Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

E is for Explore! offers many learning activities and opportunities for classroom exploration (and fun) that conforms to Common Core. Explore the blog by scrolling through the many activities or search using keyword tags on the right of the page. Choose from popular posts such as Lego fractions or ABC handprints or St. Patrick's Day skittles. All activities include simple directions, and some include links to printables for completing activities. Be aware: some of the activities include comments from other users. At the time of this review all comments were appropriate.

tag(s): addition (129), alphabet (53), angles (52), branches of government (65), charts and graphs (172), density (18), dinosaurs (43), division (98), electricity (61), erosion (15), fractions (160), geology (62), geometric shapes (134), inferencing (7), literacy (123), logic (161), minerals (13), money (114), multiplication (122), place value (34), reading comprehension (149), rocks (35), senses (20), subtraction (110), transformations (12), weather (161)

Check out this online journal with a twist. Each day the site sends an email with questions about your day to prompt you to write. Respond to the email with your entry for automatic posting. Images can also be added to entries. Personalize the site using your choice of color and fonts. View entries as a PDF for easy printing as desired. Register with an email and unique name for your diary.

tag(s): blogs (67), creative writing (125), journals (16), writing (327), writing prompts (61)

This is a wonderful site for finding quality images to use in projects. Use these images for either personal or professional projects. Registration is not necessary to download them. All images are copyright free. Search images by name (or category - photos, video, illustrations and vector) and filter by orientation (landscape or portrait) and image type (photo, clipart, video, or vector.) Be sure to use the filters at the top. Right click to download. Use good search terms to find the best pictures possible. You must know where to save images on your computer. Be sure to give credit to the person who took the picture and show their name wherever the image is used. Consider adding images to this site to increase the number of options and expand the ideas of Creative Commons. Adding images does require you to join the site (email required).

tag(s): creative commons (28), images (265), photography (132), search engines (48)

Are you looking for materials portraying strong females? If so, this site is a great resource to find books, movies, toys, and music that portray strong, confident, female characters. Choose from the "best of" lists to find top Asian Pacific or Latino mighty girls among other specific categories. Filter books by categories such as age, award winners, social issues, and language. Many picture books are also featured, making this a site even the youngest students can use. Visit the Character Collection link to learn about various famous females and books available about each character. Be aware: much of this site features items for sale. You may want to use this site solely for finding topic ideas, strong/famous women for research and sharing, and literature to locate in your local library.
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tag(s): biographies (94), book lists (167), cross cultural understanding (176), literature (222), women (151), womens suffrage (52)

Digital Learning Day is an annual February event spotlighting successful instructional practice and effective use of technology around the country. Choose the "About DLDay" option to find out more about the goals of Digital Learning Day, begin with a detailed description listing the characteristics of digital learning. View exemplary models, showcases, lesson portals, and more using links provided. Sign up as a participant for Digital Learning Day then plan your own classroom activity, provide a presentation to parents, or choose from other ideas offered on the site. Explore the Participate portion of the site to find digital tools, online resources, graphics, lesson plans and more. Sign up isn't required; however, it does allow you to receive emails with updates and learning ideas throughout the year. The digital learning content demonstrations are conducted in four areas: math, science, language arts, and civics/social studies; critical areas, such as working with ELL or special education students, will be woven into the lessons.

tag(s): digital citizenship (88), digital storytelling (155), modeling (8), preK (280)

This website, produced by the Martha's Vineyard Museum, tells the story of Laura Jernegan and the journal she kept on her voyage on a whaling ship. In October 1868, Laura Jernegan, a 6 year old girl from Edgartown, Massachusetts set out on a three year whaling voyage. Laura, her father, mother, brother and the ship's crew set off to the whaling grounds of the Pacific Ocean. The site also tells the adventurous history of whaling. Choose from many different topics for exploration such as information about whales, a timeline of whaling, interactive map, and explore the ship. Dive deeper to view artifacts, meet the crew, and view a picture gallery. Lesson plans (and complete units) are provided for grades 1-3, 4-5, and even high school.

