans organized by subject, printables, subject resources such as links to sites, help for new teachers and for classroom management, ideas and tips, discussion groups, bulletin boards, book reviews, lists of sites, Dolch words, and more.

Educational-freeware Check this site out!!  "Welcome to www.educational-freeware.com! This site is dedicated to listings, descriptions and reviews of the best free educational software for kids and adults. Some of the software is web based (see the online section), and some is Windows software that you can download (see the downloadable section).  Many of the software titles are multilingual. In order to see what titles run in your language, you can list the software by language." There's more good ed software here than you can shake a stick at!

Educator's Resource Desk From the AskERIC people. Comprehensive resource guides, lesson plans from the ERIC database, question archives, and you can search the ERIC database. Wow!

Edutopia What Works In Public Education. The George Lucas Educational Foundation. As mentioned on NPR. Read about their Core Concepts, read the blogs and the special reports, watch the videos, join groups. We think this site is probably the wave of the future.

Elementary Math Games Here's a good list of about 30 math ed links from Brazil! You may choose English or Brazilian Portuguese. These links are broken out by area of study. There is some nice stuff in here, and there's also a commentary on teaching math. Kudos to Ms. Erin Jones for emailing us about this, and thank you, Erin, for saying nice things about all our dog photos!

Enchanted Learning  (The ZOOM sites people.) Amazing site! So much to see and do, so much to print off! You could probably run an elementary classroom and fulfill all state standards using this site's online lessons and its printable activities, if not for NCLB demands. Subscribers get tons of even more goodies to use.

Engineer Girl lets middle school girls find out more about careers in engineering. "Turn imagination into reality with a future in engineering! Engineering careers, women engineers, what to take in high school to get ready (hint: math & science), essay contest, Ask an Engineer, more. From The National Academy of Sciences.

Engineer Your Life "Welcome to Engineer Your Life, a guide to engineering careers for high school girls! Imagine what life would be like without pollution controls to preserve the environment, life-saving medical equipment, or low-cost building materials for fighting global poverty. All this takes engineering. In very real and concrete ways, women who become engineers save lives, prevent disease, reduce poverty, and protect our planet. Dream Big. Love what you do. Become an engineer." Videos of successful women engineers of various ethnic backgrounds expose girls to all they could do and be in the field. From The National Academy of Sciences. Thank you Shelly.

Experiland "Welcome to our lab, fellow scientist! CAUTION: This website might be addictive! Fun Science projects for kids!Great care has been put into our science projects to provide the young student of today with the basic knowledge of the scientific principles of our world. Try not to have fun - We dare you!" LOTS of science experiments & projects, indexed by grade or by subject. Chemistry, earth science, weather, life science, electricity & magnetism, and physics!

Exploring Planets in the Classroom hands-on science activities This Hawaiian site has hands-on activities and lesson plans! Now with volcano activities!

FaceChipz Ok, we haven't ever done a social networking site for kids before. They have a good reputation and they definitely fill a need. Here's an excerpt from their pitch: "FaceChipz.com has all the features of a real social network – but with one big difference: kids can ONLY communicate with others they’ve physically exchanged FaceChipz tokens with – NO strangers allowed! No one can arbitrarily contact them. No one can search for them. It’s the social network they collect, but doesn’t collect them." We understand that the Chipz are now available at Toys R Us.

Figure This! You should really try this site out! En ingles y tambien en el espanol. "Welcome to the Figure This! Web site! Helping families enjoy mathematics outside school through a series of fun and engaging, high-quality challenges. Figure This! demonstrates challenging middle school mathematics and emphasizes the importance of high-quality math education for all students. Figure This! Mathematical challenges for families provide interesting math challenges that middle-school students can do at home with their families." say to follow, engaging site with 80 printable math activities for you to try. Uses .pdf files. From NCTM and others.

Flashcard Exchange "Flashcards: 5,706,693 - The world's largest flashcard library." Covers K-12, higher ed, technology, medical, misc, science, languages, more. Basically, this site is flashcard heaven. Page after page of lists of flashcards. At random, we checked out the Dolch words flash cards under Early Education. The site has 17 pages of Dolch word lists. Each list has oodles of flashcards. Whoah. There were four pages of Word Wall word lists. We saw lists of phonics and pronoun flashcards, too. We picked high school geometry at random and found five pages of lists of flashcards people have made. Definitely where you want to go if you're into flash cards.

Flight site from NASA, for kids, with lesson plans for teachers. What is Aeronautics, History of Flight, Dynamics of Flight, Airplanes, Engines, and Fun & Games, including a learning game about the Wright brothers!

Free Mathematics Books 258 math books available online for reading or downloading. We're talking high school to university-level mathematics here. "Here is an alphabetical list of online mathematics books, textbooks, monographs, lecture notes, and other mathematics related documents freely available on the web. I tried to select only the works in book formats, "real" books that are mainly in PDF format...The list is updated almost on a daily basis.."

Fund for Teachers "Believing the teacher knows best how they can make a better impact in their classroom, Fund for Teachers awards fellowships for self-designed professional growth to PreK-12 teachers who recognize the value of inquiry, the power of knowledge, and their ability to make a difference.

