Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site offers interactive stories and reading activities for free. Colorful graphics interest "emerging readers." The songs and reading support materials provide reinforcement of the reading skills being learned. Each story comes with pre-reading and post-reading questions and other word attack and grammar activities. Word games are fun and introduce early reading techniques such as alphabetization and phonetics. Since the site is Australian made, some of the worksheets use British names for grammar components, such as full stop for period. Since the text of the stories appears before the stories, this site would work well with ESL students too.

tag(s): guided reading (33), literacy (122), sight words (23), spelling (98)

This site offers media (found on YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr) on a broad spectrum of topics, not created for kids but appropriate and interesting for children 3 years old and up. Media isn't divided into categories. The newest items appear first. However, you can search the site by keyword. Information ranges from animal stories of a dog without legs to video of Ella Fitzgerald scatting. Obviously, this site is updated frequently, so contents will change. Students and adults alike will love browsing for interesting stories and information.

tag(s): news (229), speaking (26), video (266), writing prompts (61)

LitCharts is an online site similar to the familiar Cliffs Notes but with their own spin. Charts are available for literary classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, Jane Eyre, and several more. Charts can be viewed online, downloaded in a PDF file, or accessed through an iPhone app (apps are 99 cents each). Each chart offers a side by side summary and analysis of story events making events easier to follow and understand than typical summaries. In addition, they include a color coded theme tracker to help follow themes throughout the book. Each LitChart is 10 pages or less, making them concise and easy to use.
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tag(s): literature (221), summarizing (23)

Royalty Free Sound Effects Library for Download by Soungle.com is a go-to resource to keep in your bookmarked favorites for easy, free downloads of sounds, and the best part is it is searchable! The sound effects are short, and there is no membership required. Cautionary advice would be to direct students to type in a search term and avoid clicking on word links which will actually lead away from the webpage.
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tag(s): sound (72), sounds (43)

At Paper Rater you can check your grammar, detect plagiarism, and find writing suggestions all at one place. Use this site for sixth grade writing and above. With the free version you are able to check for plagiarism, grammar, vocabulary, word choice and style (transitions). No login is required. PaperRater offers a premium version for a fee.

tag(s): book reports (28), editing (93), essays (21), grammar (137), plagiarism (34), proofreading (21), writing (325)

WordTwist is an online version of the word game, Boggle. The idea is to create as many words as possible in the 4X4 or 5X5 grids. Play can be done without registration; however, registration allows you to keep track of your scores and compare yourself to other players. Scores are based on the number and difficulty of words found on the game board. There are two versions of the game, a Flash version and one that doesn't require Flash.
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tag(s): game based learning (205), spelling (98), vocabulary (238)

These multi-media lessons provide an alternative approach for young elementary students or ESL/ELL students trying to learn body parts. With song files and a video, this site makes it easy for language learners to acquire body part name knowledge easily. The video and song lyrics make the "Body Part" lesson entertaining and memorable. There is also a "Make a Face" interactive. To use the video part, download the "Realvideo" player. This is about the only items that are FREE at this site, but they are still worth a look if teaching body parts or expressions of the face.

In order to get the "free" printable cards, worksheets, and acompanying language games you must buy the Teacher's Set, Superpack, or Download Pack. However, the video and songs ARE free and fun!
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tag(s): faces (5), human body (93), preK (270), video (266)

WordSift helps anyone easily sift through texts -- just copy and paste any text into WordSift and you can engage in a verbal quick-capture! The program helps to quickly identify important words that appear in the text. After entering text several items will appear, first a word cloud will display the 50 most frequently used words in the text. The most frequently used word will display as a word web in a visual thesaurus. Google image and video search results are also shown. One interesting feature is the ability to click on any of the words in the word cloud to display it in the thesaurus and Google image and video searches. A great way to understand the WordSift tool is to try one of the sample texts offered, such as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Be sure to check out the "About" link to discover many ideas for use in the classroom. Tips and videos are also available as guides. If you type in a shorter sentence, the site still creates a word cloud using their own related words (not in your original text). Be aware of the advertisements that appear with the word clouds. Advise students not to click on the ads.
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tag(s): dictionaries (47), reading comprehension (149), reading strategies (96), thesaurus (22), vocabulary (238), vocabulary development (94), word clouds (13), word study (59)

Find a treasury of old radio shows from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. There are seven genres from which to choose (comedy, mystery, western, drama, etc.), and each genre has at least ten different old radio shows for your selection. There is a miscellaneous section that has such treasures as "Voices From History," "World War II News Broadcasts," and "Fireside Chat with Franklin D. Roosevelt." Downloading of the Mp3 files takes a while, so be patient.
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tag(s): 1930s (20), 1940s (14), 1950s (8), listening (93), oral history (13), radio (20), world war 2 (161)

