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CurriConnects Booklist: Poets and Poetry - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): book lists (129), literature (264), poetry (222)
In the Classroom
This list will fit well during National Poetry Month or any unit on poetry. Finding Lexiles for poetry can be a challenge, but this list includes them where available. Have your students "collect" their favorite poems as they read from this list and share them as a multimedia poetry reading using copyright-friendly images or even their own artwork. Upload images and add the poetry in the student's own voice using a tool like Powtoon, reviewed here, or moovly, reviewed here. Go "low tech" by hosting a live poetry reading celebration in your classroom or during lunch in the school cafeteria.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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The Color - TheColor.com
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
tag(s): alphabet (84), animals (319), birds (52), colors (78), continents (49), dinosaurs (50), holidays (137), numbers (192), nursery rhymes (16), planets (133), preK (284), presidents (124), space (230), transportation (47)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site as a resource for coloring pages in many different topics. Share a link to the site with parents for practice at home. Color pictures of the continents during geography lessons. Explore the dinosaur coloring pages during dinosaur month.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Cloud Dreamer - Smithsonian Museum
Grades
K to 2tag(s): creative writing (170), creativity (119), preK (284), stories and storytelling (34)
In the Classroom
Use Cloud Dreamer as a creative story starter based on cloud shapes. Take a screenshot of the clouds to use as illustrations with student writing (Shift+command +4 on a Mac or Prtscrn then paste on Windows). Have students describe and imagine what is happening in the field below. Or create a story from the cloud's or cow's perspective. Combine their cloud stories into a PowerPoint show -- printable as a big book -- or online book using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here. After viewing and creating clouds with Cloud Dreamer, take your class outside to view clouds floating by and create stories from clouds they see overhead. Use this opportunity to teach young students about the different types of clouds.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NPR's Backseat Book Club - National Public Radio
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): authors (119), book lists (129), independent reading (123), literature (264), reading lists (77)
In the Classroom
Visit the Backseat Book Club with students to see the selection of the month. Then include students in the decision whether to read it as a class or just have several interested students read it. After sending the students' questions to the book club, listen to the program to see whether the author answers them. Maybe some of your students have previously read the selection for the month; they can still contribute their questions. Encourage parents to read the books with their student by posting a link on your class or school library website.Comments
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Spelling Connections - Zaner-Bloser
Grades
1 to 8tag(s): matching (23), phonics (68), proofreading (25), rhymes (30), sorting (12), spelling (165), vocabulary (314), vowels (12)
In the Classroom
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Divide your class into groups, and have a class challenge. This is an excellent site to add to student computers for word practice while differentiating for student abilities. Challenge students to increase speeds in the games as well as move up through different units. Share a link through your class website or newsletter for practice at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Abbreviations - STANDS4 LLC
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): search engines (58)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site for reference to find or to decipher abbreviations or acronyms. Share with students on your website or blog as a resource at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Games to Learn English - Owen Dwyer
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): game based learning (139), preK (284), sentences (49), sequencing (29), spelling (165), vocabulary (314), vocabulary development (120)
In the Classroom
Although created for English language learners, this is an excellent site to develop vocabulary (and computer skills) for younger students. It also helps with speech/language vocabulary development and grammar reinforcement for special ed. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Complete the activities as a class with a student operating the board. Create a link on classroom computers and challenge students to increase their speed in completing games.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Phrase.it - phrase.it
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (20), comics and cartoons (61), images (279)
In the Classroom
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Teach parts of speech and grammar by having students write captions using colorful adjectives, adverbs, or specific sentence structures on a random photo. Make classroom signs and reminders. Caption the homework directions on your teacher web page. Ask your students to create captions for class photos for all sorts of reasons. Use this site for back to school fun. Post a photo of yourself with a caption on your class website introducing yourself to the class during the summer. Challenge each student to find/share a photo of themselves either the first week of school (or even prior to school). You will want parental permission before posting any student photos on your class website. Use photos or digital drawings from your classroom, such as pictures taken during any hands-on activity. Have students draw in a paint program, save the file, and then add a caption. Spice up research projects about historic figures or important scientists. Have literary characters "talk" as part of a project. In a government class, add captions to photos explaining