Each Fund for Teachers fellowship is as unique as the teacher who designed it, and since 2001, more than 4,400 teachers have been awarded $15.9 million in Fund for Teachers grants-up to $5,000 for individuals, or $10,000 for teams. Fund for Teachers fellowships have taken place in 120 countries on every continent, empowering teachers to explore countless ideas, terrains, and cultures." If this goes on, we'll have to gives these types of sites their own section - Teacher Gifts or something.

Gardening - Classroom Projects from Kids Gardening. Here are 26 gardening projects for school kids, with lesson layouts and notes. Nice for cross-curriculum springtime activities.

Gardening - Thematic Explorations Library from Kids Gardening. Here are 26 thematic units, most with Lessons & Activities and Resources sections. There are a lot of good resources and planning material in here.

Game On! The Ultimate Wellness Challenge How to build an around the year program to educate kids in nutrition, health and physical education before, during, and after school. Includes ideas, activities, and how to set up challenges for kids. This is from Action for Healthy Kids of Skokie, Illinois, USA. Their mission statement and program layout explains it all in detail. We need this sort of site. Thanks for another one, Shelly.

GeoGebra "GeoGebra is free and multi-platform dynamic mathematics software for learning and teaching. It has received several educational software awards in Europe and the USA." Math teachers only - please read on: "GeoGebra is dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. On the one hand, GeoGebra is an interactive geometry system. You can do constructions with points, vectors, segments, lines, conic sections as well as functions and change them dynamically afterwards. On the other hand, equations and coordinates can be entered directly. Thus, GeoGebra has the ability to deal with variables for numbers, vectors and points, finds derivatives and integrals of functions and offers commands like Root or Extremum. These two views are characteristic of GeoGebra: an expression in the algebra view corresponds to an object in the graphics view and vice versa." It's easier to play with this program than it is to read the above! This is wonderful free software with its own wiki and support groups.

Gold Star Registry "Gold Star Registry is a FREE, online teacher registry that allows teachers to obtain much-needed student and classroom materials without dipping into their own personal funds... Just like a bridal or a baby registry, a teacher creates a registry "wish list" online from over 6,000 items. Anyone in the community can then go online and help the teacher receive exactly what he or she needs to help their students." This was on CBS News.

Google Earth Resources from the Springfield School District in Oregon. Tutorials and lesson ideas for teachers who want to use Google Earth in class. Google Earth is free and it's a very powerful tool for teaching geography, history, and current events. Nicely laid out site, too.

Guide to Grammar and Writing from Capital Community College, Hartford, Connecticut (This site is) For teachers and senior high and college students. Learn ALL about grammar here. (This is an) Excellent resource. Teachers and pre-service undergrads, if you need a little brush-up prior to teaching grammar, here's the place (to get it.)

Have Fun Teaching We really like this site. They simply have a TON of materials! Worksheets, coloring pages, flashcards, reproducibles, CDs, DVDs, music, songs, videos, activities, teacher tools, lesson plans! Had about 40 seven year olds singing their Planet Song yesterday! Download their music via iTunes, Amazon, more. Thanks Trish.

Hillbilly Housewife has weekly menus, inexpensive recipes, planners, and advice for people on a budget. "The focus here is on low-cost, home-cooking from scratch. The recipes are all tested in a real kitchen. The ingredients are affordable and readily available in most areas. " This is timeless advice for parents on a budget, and it's free.

  Horazio's freeware  Here is a real potpourri of good download ed games, by a guy from Venice, Italy named Horazio. Among them is TurboFarm, for 5 - 7 year olds, which is an animal names matching game. There are also some excellent interactive map games to help kids learn the names of states or regions. Examples are Liberty Map to teach the names of US states, another for Greater London, one for Italy, etc. There are also games to learn Japanese characters, vector math plotters, calorie counters, and more. Your choice of English, Italian, and Spanish (one game also has Korean.) "Grazie Horazio"

Hoagies' Gifted Education Page The "all things gifted" page. This jewel of a site is trying to pull together all sorts of activities, ideas, and resources for gifted kids, parents, and teachers. As we all know, public schools always cut gifted funding first, so a site like this one can help a lot. They've tried to post something for every gifted kid, so there's a huge variety here.

I Am Moving, I Am Learning (IMIL) "is a proactive approach for addressing childhood obesity in Head Start children. IMIL seeks to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, improve the quality of movement activities intentionally planned and facilitated by adults, and promote healthy food choices every day. Take a journey through IMIL by reviewing the research, video clip, testimonials, and Choosy Kids, LLC for further information."

Imaginon Fun and Games This is from ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Charlotte has a deserved reputation as a regional cultural center) Among other wonderful things, they put on a lot of well done plays for children's theatre! The part we really liked was the many interactive web activities for kids, all thematic units based on various plays based on classic kid lit books like "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie". There are activities in here that cover A Rat's Life (biology, history) and Medieval Life, Laura Ingalls Wilder, lots more. Teachers, you should really pore over this listing of links!

Informal Geometry by MathMastery Inc. Video clips and interactive, downloadable Flash videos cover Geometry in 13 progressive units from intro to perimeters up through volume. Also covers using a compass and a protractor. Elementary kids who know their times tables could use this easily. Another fine example of what you can find at Curriki!

Institute for Inquiry from the Exploratorium in San Francisco. "...developing innovation and leadership in science education." Offers workshops and a large library for inquiry-based teaching and learning.

