We are currently verifying that these resources no longer use Adobe Flash and will update the reviews shortly.
1410 Results | sort by:
Find It - Lyndsey McCollam
Grades
K to 4In the Classroom
Display on the interactive whiteboard or projector and allow students to explore on their own and improve visual discrimination that is useful for reading and more. Create a link on classroom or lab computers to use as a center. Discuss with students different strategies and clues provided within the game that helped them find the missing picture.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
News English Lessons - Sean Banville
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
The articles are short and interesting, a perfect match for non-fiction reading comprehension. With so many different activities to choose from, it will be easy for the classroom teacher to differentiate. There is an mp3 audio version of each article so students can listen as they read. Assign small groups of students to present the news each week, using the interactive whiteboard to show others the country and city from which the article originated. Make the newscasting experience even more real by having students read scripts of these news stories or their own original stories using a EasyPrompter, reviewed here. Students can then go to another news source such as News for Kids, reviewed here, to see what else is happening in the news. For a project and to enhance student learning, have the small groups create a "talking map" using a site such as Zeemaps, reviewed here. This site allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location (where their article/story took place). What a fabulous way to share the article with the rest of the class!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Florida Kids Page - Florida Division of Historical Resources
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): native americans (91), states (122), symbols (15)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students researching state symbols, native americans, or Florida. For students studying Florida, challenge cooperative learning groups to create online books about one part of this website. Use a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Roy Tale of a Singing Zebra - Tim Bowerbank
Grades
K to 4tag(s): guided reading (33), literacy (110), sight words (22), spelling (95)
In the Classroom
This site is ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have the students open the site and use the whiteboard tools to enjoy the story and its follow up activities. Share this link on your class website for students to access both in and out of the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
LITCHARTS - Get Lit - LitCharts
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): literature (218), summarizing (22)
In the Classroom
LitCharts is a great resource to use with ESL/ELL and intervention students to reinforce concepts in texts provided. It is also helpful for students who lack experience with challenging literary classic. Share a LitChart with your class when reading one of the books on the site then have students create their own LitChart for the next book or to improve on the ones offered here. Provide a link to LitCharts to students to use as a study resource for end of novel assessments. Hint: make sure any assessments you use ask questions that go beyond what these charts offer, or students will not even try to read the actual texts! An intriguing challenge would be to ask them what else they would include in a study guide for the work.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Paper Rater - paperrater.com
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): book reports (28), editing (90), essays (21), grammar (133), plagiarism (34), proofreading (21), writing (317)
In the Classroom
Users must be able to find their document and copy and paste into the correct fields. Follow the easy directions to determine grammar errors and create a better document. Use without a login or sign up.Have students use Paper Rater to check their rough drafts. Have students work in pairs, as a peer review, to help each other improve their papers using the suggestions given by Paper Rater. Provide this link on your class website for students to access both in and out of the classroom.
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Environmental News Network - Environmental News Network
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): agriculture (48), climate (81), conservation (86), environment (238)
In the Classroom
Use these articles as a springboard for further research, participation in the creation of editorial articles by students, and topics for public service announcements either created conventionally (posters, bulletin boards) or using technology (blog or wiki posts.) Use this site as a resource when planning environmental education topics and activities. Follow a specific topic over time and discuss how new procedures and techniques of obtaining data can change how a topic is viewed. Use for reading comprehension practice. Encourage the use of WordItOut, reviewed here, or mind mapping to identify known and problematic words. Students can work in groups to ferret out important information which can be presented and discussed with the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Activity of the Month - Dr. Jean
Grades
K to 1This site includes advertising.
