With school in full swing at my house I’ve been scouring the internet for interactive learning experiences, printables, and other goodies to enhance our lessons.
I’m sure others would like these resources as well ~ even if they don’t home school their children. It’s going to be a relatively long list, so I’ll try to limit the commentary. If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me directly.
Enjoy!
Scholastic:
- Printables for Teachers: (lesson plans, practice pages, holiday and theme material too) There are some freebies but to get the most out of this, you will want to subscribe.
- Student Learning Activities: lots of great, themed resources sorted by grade and subject. Really dig around in there and you’ll be amazed at what it offers.
Take this one, for instance, on the First Thanksgiving: http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/ Nicely presented with audio and book suggestions for further reading. Score! You can even sign up to receive three letters from a young girl traveling on the Mayflower and three from a young Native American boy. It has a teacher’s guide with suggested lesson plan material and much more. - Freebies: They do offer some freebies that include printables, lessons, contest notifications, and more. For instance, there are wild weather resources that correlate to the new movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – great tie in for your kids – that also features Al Roker’s book picks for further weather related reading.
National Geographic for Kids:
- Special Site just for kids – nice presentation with plenty that will engage your kiddos, such as videos, stories, photos, activities, games and more. But don’t stop there …
- Here’s one for the Little Kids in your family – a version of Nat Geo just for them. Very cute and fun. It even has a page for Science experiments geared toward young children.
- They also offer a great monthly classroom magazine and teacher’s resource (with extensive weblinks supporting the content) with different versions targeted to different ages. Check out these links for more info:
- K-1: Young Explorer ~ be sure to pay attention to the tabs at the top to get to the teacher material and other issues.
- Grades 2-3 Explorer, Pioneer Edition ~ again look at the top of the page for links to teacher resources, archives, and more.
- Grades 4-6 Explorer, Pathfinder Edition ~ this and the Pioneer edition cover the same topics just with varying info for the different ages.
- Grades 6-12, Explorer, Extreme Edition ~ videos, content, and more await your older students who love exploring nature.
- Subscription info for the Explorer Series: Click here
This is a great resource and cheap to get bulk subscriptions for a Co-op or learning group. - GeoBee: Think you’ve got what it takes to be a GeoBee champ? Every day a new quiz is added with two levels of difficulty. Great stuff and fun reinforcement.
Ben’s Guide:
Benjamin Franklin serves as the guide for kids at the Ben’s Guide to the Government for Kids site. This site is divided by grade and provides activities and age appropriate explanations for al things US government.
Topics covered include:
- Our Nation
- Our Government
- Your Neighborhood
- Ben’s ABCs
- Symbols of America
- Games and Activities
- Links to other US government sites for kids
It also features a pretty extensive list of sites for Parents and Teachers too.
Book Publisher Sites:
These offer great resources, typically correlating to the subject matter in their textbooks, but adaptable to supplement any curriculum.
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers: beyond its unassuming exterior this site is a goldmine of resources. Play around with it a bit and you’ll uncover TONS of online treasures – from videos to biographical information, geography skills to science experiments. Just select a subject and then the book for the grade level you need.
- MacMillian McGraw-Hill Publishers: similar to above, but with different activities and information. Between the two you should have lots of options to choose from when expanding on your lessons.
Other Sites:
These are pretty self-explanatory sites that we use and enjoy. Thought you might too:
- I Know That
- ABC Teach
- Elmers (the glue folks – they have some craft/art ideas)
- Funschool, part of Kaboose
- Lesson Planet
- Weekly Reader
- Teach-nology
This is by no means an exhaustive list. So … what great sites do you frequent?