This latest redesign of the Lascaux tour offered by the French government takes viewers on a video tour of the famous French caves. As you walk along, pop-ups label the drawings being viewed. An outline map on the right lower side of the screen shows the path the "walker" is taking, and also demonstrates where the viewer is at any given part of the tour. In addition to the video walk, information about the caves appears in "Chapters" which students can click on. The original version of this site is in French. The left sidebar offers the options of viewing the site in French, English, German, or Spanish. This link automatically opens to the English version of the site.
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Look no further for holiday activities for your ESL and ELL students (or for reading/listening comprehension activities you can use with all learners! This site lists conventional and unusual holidays by month. Click the holiday you would like to feature to find a complete lesson including a tape script, an oral recording of the script, and a variety of review exercises. The printable activities include matching, several varieties of fill-in-the-blank, word choices, spelling, reordering events and sentences from the holiday information, and writing activities. An online clickable reading activity presents parts of sentences, so students must select which sentence part comes first. The screen changes when the correct part comes up, and students select the next part.
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Although there are many websites about internet safety, this site is unique in its detailed sections for user groups including young children, children, teens, parents, libraries, and schools. Each section contains age-appropriate interactive activities, quizzes, tips students can understand, information on online devices the student might be using, and information on social networking for older students. Since the site is from Australia, you may notice some slight language differences, but all the other information is pertinent, helpful, and recognizable.
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Whether you have a few minutes or a few days to light the Olympic torch in your classroom, TeachersFirst offers these resources to guide the way to medal-winning lessons. This collection of reviewed resources from TeachersFirst is selected to help teachers and students learn more about the Vancouver Olympics, 2010, and to plan curriculum-related projects and classroom activities around the Olympic winter games in Vancouver. These links may also be helpful to compare the Vancouver games with other years.
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Challenge basic counting skills and problem solving using classic sliding puzzles. Not only will you find numerical sliding puzzles, but also colorful shape puzzles. Java applets make an interactive version of each puzzle appear below the "goal" you are trying to reach. There is also a targeted number of moves to reach the goal. There are many different types of puzzles, some more familiar than others. Be sure to be patient as puzzles load. Sometimes the interactive (drag to slide) portion does not appear right away.
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Use this online biology study guide to find the answers to more than 1800 questions on a variety of topics. Read through the questions from beginning to end in order to completely understand the material as it is arranged in order to completely understand the concepts. Click on a variety of topics including "Biochemistry," "Zoology," "Ecology," and "Diseases" among others. Click "Search Answers" and enter your question to find items that can answer your search.
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The Wide Angle PBS series is geared towards bringing students to a greater understanding of global current events through briefings, interactive maps, and additional resources. This 2003 episode focuses on the battle against HIV/AIDS on Angola. There is a full length video, photo-essay, interview, and much more. While this episode is now past, it provides a solid timeline of the history of the region.
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World AIDS Day is December 1. This site features stories and stats about HIV/AIDS from around the world. Read stories of individuals, find facts, explore things you can do to raise funds or sponsor an awareness event, and more.
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This collection of reviewed resources from TeachersFirst is selected to help teachers and students learn more about HIV and AIDS and to plan curriculum-related projects and classroom activities related to this sensitive but important topic. Whether you are teaching about the global economic impact of HIV and AIDS or simply helping students understand HIV and AIDS as a health topic, this list of reviewed resources and classroom ideas will provide a solid foundation.
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This website is a source of free, downloadable documentaries. It is a nonprofit site. The site explains, “you can stream interesting and provocative documentary films for free!“ Teachers will want to preview before you share with your class simply because of what “provocative” could mean. Most films are full length, but some are short. There is a helpful menu of topics on the right hand side of the computer screen. This menu makes it easy to navigate and find the type of documentary that is needed. Documentaries range from 9/11 and the London Bombing to The Road to Guantanamo to The Panama Deception to many others.
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This interactive site shows how parts of an actual autopsy are done. The site does have a disclaimer that the content may be too graphic for some viewers. However, the "person" is a computer drawn, faceless character. You can click through the site, screen by screen, following the onscreen instructions to complete the autopsy. This includes removing the organs and weighing them. The site also includes a short video about an actual forensic scientist. Average metric weight of some human organs is also included in the site.
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This site offers spelling practice through an engaging interactive! Choose a category (In and Around Home, What We Wear, What We Eat, How We Get There, or The Animal Kingdom) and then click on a picture. Choose the first letter of the word and watch the wheel spin. Click "submit" when done spelling for a spelling check. Choose "Pick a word for me" to receive random words to spell.
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Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users and their students. Students and teachers can write their own original books, add your own images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in interactive, online form. For a fee, you can also have printed copies made, but there is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling." Here is an example of a book created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors. Once you set up free membership in this site, students (or teachers) can select to create from a blank start or using templates provided. You can also create a book starter of your own as an example so students can follow the prompts you have created. The book creator allows you to upload your own images and to create books from a Word document or PowerPoint file you have already made. There is no provision for multiple users to collaborate on the same book.