tag(s): crafts (54), literacy (110), poetry (190), preK (258), seasons (36), songs (44)
In the Classroom
This site is excellent for enrichment. Share this link on your teacher web page and/or in a parent newsletter for those who trying to encourage the habit of reading and handling books.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
WordSift - Stanford University
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): dictionaries (48), reading comprehension (142), reading strategies (98), thesaurus (22), vocabulary (236), vocabulary development (89), word clouds (13), word study (58)
In the Classroom
This is a classic tool to promote "before reading" strategies and vocabulary development. Use WordSift to preview text to be used in class and define vocabulary before reading to increase reading comprehension. Have students use WordSift with different portions of text to identify key words and vocabulary for class presentations. Use WordSift to discuss different meanings of words using images presented through the site. This site isn't only for English teachers, share with Science and Social Studies teachers to use in their classrooms with reading texts in their content areas. ENL/ELL and learning support teachers will want to share this as a support for any reading assigned in regular classes. Be sure to show students how to copy/paste to WordSift texts from informational web pages and news stories on the web, as well. Share this link as a Favorite on your public page so students can use it anytime.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Science Daily - ScienceDaily LLC
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): animals (284), brain (55), climate (81), computers (106), data (147), earth (184), energy (130), fossils (39), matter (46), medicine (55), news (229), planets (112), plants (147), space (214), time (92)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a research tool or to provide practice reading informational texts in the content areas. Choose an article relevant to what you are teaching, post it on your website or wiki, and have your students discuss what the article means and how it made them think. Since the articles are heavy with text, you may want to have students work in small groups to read the article you have selected for them, and use a tool such as Mindmeister (reviewed here) or bubbl.us (reviewed here) to create a concept map of the important ideas and their details for the article. Each article has several related links. Have each group choose a different one to explore, and create a concept map to share on your interactive whiteboard or projector so all can benefit from the related articles. Once created, the concept maps can be posted as links or embedded on your teacher website or wiki for review and to share with parents. If the text of the articles is simply too challenging without some "before reading" help, show students how to preview it using WordSift, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
ALA Kids Games, Puzzles and Other Fun Things - American Library Association
Grades
K to 5tag(s): puzzles (143)
In the Classroom
Use these activities for reluctant readers and students who don't see the point of using anything but online readings. Teach students about the good "old" library (before Google was invented.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Science IQ - Science IQ. com
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): area (52), carbon (15), carbon footprint (5), chemicals (39), coal (6), earthquakes (45), energy (130), engineering (120), fossil fuels (9), fossils (39), glaciers (17), machines (14), matter (46), moon (71), natural resources (38), ozone (7), ph (2), planets (112), prime numbers (26), pythagorean theorem (18), questioning (32), space (214), square roots (15), stars (68), sun (70), volume (34)
In the Classroom
Try using this site's questions on a weekly or daily basis in science or math class to start discussions and provoke student thinking. Allow students to view the question on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then brainstorm possible answers. Once enough thoughts have been seeded, share the real answers. Or, allow students to work at the answer as the lesson continues for a few days and reveal the correct answer as a finale to the lesson.This site could also be used as a learning station for the question of the day or the week.