Interactive Science Simulations from PhET/U of Colorado, Boulder! There are dozens of these great interactive simulations to download, embed, or play online! You can even contribute your own! Click on any one of these and a menu pops up with more info, including the option to sort by grade levels. Science teachers, you must see this site!

Introductory Physics I from Curriki. Uses flash videos for the lesson and pdf files for questions. "Welcome to the NROC Introductory Physics course. This course is divided into two semesters and is designed to acquaint you with topics in classical and modern physics. The first semester discusses topics in Newtonian mechanics including: kinematics, laws of motion, work and energy, systems of particles, momentum, circular motion, oscillations, and gravitation. The first semester concludes with topics in fluid mechanics, thermal physics, and kinetic theory. The second semester discusses the topics of electricity and magnetism, waves and optics, and atomic and nuclear physics. The course emphasizes problem solving, and there are numerous interactive examples throughout. You will also gain laboratory experience through interactive lab simulations and wet labs."

Island of the Blue Dolphins "A thematic exploration of the historical fiction novel--Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell." A really thorough interactive online thematic unit, with activities about the island, the people, village, sea life. Includes a good teacher's unit with a nice page of lesson ideas. Well done, good art. Created by elementary teachers in California. Part of the HUGE SCORE History/Social Science sites. "Over 5000 websites aligned to California's History/Social Science Curriculum."

Just Say No Anti-drug site from Thinkquest. Rich source of information for teaching kids about drugs of all types. Includes games, both online and printable. Check the red circles on the left side of the page to access the menus. Thanks to Terri T. for finding this site.

K12 Academics "Since its inception in 2004, K12 Academics has established itself in the education community by creating influential and valuable information for teachers, students, parents & districts officials involved in the K-12 education system...This is the most comprehensive directory on the internet for afterschool programs. We have over 100,000+ pages of educational content that covers all demographics in the education system- parents, Students, teachers, Schools, district officials, etc. We are not just another website, but the website for education."

K12Reader "Reading Instruction Resources for Teachers & Parents" Printable worksheets for Dolch words, handwriting practice. Lots of articles on everything from abstract nouns to finding a good reading program. Book reviews, games and activities to try, and reading topics. Teachers and parents will find it worthwhile to explore this site.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators "Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning." Subject access, Teacher Helpers, lists of kids sites, more.

Khan Academy "is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere...We are complementing Salman (Khan's) ever-growing library with user-paced exercises--developed as an open source project--allowing the Khan Academy to become the free classroom for the World." 1800+ videos cover math from 1 + 1 up through differential equations; Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Organic Chem, Cosmology, Astronomy; History; Finance (BIG section!); Test Prep: SAT, GMAT, CAHSEE, IIT JEE. The videos are wonderful! This is amazing and FREE!

KidPort "Kidport is an Internet-based educational service designed to help K-8 students excel in school. It provides a unique, multi-step program to create empowered learners, not simply good students." Kids click on a remote that sends them to Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Creative Arts, and Reference Library. From there they can go to grade appropriate online lessons. This is an excellent resource.

KidsOLR   Kids Online Resources has lots of online lessons covering various parts of the K-12 curriculum. Their Telling Time activity is already in our Math and Telling Time section.  Way too extensive to cover it all here - go check it out.

KidsHealth in the Classroom is a new part of the popular KidsHealth site. "Get on board with KidsHealth's new online resource for educators! KidsHealth in the Classroom offers free health curriculum materials for all grades and subject areas. Each teacher's guide includes discussion questions, activities, and reproducible handouts and quizzes - all aligned to recently updated national health education standards." Excellent material.

KidsKnowIt Network From Utah comes this big array of sites covering elementary mathematics, astronomy, biology, dinosaurs, geology, geography, memory builders, spelling, and games. "These free resources were developed by teachers, parents, and experts from various fields to provide free learning opportunities for children all around the world."

KidsStoriesOnline "KidsStoriesOnline "Welcome To This Social Network Where You Can Post Short Stories/Poems Written By You or Your Child (for review & voting by other members). This is a great way to motivate your child to write and also read stories/poems on a regular basis. There will be prizes awarded each month for the story/poem with the most votes" Here's a new and growing site with a laudable goal. Read about it from the author: "My aim is to get teachers/parents and writers around the world talking to each other and sharing great ideas. Members can join different groups depending on what age their child or student is, and there is also a group for special needs teachers/parents.. You can even create your own group." This sounds wonderful.

Kids Activities from allkids. This is allkids' big listing of kid sites by categories. This page features Early Learning, free colouring pages, Nursery Rhymes, Online Stories, Boredom Busters, Outdoor Activities & Games, Childrens Hobbies & Interests, Childrens Free Fun Sites, TV and Book Characters links, Kids TV show links, Kids Movies links with critiques and schedules (UK). Someone worked long and hard to bring this to fruition.

Kids Running "is a site about kids running for kids of all ages. Inspire your kids to embrace fitness, physical activity and exercise...Hello and welcome to KidsRunning.Com. It won't take you more than a few moments of browsing the site, to see that we are building a Web site devoted to promoting the sport of running for kids so that they can enjoy the benefits of a fit and healthy lifestyle both at school and home. We integrate academics when we can. It seems that both learning and running are more fun for kids when they are combined."  Owned and operated by working teachers.

