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/

Little Critters website

My children love the "Little Critter" books by Mercer Mayer.  I came across the official little critters page and thought it was fantastic!  There are clips of Mercer Mayer reading some of his stories, sing-a-long clips, games, colouring and more surprises.  A great resource for kindergarten or early elementary teachers especially if you are working on an author study with your little students.  The clips are also great if you happen to have a smartboard in your class because you can show the actual author reading the book- what can be better than that?  One of our favourites is "There's an Alligator Under my Bed".

http://www.littlecritter.com/

Freeplay music

This site is a fantastic resource to find different background music for powerpoint music or even as theme music for movie projects. It is easily searchable according to type, tempo, style and feel.  There are many different royalty-free instrumentals available.  It can give a really original feel to any presentation you create.
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search/

Windows Movie Maker

Here's a great program that is automatically on most PC's but little people know about.  Windows moviemaker is an easy, very user-friendly program to make movies on your PC.  If you are at all familiar with imovie you will find that moviemaker is a great alternative for PC users.  You can upload pictures or movie clips and simply drag them into your storyboard to make a movie.  I have used it with my grade one class and they loved it.  I just used my digital camera's filming option to take short clips of my students and we created a really fun project together.  The students loved seeing themselves on the screen.  With older students you can even have them make their own movie.  You can add titles on the clips or before, insert credits and also add music.  There are also many different transitions that you can use to make it look more professional.

Count Us In - Math Games

Here's a site for young students who are learning basic math concepts.  There are 15 games to help children learn counting, patterns, sorting, basic addition and subtraction and other early elementary topics.  A really great find for a kindergarten or a grade 1 teacher.  Games could be played alone on the computer or even better as a class especially if used on a smart board.  The graphics are vibrant and it's really easy to use.  The site also describes other activities that the teacher could do in the class when introducing these concepts.

http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/default.htm

EMints- Theme Pages

Emints ethemes is a true teacher time-saver when it comes to research. Instead of having to Google for ressources which can often take hours of time you can just visit Emints where they have done it for you.  There are hundreds of theme ressource pages for teachers and students.  Each theme page has a list of at least a dozen internet links to help teachers create their lesson.   It's a site created by the University of Missouri and is reviewed by teachers.  The theme pages are carefully constructed and offer really valuable sites.  Another really great thing is that it's theme pages are completely free to use- you don't even have to register for the site.  A great tool for research.

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/index.shtml

Kids Learning Station

Kids Learning Station is a great site filled with free printable worksheets for preschool and kindergarten students.  Skills ranging from alphabet skills to scissor skills all can be practiced using these sheets. All sheets are in pdf format.
http://www.kidslearningstation.com/

Classroom decor

Being a teacher, I love going into dollarama before a special day like Christmas or Valentine's Day. There are always lots of decorations that I can buy cheaply for my classroom or even my home. This year I bought some window decorations and a big paper snowman to display. I also liked the art supplies that I found with a holiday theme. I could make tree ornaments with gingerbread shaped art foam and decorate it with glitter glue- all from dollarama! I even found a full snowman suit for $2.00!

Online Radio

Looking for the perfect music to set the mood in your class?  How about some classical music during playtime to keep them a little bit calm?  Or perhaps some fun Christmas music to accompany a holiday party?  Whatever you need, you can probably find it on the AOL online radio site.
I often play different stations depending on what reaction I want from my students.  If they are working quietly I sometimes play nature sounds so that it's enough to have some background music but not too much that it will distract them.  There's even a station that offers "kid-friendly" radio so that you don't have to worry that they will be listening to inappropriate music.  You can also choose some stations as your preset favourites so that you can quickly find them.

http://music.aol.com/radioguide/bb

Free Fonts

Abstract Fonts is a great site with thousands of free fonts that can be downloaded and used.  These fonts can be used to make nice headings to display artwork or other students' work.  They can also be used by the students when writing cover pages or poetry that they want to display.  There are many themes covering special occasions such as holidays or even just different types to display different moods. 

http://www.abstractfonts.com/

Online Stopwatch

Here's a site I use often with my students. It's an online stopwatch that is displayed on the screen to show students how much time they have to do something. I use it most often when they are having snack to let them visually see how much time they have left. The kids love to countdown and make sure their snack is all finished and put away before the alarm goes off.

