Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Improve brain functioning with this challenge. A series of 21 different "brain games" gets your brain thinking. Activities focus on different areas of brain training. Compete against yourself to improve. While most of this site is free, full access requires membership.
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tag(s): logic (161), multiple intelligences (7), puzzles (149)

Find science news featuring the latest research, discoveries, and questions facing science today. Find interesting questions to inspire all of your students to wonder why and continue guessing. Examples of articles include: Second "Mozart effect" Premature Babies May Grow Faster, Huge Hidden Saturn Ring Found, and New Anti-Cancer Strategy Makes Tumors Age. Latest breaking news and science in images add a greater depth to the site.
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tag(s): animal homes (57), animals (293), diseases (66), genetics (79), news (226), planets (113)

Enter the world of Syvum, a site of logic, math, reasoning, words, and general knowledge puzzles. Join others in playing the many games offered. Every challenge offers background information to help you understand the puzzle. With a free membership you can even create your own quizzes and puzzles.
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tag(s): creativity (87), critical thinking (136), logic (161), problem solving (234)

Investigate the world of art history accompanied by two professors at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Smarthistory started as a a blog featuring free audio guides, podcasts, and videos. Later it became an interactive exploration of eras, styles, and artists. Smarthistory has recently merged with KahnAcademy utilizing the same concept: that high quality education should be free and available to all. You can watch Smarthistory videos on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable in class.

tag(s): art history (106), medieval (33), renaissance (38)

Nobelprize.org is the official website of the Nobel Prize. Here you find information about Alfred Nobel, the prizewinners, interviews, and photos. Videos of interviews of Nobel peace prizewinners, speeches, ceremonies, interviews, banquets, lectures, announcements, award ceremonies, and documentaries fill the gamut of all of the prizewinners. The Nobel prizes awards are in literature, chemistry, medicine, peace, economics, and physics. Under the Education tab at the top find arieties of educational games/activities and lesson plans help explain many of the Nobel Award winners' work. This site clearly explains and illustrates the purpose of the awards, the award winners, and their ideas. Videos give an insider look at each of the winners.

tag(s): creativity (87), literature (221), medicine (57)

This PBS site is a reorganized collection of over 16,000+ public media offerings (including radio and photographs), arranged specifically for preK-12 teachers. You can search by subject (the landing page subject is physical education) and grade level across many subjects. After viewing three offerings, you must join (for free) to continue. Membership includes the option of saving favorites. Use the search box at the top to find correlations to state standards. The site is still in development, so material is being added frequently.

tag(s): alphabet (53), careers (178), dance (33), data (150), decimals (85), diseases (66), fitness (39), human body (91), mark twain (8), multimedia (55), music theory (48), percent (59), probability (99), problem solving (234), psychology (65)

Mind 42 is an easy to use mind mapping (or concept mapping) tool. You create the format and easily add links, notes, to do lists, images, or even a Wikipedia article. Import the result into documents or perhaps a Skype conversation. Bring mind maps/concept maps to a new level!

tag(s): concept mapping (15), mind map (28)

Math Video Tutorials offers 5,000 free math videos organized by course and topic. And the offerings are constantly growing. Videos are hosted on YouTube and SchoolTube and are all 10 minutes or less in length. Content includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, business calculus, and calculus. Each main topic includes links to the videos organized by more specific topics - for example, algebra videos are sorted by an introduction to algebra, rational expressions, equations and functions, equations and percentages, exponential and logarithmic functions, graphing, linear equations, and more. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.

tag(s): area (53), business (53), charts and graphs (171), equations (119), factoring (25), functions (52), integers (21), measurement (123), operations (72), order of operations (29), percent (59), place value (34), prime numbers (26), ratios (47), test prep (69), tutorials (52), volume (33)

This site offers several interesting interactives for practicing math concepts at the elementary level. Many games go beyond the standard rote-type practice and involve critical thinking skills. For example, Beads on a String asks you to create a bead necklace using a pattern, but then asks that bead number 102 be blue adding difficulty to the challenge. Other activities involve estimation, money, logic, and symmetry. Activities can be sorted by age (5-12). Parts of this site appear in Dutch and you may have to simply hit the "translate" button to see the instruction in English.

tag(s): critical thinking (136), estimation (33), logic (161), money (114), puzzles (149), symmetry (26), time (91)

This site offers a myriad of memory games, brain games, quizzes, and more. Train your brain to think! Interactives offered in a variety of languages include: Dragger, Counterfeit, The Game you Can't Stop, Masterpieces, Sudoko, Mastermind, Crime Scene, The Image Quiz, Anagramania, Square Words, Speed Read, and Spellice. Many other games are also included. After winning a game, you earn a ticket. The tickets let you enter the bonus room to win a surprise image.

tag(s): gifted (66), logic (161), spelling (98)

Curriki is a nonprofit organization that encourages teachers and learners' to collaborate in developing quality educational materials in a global community. Click What We Do from the top menu and slide to CurikiStudio, and click Creators to create a free account and find resources like questions, photos/images, multimedia, and more for interactive lesson creation. Next under Solutions is CurrikiGo, where you will publish your lessons, etc. Last on the dropdown list is the CurrikiLibrary, where you can search by subject area, grade level, or resource type (interactive, video, or podcast). For a thorough summary of Curriki click the Explore a CurrikiStudio Activity. Join different groups for a more involved way to explore new areas in online learning, subject area interests, or focus questions. Create collections of your resources to keep private or share with others. This site focuses on providing free access to teachers, schools, students, or parents to many new creative ideas for in-class learning, digital learning, and hybrid or blended learning in a global community. Free membership includes monthly newsletters. Follow Curriki on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), or blogs.
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tag(s): graphic organizers (49), literacy (123), OER (43), operations (72), resources (83), rubrics (36), Teacher Utilities (203)