Kids Software "is a blog about free software, commercial software and websites for kids. The blog is maintained by Marianne Wartoft, who also runs the site Educational Freeware." This site is packed with links to wonderful places such as Starfall and other fabulous destinations.

Language Guide Want to learn alphabets and vocabulary words from other languages? "LanguageGuide.org offers free sound integrated resources for learning languages." The site features pictures of various things with written and spoken names in several languages. Words are pronounced by volunteer native speakers. Current languages are English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. Sponsored by Language Guide, a registered non-profit organization, the site is free to use but they do ask for donations. Uses QuickTime.

Launch Pad: "Where Young Authors and Illustrators Take Off! is a new literary & arts magazine devoted to publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book reviews and artwork by children ages 6-12." This looks pretty good. A place where young artists and writers can show off their work!

Laura Candler's Teaching Resources Everyone's been checking this out! This site is from an experienced classroom teacher who sells her own line of classroom help/curriculum materials, and also gives workshops. All of her blackline masters and Literary Lessons are available online. Her Reference Book  online is a treasury of mastery learning ideas and activities. Here's another bunch of good resources for busy teachers.

LearnEnglish Kids "LearnEnglish Kids is for children who are learning English. Find games, songs, stories and lots of activities - and learn English too." Games, printables, online songs, stories to read, more. There's also a good section for Teachers of English as a Second Language with lesson suggestions for using this site.

Learning Strategies: Maximizing Your Academic Experience from Dartmouth. Evidently to help their new undergrads learn how to study, Timeless techniques well presented here. "The following pages provide a variety of suggestions and resources for maximizing your academic experience. View an on-line video, read about helpful strategies, or download a handout."

Lesson Plan Library from the Discovery Channel is getting its own listing! "Find hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers. Use the pull-down menus below to browse by subject, grade, or both."

Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies This site has links to hundreds of K-12 lesson plans as well some strategy ideas!

Lessons In Electric Circuits "A free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics." Excellent free learning, just bring a brain and the ability to think and read. Consists of six online books: DC, AC, Semiconductors, Digital, Reference, and Experiments. Volume I starts with static electricitry and ends with explanations of capacitors and inductors. It's free, it's good, and it's on the web.

LessonSnips "Welcome to LessonSnips! Free teaching lessons, lesson plans, worksheets, and more... " This site's offerings cover Social Studies, Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science. The lessons offered are pdf files for easy saving and use. The lessons we looked at are reasonably short but comprehensive. Good pre-made lesson plans like these are a real time saver as well as a help to new teachers who haven't yet built up those file cabinets full of plans. (be they real cabinets or saved on media)

Lining Up Strategies to help you get younger kids to behave waiting in a line. If you don't think this is a challenge, you haven't taught Kindergarten! Trust PE teachers to come up with these good ideas. From PE Central.

Loving2Learn "Run off 100's of Books, Watch 100's of Educational Videos, and Play 100's of FUN Games!" Here's a big and well organized site with tons of things to do! Organized by subject and by age/grade, you can find all sorts of good things here. Check it out!

Masters in Psychology "Search 95+ Online Masters Degree in Psychology Programs. Masters in Psychology is the only online guide dedicated to providing unbiased information for students about getting your masters in psychology degree. In addition to providing the only complete listing of campus schools in the US that offer a Masters in Psychology degree, we also answer common students questions in our FAQ section." We could see how this might be a useful resource for some viewers, and we thank Ms. Michelle Parsons for the email about her site. Going in Teachers & Parents.

Math Doesn't Suck and Kiss My Math. These are two books by Danica McKellar, of The Wonder Years, who grew up and earned a Bachelor's in Mathematics. Middle School girls (ages 11 to 14) like these books - some even love them. "How to survive middle school math without losing your mind or breaking a nail." Her girl-to-girl style resonates with many girls. The math is sound and the problem solving techniques work. Using them this very evening with 11 and 12 year olds who are struggling with Least Common Multiples and Greatest Common Factors was rewarding. As any teacher knows, seeing students light up when they "get it" can make your day! This is a non-compensated endorsement.

Math Worksheet Center "What is Math Worksheet Center? A huge K-12 math worksheets resource! 8,000+ math worksheets. Complete math explanations! Not a plain old worksheet site! We give instructions on all core K-12 math skill areas. Math Worksheets Center is home to over 8,000 K-12 math worksheets, lessons, homework, and quizzes. We also offer over 130 free math teaching and learning articles." These are on their Mathtips page. This looks like an excellent site. You will have to subscribe for a nominal fee to get the most of what they offer.

Meet Me at the Corner, "Virtual Field Trips for Kids, is a dynamic, interactive site, which encourages individual expression and participation through video submissions from children worldwide, featuring their special corner of the world. Through these video pod casts we hope to create a community of children, who learn the art of self-expression and storytelling through video." Great idea and wonderful site!

Miss O and Friends "By girls...for girls."  Advice, discussions, interviews, activities, music and more for tween and young teen girls. There's a lot in this site, the more you explore, the more you find! Useful for projects.