tag(s): 1800s (75), whales (11)

TV411 En Espanol offers lessons covering several math, social studies, and science topics, all in Spanish. All lessons are offered in video and slide format beginning with an introduction to the activity. Some videos have questions for students to answer and receive feedback. Choose a topic to view videos offered along with a short description. Each video includes links to related web lessons (slide format) and some offer related print downloads.

tag(s): bacteria (21), heat (14), nutrition (140), photosynthesis (21), spanish (111), water (105)

Preschool students will delight in the company of the Sesame Street characters at this long-time favorite site. Extend the fun from the television series, Sesame Street to fit into an individualized, interactive learning time. Dance, sing, clap, and play along with Big Bird, Grover, Elmo, and all of the characters to help develop and sharpen phonemic awareness and phonics skills. A variety of formats allow for many learning styles. Interaction with family members is encouraged and necessary in many of the activities given. There are games, videos, printables, ecards, and a family treasure hunt. A section for parent and teacher information gives ways to help students learn. A television show schedule is included. Experience hours of fun while learning.
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tag(s): alphabet (53), numbers (120)

Textivate is a simple web tool to automatically generate a range of online activities based on any text you enter (up to 500 words). Type or paste a chunk of text into the text box on the Textivate front page and click on the "Textivate Now" button to see the available exercises that can be generated from that text. Choose from various activities based on the amount of text used such as drag and drop, sorting, or fill in the gaps. View an example on evaporation located here. Register on the site for further options such as uploading text, embedding your textivate onto a website, or share via hyperlink.

tag(s): grammar review (31), process writing (37), sequencing (17), summarizing (22), word study (59)

Draggo is a convenient way to save, share, and organize your bookmarks from anywhere. With Draggo, you use the web to store your favorite links, preventing loss from computer problems. Join for free. Inside your account, add pages to store, share, and organize links. Add the browser button or drag links into Draggo to put in your inbox; organize when you have time. You can have up to 10 tabs to save your important links. Choose to keep private or make public via your own personalized Draggo URL. Editing is not possible without a user name and password. The introduction video to this site is the only part of the site that appears to require Flash.

tag(s): bookmarks (43), classroom management (119), curation (32)

With over 5 million dollars granted, Voya Unsung Heroes has supported teachers through grants provided by its Unsung Heroes Program. Each year grants are provided to K-12 educators utilizing new teaching techniques and methods that improve learning. Applications are judged on three criteria: innovative method, creativity, and ability to positively influence students. 100 Finalists are chosen yearly to receive $2,000 grants with at least one award going to each of the 50 states. Three top awards of $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000 are given to the top three recipients. Follow links provided on the site to apply for the grant. The deadline is generally the end of April each year.

tag(s): grants (15)

Project Britain is your guide to British life, culture, and customs, designed for even young readers to understand. Follow icons to learn more about the Royal Family, weather, folklore and traditions, and everything else British. Each topic has a short introduction followed by a series of questions with links to answers and further information. View answers to questions posed by the site's young readers and by teenagers. One interesting portion of the site compares British countries to states and other countries.
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tag(s): cross cultural understanding (176), cultures (200), england (50), folktales (34), great britain (16), ireland (11), scotland (8), transportation (30)

iFakeText is a tool to create fake screenshots of a series of iPhone text messages. Write a name, then choose an operator and write text in the provided box. Click the link "Create your Screenshot" to view the picture. Have the operator READ the text message (great for non-readers). Take a screenshot or share via different social networking platforms or via a link.
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tag(s): creative writing (125), text to speech (20), writing prompts (61)