politicians' major platform planks during election campaigns. Caption the steps for math problem solving. Even elementary grades can make captions of an animal talking about his habitat or a "community helper" talking about his/her role, though you may have to do it together as a class to upload the image. Make visual vocabulary/terminology sentences with an appropriate character using the term in context (a beaker explaining how it is different from a flask?). Students could also take pictures of themselves doing a lab and then caption the pictures to explain the concepts. Share the class captions on your class web page or wiki. Leave directions to your class (for when a substitute is there). Use at back to school night to grab parent attention to important announcements. Have students make talking photos of themselves as a visual tour of their new classroom for parents attending back to school night. World language classes can create images explaining and using new vocabulary. Use the site's random photo offerings for clever caption contests in your new language. Have gifted students create PhaseIt pictures to explain new knowledge they gain in going beyond the basics. For example, as the class studies plate tectonics, they could make a collection of volcano images "explaining" their own history or describing the Ring of Fire. Gifted students of all ages can make simple Phrase It images to share their own thought provoking questions about curriculum content, such as "Which figure of speech would Shakespeare be willing to give up?" Be sure to include these thought provokers on a class wiki or blog for others to respond! (No need to single out the "thinker" by mentioning who created it if it would cause ridicule.)Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fake Convos - Fake Facebook Conversation Generator - Stueynet Inc.
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): digital storytelling (151), social networking (107)
In the Classroom
IF your students can access Facebook at school, have them create different characters talking to each other. The characters can be historical people, politicians, or characters from literature. Ask students to write dialogues for the characters. Challenge students to discuss a topic or try to solve a problem using this tool. You can also use this tool to teach netiquette or anti-bullying by having students model appropriate interactions. Use this tool to allow students to debate both sides of an argument or position. Create a Fake Convos dialogue and have students respond within the dialogue.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log in (NO email)
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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FindIcons - findicons.com
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): images (279)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site as a resource for finding and saving icons to use on your website, or to include with class projects. Share this site with students to find icons for projects. If you make a whole-class account, you can create user sets in advance of projects to save time. In primary grades, these icons are terrific for teacher use! Use icons to create non-verbal signs for your non-readers in your classroom. Special education, world language, and ELL/ESL teachers can create non-verbal prompts for language learning. Use icons on your interactive whiteboard as drag and drop or labeling activities to build vocabulary and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Preschool and Kindergarten Games - Sheppard Software
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
tag(s): alphabet (84), animals (319), colors (78), geometric shapes (169), numbers (192), preK (284)
In the Classroom
Demonstrate games on your interactive whiteboard or projector before students play on their own. Demonstrate how to choose games while avoiding advertising on the site. Bookmark specific games or activities on classroom computers for students to explore and discover during center time. Be sure to share this site with parents for fun learning at home! List this site on your class website or in your class newsletter.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Titanic Interactive - The History Channel
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): 1910s (7), 20th century (49), disasters (43), virtual field trips (55)
In the Classroom
Take your class on an adventure as you explore this website using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this Titanic Interactive as an extension lesson for middle and high school students studying early 20th Century History. If you use this site with upper elementary students, you will want to pair a better read with weaker readers since much of the information is in text form. Include the Titanic as one of many topics for twentieth century "decades" research projects. Use this site for any students reading a novel or nonfiction about the Titanic. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook from the perspective of one of the cruisers onboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Spific - The Finding Engine - Spific.com
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): search engines (58)
In the Classroom
Use Spific to find online newspaper content quickly and easily or compare definitions from different sources. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare information from two different sites. Provide a link for students to use this site to make searching easier when working on book reports, research projects, or presentations. Demonstrate how to use the search on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) and point out how to narrow down results using links to individual sites. This site would be ideal to include in a search engine comparison for information literacy/fluency lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium - Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
Grades
K to 12tag(s): commoncore (89), test prep (95)
In the Classroom
