Report Card Comments

As I was writing my reports today I came across this pretty neat site. http://www.lessonplansforfree.com/default.aspx provides examples of report card comments for Art, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies for the elementary grades.  All you have to do is select the subject, the grade level and the grade (A-D) and the site gives you examples of things to write.  You can even type in the students name in a box above and your students name will appear in the comment so that you can just copy and paste!  It was just the help I needed to get my comments sound a little bit better and not so repetitive. 

Online Animated Storybooks

There are many sites that offer online picture books for kids.  Here a few that I have come across:

Tumblebooks
Tumblebooks is a fantastic resource.  It has well over 200 books.  They all have the words highlighted as they are read. Another great feature is that the length of time is written so that you can plan according to how much time you have.  Tumblebooks requires a subscription but can be accessed easily by going through the website of a public library that subscribes to it.
Here is a link through such a library:
http://www.clarington-library.on.ca/taxonomy/term/37

Storyline Online
This site from the screen actors guild offers 25 books read by well known actors.  All the stories are streamed through youtube but offers an alternative in case your school blocks youtube.  They also indicate the length of the stories and offer suggested activities to go along with them.

Kids AOL jr.
This site offers many stories categorized by topic (animals, families, fairy tales and rhyming).  The category that is perhaps the most interesting is the Arthur series by Marc Brown.  There are 15 Arthur stories (the original books, not the animated series).  The words are highlighted as they are read.

Read to Me

Online Storytime from Barnes & Noble

Aesops Fables

SillyBooks.net

Gullah Tales

Bookflix
requires a subscription but can be accessed through learn quebec for quebec public schools.

Cookie

Wow!  Cookie is a new website I recently came across.  It is a goldmine for teachers (and parents) of young kids between the ages of 3 and 8.  It has online games, short animated videos, worksheets and stories.
They are all organized into different categories like language, math, science, puzzles and many more.
For a teacher it's a great place to quickly find a game or worksheet for students to work on a specific skill being taught.  Children can work on sequencing activities, phonics and alphabet activities, counting and math activities, personal hygiene, months of the year... a very wide array of themes.  It's worth a look!
The games are great worked on a computer alone but are also great played on a smartboard.
http://www.cookie.com/

Literactive

Here's a cool site with phonics activities and online books for young learners.  It's geared for children between the ages of 4 and 8 who are just learning to read.  A simple free registration is all it takes to access dozens of activities and guided reading books.
From the website:  The program takes the early learner on an interactive journey of exploration and learning. Starting with initial nursery rhymes, it moves through pre-reading activities, alphabet awareness, letter sounds, short vowels, CVC word blending, initial blends, long vowels and all the phonic activities critical for developing early reading skills. Scientifcially researched and teacher approved, The Road to Reading is the most comprehensive reading program available online.
The activities are fun and young children will enjoy playing with then without even knowing they are learning valuable pre-reading and reading skills.
http://www.literactive.com

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

Up to Ten - Boowa and Kwala

Up to Ten is an extensive web site with over 1000 educational and fun games for kids up to age 10.  Younger kids (0 - 6) can click on the Boowa and Kwala section to access lots of games, activities, songs, stories and colouring pages.  It is all very well organized so even younger students can navigate it on their own.  Older students (6-10) can access the games section where the selection isn't as extensive but still quite large.  This section has classic games, puzzles and coordination games.  Another really great thing about this site is that it is completely bilingual: English and French!  On the homepage there are three sections (Free, Premium and Teacher).  The free section is very abundant and it is not clear how to subscribe to the paying portions but, in my opinion, the free section is so extensive there is no need.

http://www.uptoten.com/

Gullah Net

Here's a neat website perfect for Black History Month.  Gullah.net is a website devoted to learning about the Gullah culture of Saint Carolina.  On the website you can hear folktales told in English or Gullah with animated pictures.  The folktales include stories such as "The Three Little Pigs" and "The Little Red Hen" so it can be used even if you aren't doing a "Gullah" unit in class.  Just hearing the narrator in English is worth it.   On the Gullah music part of the website you can see the evolution of African music in America.  A fun, interactive website to help learn about another culture. 

http://www.knowitall.org/gullahnet/

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

Roy the Zebra

Here's another great early literacy site I came across.  This site has interactive reading games as well as 9 guided reading stories complete with worksheets and lesson plans!  It seems to be best for emerging readers, so the students need to have some understanding of reading to start with but a really fun way to learn and have fun at the same time.  It's perfect for the smartboard or other interactive whiteboard but parts of it could also be played by a student by themselves on the class computer.  A really fun find!

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

Starfall

Starfall is a site I use daily with my students.  I use it so often that I was surprised that I hadn't posted it to this blog before.  It's a reading website with a phonics based approach for young students.  For the very beginners there are little interactive videos for all the letters of the alphabet showcasing their sounds.  It then also has short easy books for students as they slowly progress.  What's nice about this site is that it is good for children of all abilities.  If a student has trouble reading a word all you have to do is click on it and it will sound it out for you.  There are other little neat things to explore too like a calendar (which I use with my students ever day) and other interactive activities for different holidays.   It's especially nice if you have a smart board in your classroom but it's also very user friendly and even a young student could use it independantly on a small computer

.http://www.starfall.com/

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/

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/

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/