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-clock/full-screen/

Sesame Street

Here's a very content rich site for younger students. There are many games and colouring pages to use with your students but what I really like about this site are all the videos. You can choose which sesame street character you want, what theme you want, what skill you want to target. There are thousands clips both old and new. I have used it in my own grade one class when I introduce a new letter. Just type in the letter in the search bar and at least a dozen clips pop up with little video segments about that letter featuring cookie monster, grover, elmo or many other characters. Fantastic resource for younger students!

My own personal favourite clip is Cookie Monster and the Mystery Box - search for it!

http://www.sesamestreet.org

Speakaboos- Online Stories

Speakaboos is another great online story site. It offers classic fairytales and popular children's series such as Arthur. All stories are read by celebrities and the words are displayed as the narrator tells the story. There are also great songs and nursery rhymes that children will love to sing along with.

http://www.speakaboos.com/

Centre for Energy

I came across this site from the Canadian Centre for Energy Information. It offers some free resources for the older grades (mostly high school) to teach about fuel (from where it comes from to the determination of fuel prices). All resources are offered in English and French.

http://www.centreforenergy.com/Education/K-12/TeachingResources/ByProduct.asp

CurrClick

CurrClick is actually a website for homeschoolers but I use it frequently to help me in my class. There are hundreds of units of study available for download. Another really cool thing about this website is the free units section. There are numerous units that are actually free! You can also sign up for the newsletter which offers a new freebie of the week. Other units also regularly go on sale and available for reasonable prices.

Website: http://www.currclick.com/

Dove- Real Beauty Campaign

Here's a great free program for young teenage and pre-teen girls from Dove. I ordered the print version and just got it in the mail today. The program is geared toward girls self-esteem. There are numerous activities designed for girls to analyze their own self-worth, the media's influence and finding positive role models. You can order individual workbooks for each girl in your class. The program even comes with an accompanying DVD. Really nice free resource from a company that has done a lot of good in changing our views of beauty in the media. It's also available for download from the website. The website also has great videos about beauty (remember that great commercial with the model being retouched).

Website: http://www.dove.ca/en/default.aspx#/cfrb/educators/

Puzzlemaker

Here's a site I return to again and again. Puzzlemaker from Discovery Education is a very easy to use custom puzzlemaking site for teachers. I use the word search most often with my students' spelling words. I have also used the crossword to study definitions for different subjects. It's a great, easy tool to help make studying fun.

Website: http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

The Virtual Body

Here is a neat site to learn about the different systems of the body. It's especially cool if you have a smart board in your class because there are great games such as building a skeleton or putting the digestive tract back in order. Students can do it individually on their own computer or as a class on the smart board. Great visuals!

Website: http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp

Tomatosphere

Here is a really cool activity for students to be involved in a real-life space experiment. Teachers can register their class on the website and they will receive two envelopes of tomato seeds. One of the packs of seeds have been exposed to a real space environment and the other packet is a control group of regular seeds. The tomatoes are labelled with just letters so that we don't know which seeds are which until we submit our results to the Canadian Space Agency. This is such an amazing way to teach about space, food, plants, nutrition... the list goes on! The website has many resources for the teacher and students as well as some video clips of the astronauts in space.

Website: http://www.tomatosphere.org/

Sexuality and U

Sexuality and U is a fantastic Canadian website about sex and sexuality. For teachers wishing to teach sex ed there are powerpoint presentations, lessons plans and webquests. Many of the tools are available in powerpoint or PDF. Sexuality and U also has sections for teens where they can get honest answers to their questions and even a fun quiz to test their knowledge. A great find for a sex ed. teacher!

Website: http://www.sexualityandu.ca/