After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire thing online, either among an audience of “just my friends” or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books in a class or school web page, wiki, or blog, but at the time of this review, this code was not working properly. The BEST option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully-public option to create learning materials for classes to access year to year for at-home review or reading practice.

This site requires a simple registration. Members must be at least 13 years old. Teachers using this tool with younger students should use a whole-class account WITH parent permission and in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions “In the Classroom” below and in our sample book!
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This site has archives of lists of books, organized by theme and displayed pictorially. Specific subjects feature books divided into two or three levels, including picture books, books for independent readers, and YA books. Featured books are not annotated, but bibliographic information is included. There are many widely varied themes, from the classical to the offbeat (Something from Nothing, and In Praise of Bad Books). The themes are too numerous to mention them all: Adventures on the High Seas Booklist, Africa Booklist, American Military Stories Booklist, Building Things Booklist, Children Putting on Plays Booklist, Exploration Booklist, First Day of School Booklist, Inventors and Inventions Booklist, Mother Goose Booklist, and countless others. A search feature allows teachers and students to search by many different criteria: Type of Child, Title, Author/Illustrator, ISBN, Genre, Subject, Series, Format, Fiction or Non-Fiction, Reading Level, Grade Level, Lexile, Setting, Author and Illustrator Demographics, Personal issues, and other categories. A free login allows users to submit reviews, tag books, or create wishlists (suggest other themes). Registration does require an email address, but it is free. You do not need to register to access the booklists.
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This International Kids Club site has activities, books, and crafts to help students understand each other around the world. Information links include lots of material on world clocks, religions, customs, organizations, and art. Specific links include “I” Kids, “I” Share, “I” Shop, “I” Learn, “I” Craft, and “I” Play. One fun part is finding out how speakers of different languages think animals sound. What is "meow" in an Asian language, for example? Sound files give examples of the sounds of many languages, as well. Some of the links are slow to open at times, so you may want to open them before you are ready to use them in class.
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This colorful, engaging website will help students practice elementary math, and develop greater number competency. Name and email address are required to use the free tools online. Rather than using your personal email, try Gmail. Use up to 20 subaccounts of that Gmail account to create student accounts and passwords to be used by each student or group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.

The online programs can be used in the classroom, but the free trial is only a thirty day plan, so it may not be worth the effort. A limited selection within site can be used effectively for student practice without the trial (for free). It would be a great idea to check out the tutorials of the games so that you can provide easy instructions for your young students to follow.
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Teachers First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Create your own motivational poster easily and effortlessly. Choose a random picture, one from the Internet, or one chosen from your computer. Choose colors to border the picture and the type of text to be used. Enter your text and preview the result. Once complete, save to flickr, your computer, or print using a separate site. Remember you can use a saved image in PowerPoint shows and on a class wiki, as well.
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This site allows users to check a document or web page for evidence of plagiarism for free. Type or copy/paste text from parts of the document or website and click search. Of course, you will need electronic copies of student work to easily copy/paste! Plagiarism Checker provides links to web-based text similar to that being searched. Note that this tool does not check against print material, such as books. It searches only the web for similar passages.
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Use the free portion of this site to check any written content for plagiarism. An accurate analysis of a whole document is quick to complete. Registration is required to use this user-friendly plagiarism checker. An email address and birth date are required for registration. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.

This site displays problem areas in a written piece so changes can be made to avoid plagiarism. A paid account is available and provides more options.
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This website is dedicated to delivering a variety of virtual field trips. The trips are listed by content. Each trip contains objectives, concepts, and terms to know. There are lesson plans linked in the Teacher Resource section of the page, and extra information on the topic. The trips themselves are a lot like guided web quests. The websites that are used in the field trips show good variety. And standards are even provided! The trips include grade levels. Examples of topics include hurricanes, dinosaurs, deserts, natural wonders, dark ages, and American Presidency.
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