Mixing in Math An after school math activity site for parents, teachers, and caregivers. "Mixing in Math activities are:

* Quick ways to mix math in to what after-school programs already do: sports, snack time, arts and crafts, playground games;
* Easy to prep;
* Easy to lead. You don't need math background or special training;
* Designed to be used with any school math curriculum and can complement homework in a variety of ways.
* Free!

Monterey Bay Aquarium teaching resources listings. Why are these listed here? Because M.B.A. devotes a huge section of their site to education. To wit...

Intro and info for Monterey Bay's Teacher's Place. Teachers might want to click here first.

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Kid's Corner and Teacher's Place Wow! Six live web cams, activities, games, lesson plans, printable teacher guides, learning activities, teaching units, songs with audio files, pdf files, video libraries. 168 pages of activities in the free, downloadable Sea Searcher's Handbook (PDF) alone!

Monterey Bay's Teacher Resource page lists 29 activities, over 30 short videos, and an online field guide.

Monterey Bay's Ocean Explorers has five thematic units.

Monterey Bay Aquarium's live web cams (six of them)

Mollusks: General Lesson Plan Extremely well thought out and awesomely well organized expandable K-12 lesson plan for teaching about mollusks. You may do all or parts of it. There's a checklist for doing it right. Anything you wish to teach about the mollusks, be they clams, snails, or squids, it's in here. Spelled "molluscs" in most English-speaking countries. Going in Teachers & Parents.

MrDonn.org  "Free Lesson Plans & Activities for K-12 teachers & students." Includes ready-made lesson plans for Ancient History, Myths and Folktales, Language Arts, PowerPoints on the same subjects, lesson plans for modern history, American Civil War, the Depression, Civil Rights, Great Barrier Reef, Holidays, and free clip art! BIG Ancient History for Kids section including Ancient China and Native American history! We are happy to see Mr. Donn's up and running at their own web address.

Mrs. Alfson's Classes is a fine site for two reasons: a good example of what a teacher's site should look like; and a good source of high school science links that cover chem, AP chem, and physical science. There are some great links in here.

Mrs. Hongell's Resource Page Mrs. Hongell is the Computer Teacher at Pocantico Hills Central School in New York. This typically high-quality Pocantico page is full of useful ideas. We especially liked the sections on Microsoft tutorial and podcasting. Good job!

Mrs. Mitchell's Virtual School  is a list of links to good and varied educational and activity sites arranged by subject and grade. A nice collection of links to "good sites."

Mrs. Wilkie's Websites "Click on one of the links to the left to access the web sites that you wish to use." Do it! This is a HUGE, HUMONGOUS collection of education sites, indexed by subject. A big vertical list sits on the left side of an otherwise nondescript page. Do not be fooled! This is one of the best! It's also a good introduction to wikis.

Navigation Education Materials Ten middle school science lesson plans ready to go! These teach navigation, mapping, topo maps, GPS, and space navigation! Excellent introduction to a technical subject. From the renowned Institute of Navigation. Because we need to educate kids in important technical subjects.

National Geographic Kids This is Nat Geo Kids site map page. It lists all their goodies for kids: Animals, Games, Stories, Activities, People & Places, Photos, and even Videos! A ton of resources!

National Girls Collaborative Project "The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) maximizes access to shared resources within projects and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and math. One of the valuable NGCP resources is the free, online Program Directory. The Program Directory lists programs and resources that encourage girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The purpose of the directory is to help organizations and individuals network, share resources, and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls. The directory contains: Program descriptions with Web site links and contact information; Program resources available; Program needs; Potential collaboration opportunities.

National Science Education Standards covers standards for: science teaching, professional development, assessment, content, science ed K-12 by level, programs, and systems. A lot of material, well organized in one place.

teaching children what to watch out for online with fun, interactive games and activities. Fun safe internet links for kids to Learn about Wizzywigs, Webville outlaws, and internet safety rules.

New Teachers Group from Curriki. "New teachers have many challenges and are sometimes left without anyone to guide their questions. As part of this group, you will have the opportunity to read about and respond to other new teacher's questions/solutions/frustrations as well as submit your own ideas. We are all here to help. Sign up and let's hear from you!" Yes, the fabulous Curriki site has groups! This one's for new teachers. There are others for other interest groups of educators.

North American Montessori Teachers' Association The official site for Montessori teachers. If you are interested in Montessori, this is a good place to look into it.

On-Line Math Worksheet Generator "With The Math Worksheet Site you can create an endless supply of printable math worksheets. The intuitive interface gives you the ability to easily customize each worksheet to target your student's specific needs. Every worksheet is created when you request it, so they are different every time." Free worksheets or you can subscribe for an annual fee and get lots more worksheets. Offered as a service by us with no endorsement implied.

  Owl & Mouse Educational Software Great phonics software that reminds us of the old MECC Apple games of the 1980s. Free software for you to download and install, or play online. Their plug: "Help your child learn with games, software and educational activities from Owl & Mouse Educational Software. Early reading software—phonics software, alphabet games, and Dolch sight words in a fairy tale story. All of it FREE! Free online USA maps, world maps, map of Europe, map puzzles of the US, Europe, Africa, Asia, and many more. You can build your own castle and coat of arms—free downloads."