Comments
This is a great resource to begin a class. It really helps students to apply science to the natural world.Gia, , Grades: 7 - 12
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Books Should Be Free - Loyal Books
Grades
K to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (144), ebooks (39), fluency (24), french (74), german (48), independent reading (86), literature (218), spanish (105)
In the Classroom
Upgrade your literature circles and include e-readers that are speech enabled. Share the stories (or full text) on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Books Should Be Free - Loyal Books provides links to the free text that accompanies the audio track. Sites such as Project Gutenberg, reviewed here, contain free versions of the full text. Students can simultaneously listen and read books on either a classroom computer, iPad, Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android, or other mobile or cell phone. These recordings will also boost fluency instruction by serving as an oral reading model. Audio-assisted books will encourage students to read with expression, improve reading comprehension, stimulate vocabulary development, and provide a way for students to read text beyond their reading level.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
What is Lift? - NASA
Grades
6 to 10tag(s): aeronautics (9), aircraft (16), flight (31), gravity (41), nasa (29), newton (21), vectors (16), wright brothers (15)
In the Classroom
Show students the video about the Wright brothers. Then have them work independently on computers to read and explore more information about lift. Have small groups of students choose a project to complete using some of the blue links provided in the reading. For example one group could explore "vector quantity" and present it to the class as if they were explaining it to a fifth grader, making it easier for everyone to understand the concept, and definitely ensuring that this small group will internalize what "vector quantity" is. Have students use a tool such as bubbl.us, reviewed here, to create and share concept maps of their assigned topics. The main bubble could be part of the concept in scientific language and the bubbles joining it could be the concept in kid language. Have groups present their project to the class as an assessment, and you could also embed it on your webpage or wiki for parents to view and students to use as a review.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Plagiarism Checker - Darren Horn
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): plagiarism (34)
In the Classroom
Students can use this plagiarism checker to be sure they are turning in original work. Teachers can use this service to check the work of students (submitted electronically). Students should create accounts with their parents to check their work at home. Model this site to explain what plagiarism IS and how students can avoid it. The hands-on experience will help them understand this challenging concept. You might even want to provide several examples of plagiarized writing as an exercise for student to check and correct before they copy/paste their way to trouble in a research assignment. Another interesting exercise for researchers is to locate an article on a how-to topic, such as "How to Paint a Room," then see how many sites use the exact same text. As a class, discuss whether this proliferation is good or bad (is the web spreading misinformation, too?).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Story Blocks - Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy
Grades
K to 1tag(s): literacy (110), poetry (190), rhymes (21), songs (44)
In the Classroom
Use the songs and chants on these videos to interest children in reading. Many songs and rhymes have actions that the children can do while saying the text. Have the children lead the class once they are familiar with offerings. Project the rhymes on your interactive whiteboard and follow along with the motions on the screen. Write down some of the words in the song and use them as sight words for the week. Have student helpers hold up the "sight word" as it is shared. Choose 3-5 new words from each rhyme. Share this site with ESL and learning support staff.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
5 Minute Mystery - Mystery Competition, LLC
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): critical thinking (112), mysteries (20), reading comprehension (142), short stories (18)
In the Classroom
Use your projector or interactive whiteboard to show your students the directions for getting points by selecting the correct clues and solving the mystery. To begin with, as a class, read a mystery and discuss what the clues might be and whether they implicate or exonerate each suspect. Once the students have volunteered their ideas for which sentences are clues, submit them to see the score. The program will highlight the answers you should have had, if you got any wrong. Model for your students a discussion about why those are the correct answers and why the ones they submitted weren't. Eventually they can have this discussion by themselves in small groups. Those of you with multiple classes will want to create a league for each class.Eventually you can have small groups of students compete against each other by creating leagues. Have your students come to consensus about the clue sentences and who the real perpetrator is by voting using Tricider, reviewed here, or Vevox, reviewed here.
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
The Interactive Raven - TeachersFirst
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
This is a great on-line independent study for students who need additional help with either vocabulary or poetic devices. Introduce the site on your projector (rollovers will not work on an interactive whiteboard), then have students work alone or with a partner to become acquainted with the full text of Poe's masterpiece, accessing definitions and literary devices on their own. Augment classroom technology use and challenge students to create their own dramatic readings of the poem using a tool such as podOmatic, reviewed here, or accompany their reading with illustrations using ePubEditor, reviewed here, where your can upload images and text and add audio.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
A Teacher's Guide to Folklife Resources for K-12 Classrooms - Library of Congress
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): communities (36)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource in a research project, or a webquest. Be sure help your weaker readers and ESL students by sharing the vocabulary words prior to reading, either on a handout or by projecting on an interactive whiteboard and highlighting them in the text as you come to them.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
First Grade Backpack - Reading - Privately Published
Grades
1 to 2tag(s): reading lists (79)
In the Classroom
Be sure to explore the diffrent links on this site. This site also contains arithmetic, animal, and geography sections.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
Close comment form