Math Worksheets

I am always looking for good free websites to make quick extra math pages for my students.  These two sites offer a new random assortment each time when practicing addition or subtraction.  I go to them often.

http://www.math-aids.com/  : has a big assortment of worksheets including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations... much more than I can list on this blog.  It is definitely worth a look.  What I most like about it is that after you enter your parameters (for example no number bigger than 10 or no carrying... etc) it generates a new random worksheet each time.  Another amazing thing is that it is completely free!

http://www.mathworksheetwizard.com/ : is another great free website to use.  It is categorized by grade level and covers arithmetic, time, money and measurement.  It's another one I use all the time.

Movie Poster Maker

Here is a really cool and easy to use site to create your very own movie posters.  There is an easy to use form that you fill in with your title, tags and even a space for the credits.  You can also upload your own picture and then a realistic movie poster is created in minutes.  The file can then be saved and you can print or even order the movie poster.  A really cool thing about this site is that if you use your own picture you can even get a hi-resolution version that you can use to print out from any retailer.  They don't force you to order from them. I was able to explore the movie poster section but with a quick glance at the rest of the bighugelabs.com site it seems that there are a bunch of cool things to do with your digital pictures like turn your pics into puzzles, magazine covers, pop art.  Lots of fun for teachers with a ton of educational possibilities!
http://bighugelabs.com/poster.php

Math Worksheet Wizard

Math Worksheet Wizard is a great tool for teachers.  You can get random math worksheets at the click of a button.  The really good thing about this site is that it caters to young kids who need pictures all the way up to students in grade five who need more complex problems.  This site covers arithmetic, time, money, measurement, as well as shapes, colours and numbers for the younger grades.  The thing I really liked about this site is that, for younger kids who are just learning, you can either match to find the right answer or write it in yourself once they get more comfortable.

http://www.mathworksheetwizard.com/

KinderArt

I love art but I sometimes find myself struggling to find ideas for original art projects every week.  This site is a wonderful resource to help!  It is a site with thousands of art ideas all categorized by type of art (ex. sculpture, drawing, painting, etc.), theme (ex. folk art, multicultural art, holidays, etc.) or by grade.  This site also has colouring pages with their original art, patterns for different art projects, blank calendar pages, etc.  It also has a store where you can purchase books, art supplies or bundles of already made colouring pages but most things on this site are free.  There are enough ideas on this site to last many years!!!

http://www.kinderart.com/index.html

TES Connect

Here is a great site from the UK with free teaching resources.  In the resources section there are thousands of teacher created lessons (lesson plans, activities, games, teaching ideas and worksheets as well as ready-made powerpoint presentations), All you have to do is sign up (which is free) and you get access to all of these resources.  There are tons of them!  It's divided by section: Early Years (Preschool), Primary, Secondary, Whole School and Special educational needs and then also by subject.  Although geared for UK teachers most stuff is relevent or just needs to be mildly adjusted.  It saves a lot of time in preparation.  I have used it many times to help present lessons on different religious celebrations.  The powerpoint presentations were great to use on my smartboard.  The other good thing is that it's all created and submitted by teachers so it's already tried.  Users can also vote on a specific resource so you can see how much it was liked by others.  It's worth a browse!

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources/

E-Learning for Kids

What a find!  Here is a site with dozens of games and lessons for students from kindergarten to grade six.  Subjects include the typical ones usually found on teacher websites like math, language arts and science but there are also games and lessons for life skills, environmental skills, computer skills and health.  Lots of animations grab the students' attention easily and are really fun.  It's a great resource especially for classrooms equipped with interactive whiteboards like SMART boards.  There are also lessons for english language learners.  Another neat thing about this site is that it is not only available in English but also in Dutch, Spanish, French and Portuguese. 

Website: http://www.e-learningforkids.org/index.html

Make Beliefs Comix

This is a really fun site to use with all kinds of students.  Makebeliefscomix.com is a site where students can create their own comic strips.  They can choose from 20 different characters, each with different emotions, 25 objects, different talking balloons, they can add colour, quotations, whatever!  Very easy to use and a great way to get students to write!  The site also offers story ideas to inspire even the students with writer's block.  Once your comic strip is done, you can print it or email it.  Another neat thing for teachers on this site are the printables.  Comic strips with black balloons that students can fill in with the dialogue.  A great idea and really fun. 

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/

Mr. Nussbaum's Interactive and Educational Games

This site is simply amazing!  Mr. Nussbaum is a young teacher who created this site to help students learn while having fun.  There are flash games for the main subject areas: math, language arts, science and social studies.  In each subject there are a wide variety of topics within them.  They are really fun games that grab students' attention and help reinforce the skills without them even realizing it.  Another thing I like about the site is that it's not seperated by grade level which makes it a lot more accessible for special needs students.  I taught math in a special needs high school and my students were able to play the games without having to feel bad that they were only playing elementary games.  There is so much on this site that unfortunatley I don't have room to describe it all.  It is definitely worth a look.

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/index.html

Youtube and Zamzar

There is a bigger and bigger push to bring technology into our classrooms.  Students are more engaged if we teach using different media.  I have found a ton of good resources on youtube.  There is so much that I can't even begin to describe it all.  These clips can be used to reinforce a topic (watching a caterpillar spin a cocoon for example) or watch animated version of favourite stories for younger students.  This must be done in advance, however, as there are also a lot of things that are not appropriate for the classroom! Another frustrating thing about youtube is that it is blocked on the computers in my school board so I have to download all videos from home.  In order to download them from home I go to Zamzar.com.  All you have to do is copy and paste the URL and this site emails you the download link.  You have one day to download it.  It's really easy.

http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.zamzar.com/url/

Hands on Banking

Hands on Banking is an online course for kids to adults created by Wells Fargo. It's a program to teach students money skills including earning money, spending, investing, credit and more. The teacher section features PDF instructor guides seperate for both kids and teens. It is an American program but can be adapted to Canadian classrooms. There are also online clips that students can use to study independantly. It is also available in Spanish.

Website: http://www.handsonbanking.org/en/

Practical Money Skills

Visa has created a program for financial literacy for young and old. From the website: Give your students a deeper understanding of money management using a curriculum offered by Practical Money Skills. Here you’ll find lesson plans for students of all ages – from preschoolers and elementary school students to teens and college students. We also offer course materials for students with special needs. I especially like that there is a specific section for special needs students. All guides and students activities are available in PDF. There are also money games for students of all ages!

Website: http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/

Breaking News English

Breaking News English is a website designed for English Language Learners. It provides current news topics in a short, easy to read article. Each article is also accompanied by a range of activities for students to work on about the article and concerning vocabulary and grammar. All articles come in PDF or Word document format for easy printing.
I found it very useful with my english speaking learning disabled teenage students. It's sometimes difficult to find age appropriate material with a lower reading level but this is it! The website's creator also has other websites with articles about holidays or celebrities.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/