Helpful Links for K - 8 Teachers

Below is a list I compiled, with the help of my district's Technology Coordinator, for the use of teachers at my K -8 school. I hope these help you utilize more technology in your classroom. 

Timers
Smart Notebook - Go to Gallery (the tab with the picture in a frame) and search for timers. Three categories will show up, click on the one that says interactive and multimedia. From there you have two choices of timers. When you click on the one you want, a grey arrow will show up. Click on the grey arrow and chose insert in notebook.

·         Online Stopwatch Classroom Timers - This site has several unique timers that students enjoy watching and counting down with. The 4^th graders prefer the rocket and the dynamite.

·         Classroom Timer - This site is a plain timer, but allows you to add music to the timer. You do not need to be a subscriber to use the timer.

·         Count Up, Count Down Timer - This site has a timer that can count up or down. It has a beeping alarm to let you know the time has expired.

·         Super Teacher Tools Counter - This site has additional timers.

·         Kitchen Timer - This site has a replica of a kitchen timer.

Reading / Writing

·         Treasures Reading Series Pinterest - A Pinterest board with Treasures resources. When you find one that is interesting to you, click on the link and the site will open.

·         2nd Grade Treasures Reading - 2nd grade Treasures resources, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar resources divided by week from several Florida teachers using Treasures. I used this site every week when teaching 2^nd grade.

·         Mrs. Ziruolo's Class – Excellent 1^st & 2^nd grade Treasures Smart Board resources.

·         Treasures Reading Teachers - Interactive websites to use with all grade levels. This is a member board that includes resources for each grade level.

·         Storyline Online - Books read aloud by members of the Screen Actors Guild. Many books to choose from.

·         Book Crossing - has allowed more than 740,000 people in more than 130 countries to recycle books. A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure--all you have to do is leave it on a park bench or a coffee shop for a new reader to find! Track the book's journey around the world as it travels from person to person. This Web site also has forums for book lovers to discuss favorite authors, characters, and books in every genre.

·         Collab-O-Write - Students can create and enter story starters, finish stories, create a story from a picture and more. This site is run by middle school students and teachers.

·         Favorite Poem Project - American poets and poems. Includes some teacher resources.

·         Poetry 4 Kids - Funny children's poems and poetry books, games, contests, lessons, discussion forums, and journals, plus a rhyming dictionary, streaming audio, school visit information and more.

·         KOL Read Aloud - Many Arthur read aloud stories on the stories page. The main page for this is Kid’s AOL news (KOL). Students can find information about current music artists, news, and printable coloring pages.

·         Merlyn’s Pen - Stories, poems, and essays be teen writers. Both online and print magazine with teacher resources as well.

·         Starfall Literacy - A resource for literacy games for students. Help make learning fun! Students (or teachers) can control the speed of the reading. Also has a calendar activity available.

·          Starfall Math, Songs, and More! – Additional Starfall resources for Math, Songs and Rhymes, and additional Literacy games.

·         Online Classroom Library System – allows you to enter all books in your classroom library and students to go online to check out books. Keep a record of your classroom library.

·         ABCYa – Educational games for students from K – 5 that focus Language Arts, Math, and Technology skills. ABCYa always has holiday resources as well. Perfect for an interactive classroom party!

·         Vocabulary Games - Language Arts games, focusing on vocabulary.

·         American Academy of Poets – Search poems by topic, region, or author. The site has audio recordings of poets, and many resources for teaching poetry.

·         Web English Teacher – Resources for teaching almost any topic within Language Arts.

·         Writing Fix – This site was created by the Nevada Writing project and features interactive writing prompts and several interesting ideas for teaching Language Arts. The website also has mentor text lessons available for K – 12. These lessons are separated by grade level. The goal of the site is to encourage writing every day.

·         Teachers First: Writer's Workshop –This site provides a brief outline of Writer’s Workshop by grade level for grades K – 6. The site also includes additional web resources for writing.

·         Busy Teacher's Cafe: Writer's Workshop –This site has excellent resources for how to set up Writer’s Workshop and provides links to resources that coordinate with the Lucy Calkins program.

·         Teaching That Makes Sense:  Writer's Workshop Handbook –This 71 page PDF outlines Writer’s Workshop and gives sample schedules and student work.

Vocabulary / Spelling

·         Garner's Usage Tip of the Day - Bryan Garner, author of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage (Oxford University Press), offers this invaluable, free, daily e-mail service. Subscription is easy all you do is click on the Tip of the Day and enter your email address, then click update subscriptions.

·         Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online – The site offers a word of the day subscription, an online dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and Spanish – English dictionary.

·         Vocabulary Can Be Fun – Vocabulary games by category. This site also includes games on spelling, analogies, SAT prep, syllables, word play, root words, idioms, Latin, literature, and more.