Palmetto Power Program from the Central Electric Power Cooperative, Columbia, South Carolina. "...vivid exploration of energy, power grids and the mystery and magic of electricity." Best site we have seen for explaining electricity generation and distribution, it includes (great, noisy, action) games that kids will love, a glossary, and science fair projects for kids. The Learn About Energy section explains stored and kinetic energy, how energy is generated for human use, electrical generation and distribution, green energy, conservation and efficiency, and safety around electricity (important). Resources for Teachers includes good Lesson Plans for grades K - 7, two local resource sections for South Carolina educators, and some grant resources! Very well laid out site and we loved the controls! Thanks to Mr. Danny Purvis of the Central Electric Power Cooperative in Columbia, SC, for emailing us about their fine site!

PE Central "Welcome to the premier site for health and physical education teachers, parents, and students. Our goal is to provide the latest information about developmentally appropriate physical education programs for children and youth." Jobs, a store, over 1,700 lesson ideas, established PE programs, videos, lots more. A treasure for busy PE teachers! If this goes on, we'll need a Phys Ed section! Thanks go to Amanda Schlepp for the email about this site.

Parent's Guide to Children’s Mental Health Services in South Dakota Four videos, from two to five minutes long, cover this in depth. Most of this applies no matter where you live. Includes a video for Native American/First Nations parents. Useful resource.

Panwapa - Where Kids Shape the World. "Panwapa is an imaginary floating island with characters, stories, and global explorations for kids ages 5-9. Panwapa characters introduce kids to concepts of learning about and accepting other cultures. Educators who use Panwapa can create a group on Curriki to extend and comment on the curricular questions which go along with the Panwapa videos, playalong games, and lessons." This site is great! Talking animated characters engage kids and help them choose from a variety of wonderful things to do. You have to check it out, it is great! From the Sesame Street people.

Physical Education Lesson Ideas from PE Central. Here's 1,700 or so PE lesson plans already sorted and organized by areas of interest. Go for it!

Pearl Harbor Lesson Plans US Navy official site. "Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, we all have been drawn to examine similar events in our past. The lesson plans provided for you will help you and your students to understand what happened on December 7, 1941. Beginning with the first American treaty with Japan in 1854 though the attacks in 1941, students will use primary sources to synthesize information and draw conclusions about the role of the U.S. Navy in foreign policy and to understand how people in 1941 reacted to the tragic bombing of Pearl Harbor. These lesson plans are geared towards upper middle and high school students. You may download and reproduce everything available. We encourage you to use these lesson plans as pre-museum visit materials."

Pete's PowerPoint Station ("FREE Presentations in PowerPoint format & Free Interactive Activities for Kids") looks like a little homemade site for kids but it's HUGE inside! This site is set up with a model railroad theme. Pete's Presentations (Themes and Topics is the page title) lists 838 (yes, eight hundred thirty-eight) education topics, from ABC's to Zoo! Each Topic has links to that subject area, sometimes dozens of links. Not only PowerPoints (lots of them) but games and links to "good sites." Greta's Games has mostly academic games organized by subject. Often a dozen or more links per subject. Hannah's Homework Help Station has PowerPoints about doing research, and links to various research sites. You could spend a week looking in here! Anything you need for K-8, and some for higher schooling as well.

Plagiarism - The Ultimate Plagiarism Resource "While the Web may have made plagiarism as easy as a few simple clicks, it's also made detecting plagiarism just as easy. If a student can find the essay in seconds, so can you—if you know where to look. This comprehensive resource will tell you everything you need to know about plagiarism, from the basic facts to free detection tools to preventing it in both the physical and online classroom." Thanks to Nathan Grimm, Program Manager at SR Education Group in Kirkland, WA for his email re: their fine site.

Plagiarism Checker "Cut & paste your students paper or homework assignment into the box and click the "check" button. This free plagiarism detector will find plagiarized text in homework and other essays/reports."

Printable Fact Triangles from HelpingWithMath. "Fact Triangles are similar in some ways to flashcards although they are a better way of showing and practicing fact families. Fact Families are sets of three numbers that can be divided or multiplied together and they help develop the understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division." Kids often wrestle with the concept of fact families. This printable sheet can help.

Resources For Parents "is providing free online parenting tips on kids education and activity resources information for Kindergarten to high school parents who dedicated to improve the education of today's new generation. We feature all USA K-12 state's standard testing information, samples and worksheets for kids, free printable worksheets, education news, parenting tips, online kids coupons and thousands of other great resources for parents."

Room 108  "Room 108 is a primary education site for kids. There are lots of free online games but all with an educational focus. There are over 400 pages of kids' educational games, interactive writing, animated stories, songs, kids puzzles, art, math, science, social studies, distance learning and much more. A great resource for primary kids games and teacher teaching resources!" OK, we're impressed.

Sampler of Mathematics for gr9-10/ 14-16yr From Curriki! "The curriculum resources contained in this folder represent a selection of high-quality materials from the Curriki repository for grades 9-10/ages 14-16 in Mathematics." There are some interactive online actitivities in here in zip file form for you to unzip; also some .pdf lesson plans and online lesson plans.

Scavenger Hunts for Kids "Free, printable treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, and fun games for children." These are in Word format (.doc), not pdf. The ones we looked at were nice printable sheets with instructions. These are all downloads, nothing interactive or online.