This site offers practice with computation in several different areas of math. Math problems are organized into 86 levels (and increasing), ranging from simple ordering of numbers to addition and subtraction (with/without carrying, borrowing, word problems, using whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and more). There is also multiplication, division (simple as well as long), fractions, time, algebra, geometry, etc. You can sign up and register your class to receive feedback on student progress. It will grade the submitted answers and you will get the scores for all your students.
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tag(s): addition (128), decimals (85), division (97), fractions (160), multiplication (121), numbers (121), problem solving (234), subtraction (109), time (91), whole numbers (9)

TuLyn Video Clips on YouTube provides over 2000 math video tutorial clips for grades 1 through 12. Available items can be viewed by searching by topic, grade level, or school level. After choosing a topic there is a short explanation, definitions, and links to available resources by format. Choices include video tutorials, worksheets, word problems, discussions, and books. All worksheets are in PDF format for easy saving and printing. Be aware, this site has many advertisements. You may want to peruse the site and get the video (or other activity) prepared ahead of time, to avoid the advertisements.
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tag(s): problem solving (234), tutorials (52), video (267), worksheets (71)

Studyladder offers a sequential learning program with videos, interactive activities, worksheets and assessments for reporting to teachers and to parents. Activities are highly engaging and motivating. You can create classes, have unlimited access to all features on the site, and students can access homework features from home. Topics included on the site are Math, Literacy, Numeracy, Spelling Bee, and Interactive Whiteboard activities. Each section provides many activities categorized in several ways such as topic, type of activity, grade levels, and extras. Registration also allows access to progress reports on school and homework results, 2000 printable worksheets, and student rewards such as certificates, special avatars, and access to reward rooms. The site is free for teachers and for limited homework use with one student after registration. However, there is also a paid portion of the site if desired.
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tag(s): factoring (25), fractions (160), homework (29), iwb (31), literacy (123), negative numbers (13), number sense (68), numbers (121), prime numbers (26)

This site contains more than 4,800 (at the time of this review) math problems for students pre-kindergarten to high school. There are activities/math problems learning to count, write numbers, understand place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, prime numbers, composite numbers, least common multiples, greatest common factors, factoring whole numbers, fractions and lots more. The site is divided into topics such as word problems, geometry, telling time, and others. Each portion contains a section on tips and tricks section that explains the concept including vocabulary and illustrations. Be sure to also check out the resources section for printable graph paper, number lines, and an assignment measure graph for keeping track of student progress. This site has some interactive activities and many printable pages.
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tag(s): charts and graphs (171), data (150), division (97), factoring (25), fractions (160), multiplication (121), operations (72), prime numbers (26), problem solving (234), time (91), worksheets (71)

Short stories, biographies, riddles, games and other appealing activities make this an attractive way to introduce students to magazine reading. With both academic and just-for-fun features, the site fills the need students have after Highlights Magazine and other similar publications get too old. Students are using their reading skills as they try to solve riddles, tell jokes, and practice tongue-twisters.
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tag(s): biographies (95), crafts (74), holidays (194), riddles (15), short stories (18)

This site was created for teachers to help students see the fun and creative side of Math! There are many games here to be used in the classroom. Some activities include printables. Activities are categorized by math topic and grade level. Be sure to check out the Math Tricks for fun shortcuts and tricks to amaze students! Some worksheets are available on the site; however, most activities are hands-on practice for students. Teachers and parents can sign up to receive a monthly newsletter with tips and ideas.
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tag(s): addition (128), counting (61), division (97), multiplication (121), printables (36), subtraction (109), worksheets (71)

"I decided to put together Mathstory.com to keep students smiling and engaged as they mastered mathematical concepts," is Mr. R's explanation for this site that includes many resources for elementary teachers along with a few lessons for Jr High and High School teachers. Be sure to check out the Math Videos page which includes 20 homemade videos created for learning strategies for counting and multiplying (the page may be slow to load because of the number of videos included). The Math Story link currently leads you to the online book, Fourth Grade and the Evil Wizard of Math. Each chapter contains math problems. There are many math lessons included for all grade levels. Don't miss the interesting math poems to learn geometric shapes. There is A LOT here to explore!
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tag(s): geometric shapes (134), interactive stories (22), poetry (196), video (267)

Mathebook.net has Online Tutorials as well as Downloadable pdf tutorials which you can save on a computer and use later. It can be used by teachers for home work purpose. The pdf is editable and students can e-mail the homework tutorials by e-mail back to teachers. To begin using the site, you simple choose from kindergarten, elementary, middle school, or high school levels. Within each of those sections is a list of topics, and then a choice of virtual or ebook. Virtual activities are those done on the computer and cannot be saved. These are items such as fact practice where feedback will be given as to the correctness of answers. eWorkbook items are PDF documents that can be printed and used as worksheets. You can either print and use them, or the answers can be inputted online, saved, then emailed to the instructor. The site also includes a math dictionary, video tutorials, and downloadable worksheets.
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tag(s): addition (128), decimals (85), division (97), factors (29), fractions (160), measurement (123), multiplication (121), number sense (68), subtraction (109), time (91), video (267), worksheets (71)

This site contains many examples of symmetry found in the world around us. Examples include images of animals, humans, insects, and more. In addition to all of the activities, be sure to check out the information at the bottom of page under "Free Stuff."

tag(s): flips (6), geometric shapes (134), symmetry (26), turns (3)