This unique site by Multicultural Canada is part of a digitization project that aims to tell the stories of the cultures that make up Canada. Other modules include Chinese, Japanese, Scottish, Indonesian, Italian, Jewish, Vietnamese,and Pakistan collections are included in the learning modules. Detailed lesson plans, related resources, with rubrics are included. IN this module, Simon Fraser University shares their collection of Wayang Kulit, or shadow puppetry from Indonesia. Wayang Kulit often portrays moral or political messages. The university featured the exhibit, Crossing Oceans, Crossing Cultures, which includes the shadow puppets and stories about good and evil, respect, duty, friendship, and loyalty. The website shows some of the Wayang Kulit shadow puppets, as well as providing information on traditional stories. Photographs of several intricate shadow puppets are included. Ideas for projects using a variety of free downloads are suggested. There is also an introductory video.
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tag(s): canada (24), myths and legends (37), readers theater (12), stories and storytelling (58)

Games, puzzles, mazes, and word searches promote library usage and get the idea of the library in the forefront! Although this site is "plain vanilla," it could be very useful in teaching students about the library.

tag(s): puzzles (149)

This site offers vocabulary enhancement activities in a variety of neat ways. Words of the day are available on three levels, upper elementary, junior high or middle school, and PSAT/SAT prep. Hangman, wordfind, scrambled words, and other conventional word games are also available.
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tag(s): logic (161), puzzles (149), vocabulary (238)

Sumo Paint is a free, web-based painting and photo editing application. Without even having to create an account, you can edit images from a URL or personal desktop file. Simply go directly to the site and begin editing images or creating work directly from a web browser, or download the app to your desktop. The painting tools included are layering, cloning, blur effects, a magic wand, shape tools, paint bucket, lasso selecting, filters, and the ability to add text. The photo editing tools allow for the adjusting contrast, hue saturation, and color balance. The application works with JPGs, GIFs and PNGs and saves work as a JPG and PNG format. The support tutorials provide tips on how to use these various features. Sumo Paint also serves as a global network of artists and is available in over fifty different languages. Without an account, you can view work but cannot share or post comments. Signing up for a free account will provide artists an opportunity to share their work, comment, view, and rate the work others artists. A free account also grants access to features such as the ability save the layer data incomplete artwork, back up files, and participate in collaborative image creation.

tag(s): design (79), editing (93), painting (54), photography (130)

This teen focused ezine is designed to help teens educate themselves about what's available for them after high school. Primarily for the college bound, the bi-monthly magazine has a theme for each issue. Sections include opportunities for young people to match their interests and goals with appropriate schools, to read articles about a variety of topics related to college attendance and admission, to read about careers, and more!
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tag(s): careers (156), college (45)

Here you will find a dictionary of slang words and phrases that is organized into three sections: idioms alone, idioms that contain a specific word (like "get"), and idioms explained by a specific word. Simply click on the letter of the alphabet to find the word or phrase they are looking for. The definitions of the idioms also contain links to other idioms with similar meaning. Another helpful feature is the use of the idiom in a sentence. A version of the dictionary is available as a book as well. Try looking up idioms containing the word "dog" as an example.
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tag(s): dictionaries (47), idioms (30), slang (15)

This website is a compilation of completed LiveBinders. LiveBinders4Teachers is separated by subject, grade, and general usage. This would be a great way for a new teacher to get ideas for teaching units. Using a pre-made binder saves time and sheds light on some of the potential of the application. Anyone interested in setting up their own LiveBinders would benefit from using this resource. To learn more about Livebinders and how to make your own, see our full review of LiveBinders here.

tag(s): classroom management (120), teaching strategies (50)

Acquaint student's with the classics (and more) with these free public domain audio books. Most of these novels are written by authors such as: Mark Twain, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austin, J.M. Barrie, Hugh Lofting, and Beatrix Potter. Some audio tracks are available in different languages. The most significant collection appears to be in French and German. Download MP3 files for each chapter in one zip file (333 MB) or directly into iTunes. Search for books by genre or language. Suggest this site to students who have difficulties with reading, including ENL/ELL students. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Share this site with your teaching colleagues who work with your learning support, foreign language, or ENL/ELL students.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), ebooks (43), fluency (26), french (75), german (49), independent reading (81), literature (221), spanish (109)

BrainBashers offers many different types of puzzles, riddles, brain teasers, and optical illusions. The site is updated daily so new material is always readily available. Each time you open the site, find a new fun fact along with an odd word and its definition. The site is organized into puzzles, games, illusions, fun stuff, and logic games. Sudoku puzzles of different difficulty levels are also available. The link for teachers includes puzzles for schools and useful pages including optical illusions, memory tests, and logic puzzles.
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tag(s): logic (161), problem solving (233), puzzles (149), riddles (15)