·         Vocabulary Lists – Designed for middle school students and above, this site features vocabulary quizzes on pre-made lists, or students and teachers can make their own lists. Some pre-made lists include Latin, Shakespeare, SAT prep, and more.

·         SAT Vocabulary Game – An online quiz game with SAT vocabulary review

·         Suffix Connect 4 – A game designed for upper elementary to work on adding suffixes to words.

·         Roots and their Families, Part 1 and Roots and their Families, Part 2 -Students complete words in sentences by typing in the correct root, sort roots to complete sentences correctly, and answer questions about new words by using their roots as clues. These interactive lessons are designed for adult learners and will work for middle school and above.

·         Suffix – In these online lessons, students choose definitions of words based on their suffixes and on context clues, make new words by adding a suffix to a root word, and use suffixes to complete words. These activities are designed for adult learners but will work with middle school and above.

·         Vocabulary Squares – A printable for students to track vocabulary words from current reading assignments.

·         Multiple Meaning Words – This site features activities on homonyms, homophones, and multiple meaning words.

·         Word Walls – Information on how to incorporate word walls in K – 8 classrooms using 5 different activities.

·         Wordle – create word clouds

·         Tagxedo – word clouds

·         Spelling City – Enter word lists for free and students can practice with games. There is a premium membership that allows you to do more.

Science

·         Bug Guide – An index of insects and spiders within the United States and Canada.

·         Science for Kids – Games, activities, safety guides from the American Chemical Society

·         Digital Library for Earth System Education - "electronic materials for both teachers and learners, such as lesson plans, maps, images, data sets, visualizations, assessment activities, curriculum, online courses, and  much more" in the area of the study of the Earth. Search was set to K – 8.

·         EPA for Students – games, quizzes, and homework help for students. Lesson resources for teachers.

·         FEMA for Kids - This site has plenty of resources for kids on how to be prepared for disasters. Have your students read about the difference between a flood watch and a flood warning, and what the Richter scale is. The site details what kids should have in their activity survival kit and how to protect their home from disasters. Take emergency training with Flat Stanley.

·         Interactive Periodic Table

·         Kids Planet – Elementary animal research

·         San Diego Zoo – Animal research, games, videos, zoo jobs, and activities

·         Kids National Geographic – games, videos and resources for students

·         Alcoa Eagle Cam – Webcam of bald eagles

·         NASA Kids Club – Games and videos for grades 1 – 5

·         Science Fair Resources – Experiments and Science Fair projects

·         This Week in Chemistry – discover history related to chemistry

·         NOAA – weather data and information

·         Science Experiments for Kids – Interesting experiments for kids separated by grade level.

·         Weird Science – Links to several science experiments for students

·         Science Notebooks K - 12 – how to use Science notebooks in the classroom

·         Science Notebooking – elementary Science notebooking blog.

Social Studies

·         Ancient Greece – a BBC site to explore Ancient Greeks.

·         Ancient Rome – a BBC site to explore Ancient Romans.

·         BBC Timelines – explore history via BBC. A primary grades site.

·         Archiving Early America – primary source material from the 18^th century

·         Presidents – Whitehouse.gov information about every president and the Whitehouse

·         Digital History – Researching American history with lots of great stuff.

·         Geography Zone – largest online geography challenge

·         Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History -  gives lessons, tips, and plenty of ideas to use over 60,000 primary source documents.  There are even quizzes which can be done online or printed.

·         Map Maker – National Geographic’s online map resources. Includes atlas

·         Google Earth – a 3D view of the Earth

·         Social Studies for Kids – links by strand, glossaries, and fun facts.

Math

·         Brain Boosters – Interactive mathematics games from Discovery Education.

·         Create A Graph – Create a graph using your own information.

·         Graph Paper – Print your own graph and grid paper.

·         Illuminations NCTM – National Council of Teachers of Mathematics links to over 700 resources organized by strand.

·         National Library of Virtual Manipulatives – Virtual math manipulatives organized by strand and grade level. Excellent way to integrate technology with mathematics lessons.

·          Math Wire – Standards based mathematics activities organized by strand. Gives many examples of how they are used in the classroom.

·         AAA Math – Helps teach operations in grades K – 8, organized by subject, grade level, and topic.

·         Multiplication – Activities, games, and resources for teaching multiplication in unique ways.

·         Optical Illusions - Our brain uses depth cues to help us perceive and make sense of sensory stimuli. Artificial manipulations can cause us to think we are seeing something that is not there. This Web site is full of optical illusions and visual phenomena. Learn about size constancy, gestalt effects, and things that look like they are moving, but really aren't!