Find Common Core resources to use in your classroom and share within your building or district. Explore and view sample test items to use as models for building your own questions aligned to Common Core standards. Display sample test items on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to solve and discuss together as a class. Challenge students to create their own similar questions for the class to try.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Nulu - nulu.com
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Encourage ESL/ELL students and Spanish learners to increase their fluency by selecting news articles that appear interesting. Have one student prepare a story each week by having him or her preview the reading, prepare the flash cards, and also write additional comprehension questions. If permitted by your administration, students can log in with Facebook (or email) and make comments about the site and/or the stories there. Be sure to review good Netiquette about online commenting.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Piazza - Pooja Sankar
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): questioning (36)
In the Classroom
Consider using Piazza as a resource in your classroom to increase student interaction with materials and each other. Library/media specialists could use this tool for online book clubs. Teach on a team? Collaborate with other teachers for assignments and more using this site. Create quick questions or even a short quiz using Piazza. You can also use this tool in your graduate courses!Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Venspired Free Posters - Krissy Venosdale
Grades
K to 12tag(s): posters (41)
In the Classroom
Start your school year out by using some of these posters to decorate your classroom or hallways. Print pages to add inspiration in student notebooks or for motivational bulletin boards. Have students create their own posters after viewing the blog. Looking for a classroom theme? View the options available to enhance your room. Use the posters as a theme for the day, week, or month. Discuss the poster during class meetings. Relate the messages to character traits from reading selections, historical figures, or famous people. If you have a special class event, upload the images to Flickr (reviewed here) to make posters about it. Secondary teachers can create custom posters using their own digital pictures from historic sites or even roller coasters (for physics class).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What So Proudly We Hail: Making American Citizens Through Literature - Amy and Leon Kass
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): democracy (15), guided reading (46), holidays (137), literacy (104), literature (264)
In the Classroom
This comprehensive program can be a bit overwhelming at first look. You might want to pick just one, high interest short story lesson, perhaps Jack London's "To Build a Fire." This lesson and many others lends itself to small group discussion and work. The introduction makes observations and asks questions to encourage active reading and deep discussions that you may want to use as a class. Whether you and your students complete the lesson as a class or in small groups, you may want to use a program like Today's Meet reviewed here to enable all students to have a voice. If using small groups, have students post what the group decided are the answers on Today's Meet so everyone can see all answers. Where answers differ, have students go back into the reading and cite evidence to support their answer on Today's Meet for all to see. Teachers of gifted and music can choose selected ideas from this site, as well. A teaching team could make this site the focus of a year-long effort with so much material available. Upper elementary teachers and higher can make holidays and patriotic songs far more meaningful through close reading and class discussionsAdd your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Timer-Tab - brillout.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): classroom management (147), counting (110), time (140)
In the Classroom
There are many uses for this practical online tool. At the beginning of the school year, display on your interactive whiteboard or projector to time or countdown any classroom activity. That will get the students in the habit of checking how much time they have left. Use this tool for students to practice speeches, or to limit time for a quiz or spelling test. Use the countdown feature for timing the rotations from center to center. Use the timer for reading fluency exercises or physical education warm-ups. Employ the count-down as a clever classroom management tool on your computer screen when you want the class to settle down for directions or to transition to the next subject. Students may even want to use this tool for themselves. Have a timer tab open in your web browser as you display web sites on a projector or web based activities on an interactive whiteboard so students know how much more time they have to read the site or complete the activity. Have kindergarten students practice counting along with the watch!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Newspaper Map - newspapermap.com
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): arabic (19), cross cultural understanding (127), french (87), german (63), japanese (45), media literacy (66), newspapers (98), portuguese (22), russian (26), spanish (108)
In the Classroom
Newspaper Map is a great resource for locating news and culture from around the world. Share with your students to show them different perspectives on world events. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to compare and contrast coverage between two newspapers. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here after reading and comparing many different articles. Explore this site during Newspaper in Education week or as part of a unit on the basics of journalistic writing. World language teachers can use newspapers to teach about both language and culture. Have world cultures or social studies students learn about local culture through advertisements and articles and share their findings using a screencast (or screenshots) of the newspaper and talking about their discoveries. A free tool like Screencast-o-matic, reviewed here, or Screencastify (Chrome app), reviewed here, works well for screencasts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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