Discover a huge collection of interactive illustrations to help explain complex concepts in science, technology, art, math, and a range of other topics. Use these activities to create interactive visualizations. There are thousands of Mathematica Demonstrations. A demonstration is a Mathematica notebook that takes advantage of Mathematica's manipulate command. Use the manipulate command to create sliders or buttons or check boxes to change the values of parameters in the displays in the demonstration. The result is you control the animation. View demonstrations on topics ranging from odd and even numbers to odd and even functions, fractions to fractals, and from linear functions to linear algebra and linear programming. In addition to mathematical topics, there are demonstrations illustrating the time in different cities around the world, global demographic information, the solar system, and art and music concepts. You need to download the Wolfram CDF player to use and interact with the demonstrations.
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tag(s): addition (129), animals (293), architecture (84), computers (109), division (98), fractions (160), geometric shapes (134), gravity (43), logic (161), maps (223), money (114), multiples (15), multiplication (122), plants (147), psychology (65), statistics (121), subtraction (110), weather (161)

Go to Google Street View instantly with this handy site. Begin by typing in an address. As you type the screen changes automatically to the best street view image of what has been entered so far. Many may find the constant changing of images as you type distracting; others may find the variety of seeing new areas exciting. Click "About" in the lower left hand corner for an explanation of color boxes and controls. Download and share the view easily.
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tag(s): map skills (64), maps (223)

ReadWorks provides a free, research-based, and Common Core-aligned reading comprehension curriculum. Click Explore Content from the top menu to search through hundreds of lesson plans organized by grade level, topic, or titles. Register to download materials and save lessons to your folder. (A valid email and password is required). Be sure to start with the Teacher Guide to see all the many features ReadWorks offers about using and teaching the provided lessons and differentiation. For a quick start, click Explore Content then select options from the left menu: Text Options - Reading Passages, Aritcle a Day, and Paired Text, Curriculum Support, Grade, Topic, Text Types - Nonfiction, Fiction, or Poetry, and Lexile. There are thousands of reading passages along with question sets to support learning activities for grades K-12. Each selection contains the text with audio, a vocabulary link, and a questions set. In the left margin, you will find related resources such as standards and related materials. Teachers can create classes to assign reading and track assessments (which are automatically graded). After signing up with email, click on Admin from the top menu and create a class. Students join the class by using a code and their Google account. No Google account? No problem. Create a roster and provide the class code to students. Easily create assignments for the whole class, or individuals as a way to differentiate. This is a perfect tool to use for remote (or distance) teaching and learning!

tag(s): characterization (19), context clues (5), figurative language (18), guided reading (32), main idea (8), parts of speech (39), plot (15), point of view (8), reading comprehension (149), reading strategies (96), sequencing (17), Teacher Utilities (203), themes (16), vocabulary (241)

This international, interactive map site contains over 100 puzzles and activities in English to practice map skills by location. This review should direct you to the English version. Removing the filter for English reveals many more maps in Spanish and other languages. Use the box at the left to select a language. You can also choose by categories of continents, countries, capitals, most visited, and more. Each map has a short description of the activity to read before opening. Double click to open a map and play. Correct responses earn points toward the maximum available.

tag(s): asia (121), canada (24), capitals (16), continents (33), countries (73), landforms (39), map skills (64), maps (223), oceans (149), rivers (16), states (125)

Find an easy, interactive tool to create storyboards at Storyboard That. Choose between three and six frame storyboards, and build a storyboard using the free library with drag and drop technology. Before you begin, you may want to look at the example storyboards for business and teachers. With a free account, you can create two storyboards a week with the classic storyboard layout. To share and save storyboards, you must register with an email.
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tag(s): charts and graphs (172), creative writing (125), digital storytelling (155), writing (327)

See what the world was like at that time with Take Me Back To. Type in any date you want to visit. Results offer a short text passage about who was president and what music was popular (if available). See samples of movies, magazines, book charts, advertisements, and more. Unfortunately, the site doesn't go back beyond 1900, so any search before that time will default to that date in 1900. Searches can be done on dates up to the present. Note that clicking on some of the images offered takes you to paid services or current issues of the same magazine.
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tag(s): 1900s (72), 1910s (6), 1920s (15), 1930s (20), 1940s (14), 1950s (8), 1960s (26), 1970s (10), 1980s (7), 20th century (62), decades (7), timelines (58)