Religion
 American Catholic - saint of the day, daily Catholic question, Sunday supplements are all part of this website.
 Catholic Educator's Resource Center
 Catholic Mom - everything from Catholic coloring sheets to daily prayer reflections
 CyberFaith - Catholic resources, everything from an interactive liturgical calendar to spirituality resources.
U.S. Catholic Magazine
Catholic Teacher Resources – Prayers, WebQuests, writing prompts, and more. Requires a subscription.

P. E. / Health

·         P. E. Central – Includes a large variety of teacher resources including lesson plans, assessment ideas, videos, bulletin boards, research, and more.

·         Let's Move – A government resource for healthy living. Focuses on healthy eating and getting active.

Art & Music

·         Essentials of Music - Information about classical music includes composer information and sample clips of music.

·         Resources for Music Educators - helpful links for Music Teachers.

·         Kentucky Arts Council - gives information about artists and musicians from Kentucky.

·         Virtual Keyboard - a virtual piano keyboard to practice music on a Smart Board.

·         Cincinnati Art Museum - Cincinnati Art Museum

·         The Taft Museum of Art –Taft Museum of Art Teacher site. Includes lesson plans for primary, intermediate, and secondary art classes.

·         Kentucky Symphony Orchestra- Kentucky Symphony Orchestra educational concerts

·         Cincinnati Symphony – Cincinnati Symphony Education site. Includes lesson plans to go with student concert series.

Lesson Planning

·         A to Z Teacher Stuff – Created by teachers to allow easy access to lesson plans, thematic units, activities and much more.

·         Awesome Library – Lesson plan resources by subject. Includes resources for teachers, principals, school counselors, and more.

·         Education World – Lesson plan resources by subject. Includes a lesson plan of the day.

·         PBS Teachers – Classroom resources, lesson plans, and activities.

·         Read*Write*Think – International Reading Association’s resource for lesson plans from K – 12.

·         Scholastic Teachers – Lesson plans, reproducible activities, book clubs, and more resources.

·          Smithsonian – Lesson plan resources from the Smithsonian Institutes.

·         TeachersFirst - "a rich collection of lessons and web resources for K-12 classroom teachers, their students, and even students' families. Materials are arranged by subject area and grade level, making it easy to locate lesson plans and associated web resources quickly."

·         RubiStar  and IRubric  Search for rubrics and create your own.

·         Librarian Links – Resources for Librarians

·         FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) – Teaching and learning resources from Federal Agencies for various subjects.

News Sources / Current Events

·         New York Times Learning Blog – This blog incudes a word of the day and links to several stories in the New York Times.

·         CNN Student News – This site has a daily newscast that is geared toward upper elementary to high school students. The newscasts are 10 minutes long and feature two questions related to the news cast.

Technology

·         Good Search – a search engine that will donate to a cause of your choice (schools included) each time you search.

·         Discovery Education – PBS videos and other videos to use in the classroom. Many videos include quizzes and lesson resources.

·         Edublogs – create your own educational blog.

·         Wikispaces – create your own wiki.

·         AIM (Animation, Interaction, Multimedia)- Take advantage of all the flash animation technology available online.  Projects work well with SmartBoard.  A great list of sites, including student samples!

·         CyberSmart - lesson plans for grades K-8 
           Flauntr  - A no-cost online photo-editing tools. This particular application has thousands of free one-click effects, photo frames, filters, overlays and digital scrapbooking styles. Store and share photos online for free
            Internet 4 Classrooms –links for each grade level to utilize the internet in the classroom
            National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
      Pete's PowerPoint Station – Free PowerPoint files for use in the classroom. Includes a variety of subjects.
      PowerPoint in the Classroom – shows how to create PowerPoint projects for use in the classroom
            Webquests - overview and training materials to get you started on webquests.
            Animoto – unlimited videos for educators
            Free Technology for Teachers – resources and links on how to create and use technology in your classroom.

Clip Art

·         DK Books Clip Art - Clip art images for nearly every subject. Browse by subject and these can be included in school projects.

·         Office Clip Art – Clip art from Office online that is sorted into categories for use in projects. Must be downloaded to use.

Professional Organizations & Professional Development
 American Library Association (ALA)
 Catholic Library Association (CLA)
 International Reading Association (IRA)
 Kentucky Education Association (KEA)
National Association for Music Educators
 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
 National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
 Teacher to Teacher Digital Workshops - sponsored by the US Dept. Of Education
 The RtI Site – Pat Quinn, Response to Intervention specialist
  Solution Tree – Professional Development workshops and resources (PLC)
 All Things PLC – RtI and PLC blog
Diocese of Covington Technology – a cooperative to join teachers in the Diocese and encourage more technology use in the classroom.

Smart Board
 Smart Technologies - this is their educator resource page.  Has lesson activities, professional development, software resources and more.
Smart Exchange – Search for Smart Board resources on any subject.
SMART Board – Lee, MO  schools technology links for use with interactive white boards
The Teacher's Guide – Smart Board Templates and Resources.