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/

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.

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/

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/

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

Here's a site with a huge amount of math manipulatives with your students.  Everything from base ten blocks, to virtual calculators, to pie charts... there are really too many to many to talk about.  Everything is categorized by grade and by program (algebra, geometry, number and operations, and more).  This is a great site for math.  Really great for use with an interactive whiteboard like the smartboard!

Website:

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

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

Snakes and Ladders

Here's an online version of the popular Snakes and Ladders game from the BBC.  You can choose between one or two players and the players.  The players roll an online die and have to move their token the right amount of squares.  It's a great game for early elementary to practice their counting skills.  It's also fun to play on the smartboard!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/snakes.shtml

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/

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

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

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/

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/

Free Rice Games

A website that gives students practice with math, vocabulary, geography and helps feed hungry children at the same time! FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Our partner is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. For every right answer a student gets 10 grains of rice are donated to feed hungry children. A great site for multiplication practice and really great for english vocabulary!

Website: http://www.freerice.com/index.php

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/