Sebran's ABC - Free Software For Kids "It's never too early for your child to become familiar with letters and numbers. Sebran's ABC's colorful pictures, pleasant music, and gentle games teach letters, numbers, simple math, and rudiments of reading." Free to you under GNU license. Reviews are posted on the site. We've "field tested" Sebran with 5 - 10 year olds. The games are good, they work. Kids like them, too. Thank you to Marianne Wartoft of Uppsala, Sweden, who wrote this fine software! You can fine various good places to download Sebran, just Google Sebran.

Sesame Street Still helping little ones, since the 1960s. Their site has oodles of activities about letters, numbers, coloring, music, eating healthy, and much more. Let kids click and explore! Some activities require Java or Flash. Others may be slow on Firefox.

Shedd Educational Adventures (SEA) from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Lesson Plans, Interactives, and the Explorer's Guide! Interactives are the online learning games, indexed by grade level. We tried Build a Fish and it was fun!

Sites for Teachers "Hundreds of educational web sites rated by popularity." This is a useful site for educators.

Social Skills for Elementary Students Laura Candler's advice on teaching social skills to elementary kids basically walks you through the steps of teaching these skills. Well worth trying.

Social Skills for Middle School Students Yes, the site you have dreamed about really exists. With four main sections and several sub-sections, this site offers lesson plans, activities, role playing, whatever it takes to instill social skills through practice! We did up a set of questions to go with "American Table Manners" and had middle-schoolers engaged!  You need to use this site!

Socratic Method: Teaching by Asking Instead of by Telling One educator's experience using the Socratic Method with his 3rd grade class. Interesting and a good read.

Songs for Teaching  "The Definitive Source for Educational Music" Based on what we've seen of this site it is THE SOURCE for classroom music!  " Creative teachers can use music to teach content across the curriculum -- to students of all ages. A host of educational experts brings you tested ideas for using the magic of music in your lesson plans. This site contains thousands of pages for you to peruse -- many with lyrics, sound clips, and teaching suggestions. The top educational pros offer practical suggestions based on the latest in brain-based learning. Innovative teachers share their classroom pointers and extension activities using children's music. Songs from a wide variety of popular artists are presented by academic subject. See the categories below to find educational music and children's songs that complement your lesson plans."

Spelling it Right - Learn How to Spell Confidently. "Free printable worksheets, help and advice from an experienced English teacher and examiner. This site is for: parents who are concerned about their children's spelling and are keen to help them improve; adults who find spelling difficult and want to learn to spell correctly; teachers who need some online printable spelling worksheets to supplement their own materials; and includes: advice about how to deal with problems and become a better speller; a collection of free printable worksheets, each comprising a complete lesson designed to test and teach spelling skills; games, puzzles and quizzes to help encourage an interest in spelling." OK, so Americans will have to drop a "u" once in a while, this is an excellent site that does what it says. Great syllable and consonant blend practice (!) and some good advice on teaching spelling. We want to thank Roger Smith for his site!

Spiders! This is a nice spider unit for lower elementary kids, with lesson plans ready to go.

StarFall A neat, phonics-intensive site for pre-k through second grade. Stories, movies, and games! Progressive levels let kids read or be read to. Every time we go to this site with K-2 kids, we find something new and great! This site WILL keep those busy little brains going for a whole computer lab session! Thanks, Tia.

Stepducks "Sometimes you just need to talk to someone!" This is a site full of resources for step-families. It has practical advice, links to other support sites, activities and references for: Stepfamily Support, Family and Parenting, Marriage Support, Divorce Support, Single Parents, etc. Meet the Stepducks has some typical stepkid characters, what they are like, how they act. "You'll Swear You Know These Kids!!" Good luck, stepfamilies. You are not alone, we are not alone.

Stop Bullying Now!"Welcome to the Stop Bullying Now! Campaign. You can learn all about bullying and what you can do to stop it. Take a look around and you’ll find games and cartoon Webisodes that help you Take a Stand. Lend a Hand. Stop Bullying Now!" Great material with sections for kids and adults.

Student Resources and Teacher Resources from the Library of North Bennington Graded School in Vermont. Two great webpages at one place! Plenty of worthwhile sites to check out.

Study Guides and Strategies (Tons of them!) We wish we could copy some quotes about these guys so we needn't try to describe this site - there is just SO MUCH going on! How to study, how to listen, how to meet challenges, managing time, how to learn (!), how to think, memorize, manage projects, how to write well, vocabulary, how to take a test, math science, etc! This site has it all! You really must look at it!

SuperKids Educational Software Reviews is what is says. Good for checking on software.

Symmetry and Tessellations Activity Links put together by Jill Britton is 30 pages of very useful and interesting activities and lesson plans on these subjects. Amazing art in here, too! 30 pages!

Talented and Gifted - The Best Resources for Parents & Educators. Provided by the Madison, Wisconsin school district. List of links for parents and teachers of TAG students. Many school systems in America are neglecting their best and brightest students, so these links may be of some help.

Teach, Learn, Repeat "Create Free Quizzes & Exams Online. Nothing to download. Create a quiz right from your browser...Anything you create can be freely shared, or can be reserved for personal learning, or corporate asssessment and certification. TLR Members create their own content, but have the ability to leverage shared content by peers or groups." This concept has definite possibilities. It's another fine site brought to our attention via email. Thanks to Mr. Dan McAvinchey.

Teach the Children Well "is a collection of links to sites carefully selected by a teacher for students as well as their parents and teachers. The site was designed for elementary grades but many of the sites will also be of interest to older students. Elaine M. Doolittle, M.Ed." There are big lists of sites on all sorts of topics. A necessary site for your bookmarks. Interesting site layout, too.

Teaching Children About Money has suggestions for teaching this subject, as well as a list of online resources and lesson plans.

Teaching Evolution: Understanding Evolution for Teachers. "Explore the ultimate evolution resource for K-16 teachers, including lesson plans, conceptual framework, and more."

Teaching Ideas for Primary Teachers Wow! "Teaching Ideas for Primary Teachers" is a big site that has lots of written out activities, lesson plans, worksheets, pdf files, etc, for the elementary curriculum. It's broken down by subject. There is great "stuff" in here. We were all impresssed by their easy prime numbers activity. Better yet, you can rate activities and leave comments - very nice for busy teachers!

Teaching Older Children and Youth About Trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. Online Games & Activities in the left column, Downloads & plans for Parents & Educators in the right column. Not the same as their Youth Education site, all their online games for older kids are in one place - here.

Teaching Your Child Here is a site that's useful to parents and daycare providers looking for advice about helping a child to learn. " 'Teaching Your Child' provides advice and support for parents and carers on how to develop their child's learning. A range of activity ideas are suggested to enhance your child's reading, writing and number skills. The site also provides information on behaviour management strategies, the importance of social skills and healthy lifestyle choices... One of the most valuable things parents and carers can provide for a child is a supportive and stimulating environment. Whether you have a few minutes a day or a full weekend, there are a range of activities for you to do together with your child. All activities are designed to be beneficial and fun, whilst providing parents and carers with suggestions on how to ensure their child progresses well during their early years of education. " Covers a whole range of early learning. Some good ideas in here!

teAchnology Ok, here's a site boasting 30,000+ free lesson plans (indexed various ways), 8,000 or so free printable worksheets, 275,000 reviewed sites indexed by professional interest, holidays by month, etc., etc. Wow. You need to take the time to look this place over. If you can use a hundredth of this free stuff, you'll be ahead. Thanks, "Opsmart Matti".

The new face of underage drinking: teenage girls. Grim statistic: the majority of teenage drinkers are girls. Short but fact-filled article bluntly explains this.

Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms for Early Lessons in Life. This site has 20 very complete lesson plans for grades K-3. Themes relate to real life, for example, safety. We found this site to be well thought out, and we used to teach "Bugology."

Vicki Blackwell This is a fine teacher internet and computer resources site from an educator and tech resource teacher in Louisiana. "The purpose of this website is to provide a resource for the teachers of Tangipahoa Parish School System and teachers all around the world, as they continue to incorporate the use of technology into the curriculum. You will find my favorite links in the "Blackwell's Best" section. "The Classroom" has links to staff development materials and technology integration activities as well as tutorials for some of my favorite software. The "Tech Tips" page includes hints to help you become a more efficient technology-using educator..." This is the kind of peer advisor site teachers need to help them with technology.

Visual Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online  Why go to Google or Wikipedia for all your info? "The Visual Dictionary Online is an interactive dictionary with an innovative approach.  From the image to the word and its definition, the Visual Dictionary Online is an all-in-one reference. Search the themes to quickly locate words, or find the meaning of a word by viewing the image it represents. Explore the Visual Dictionary Online and enrich your mind. Perfect for home, school or work. Discover a visual world of information!"

Vocabulary worksheet puzzle makers Free from LessonCorner. This site allows you to make your own crossword puzzles, word scramblers, and word search, or have the site make them for you in any of 20 subject areas! The site-made puzzles do not repeat, either. Nice! The menu is easy to use and you can move back and forth in the process. LessonCorner asked us to look at their free material, and we found it to be useful for teachers and homeschoolers.

Waterford Games & Activities "Download hundreds of free games, activities, and quizzes from our website! Subject areas include animals, plants, weather, astronomy, geology, and miscellany... Simply copy materials to your desktop and print out as needed. It's that easy!"

Webster's Online Dictionary  with Multilingual Thesaurus Translation "Earth's largest dictionary with 90 modern and 10 ancestral languages."

Web English Teacher Project based learning K-12. Language arts only. Very many, perhaps hundreds, of lesson plans and related ideas for the entire language arts spectrum.

Web Worksheet Wizard A site that lets you print out worksheets indexed by subject, or even make your own!

Whatcom Community College Online Math Center Twenty-one links to free math courses, more links to resources, too. Algebra, calculus, fractals, more. Mostly this is for parents, teachers, and secondary students.

Why Homeschool A blog we found. "Mission statement: On this blog we explore why homeschooling can be a better option for children and families than a traditional classroom setting. We'll also explore homeschooling issues in general, educational thoughts, family issues, and some other random stuff." There's some good reading and discussion points here, also we liked the style.

Wings for Kids "Here is a great website that provides free social & emotional development activities, lessons, and plans to help model, shape and reinforce social skills. Just scroll down the page, and you'll find the activities divided into categories. These would work well with your older students. Check them out…should be a good resource for you!"

WriteSite An interactive language arts and journalism project for middle schools, developed by ThinkTVNetwork, Dayton, Ohio.