Great Teacher Finds

Class Website

2014-08-15T13:51:00.002-04:00

I have been wanting to make a class website for a while now. This summer it became my summer project. There are quite a few free sites that make it easy for anyone to set up their website. After playing around with a few i found the one I preferred was Weebly.
There are a lot of free themes you can use and it's quite easy to change things around. I also like that the free web address you get is short. It's basically 'yourname.weebly.com'. Shorter than a lot of other free sites.
You can find free clip art on the web. There are quite a few that are free for educational use. My favourite so far is http://classroomclipart.com/ .
After spending a few hours setting it up and adding the pages I wanted I know I'll be able to just log on once a week to make the few changes easily without it taking up a lot of extra time. An easy way to connect home and school!

Common Core Workbooks

2014-07-20T15:35:00.000-04:00

Have fun teaching is a fantastic website with many free materials and resources. I go to it often!

They are now offering for a low price some common core workbooks for every grade. It's a great timesaver for all teachers who have to teach to the common core.

http://www.corecommonstandards.com/

Report Card Comments

2013-06-06T14:14:00.000-04:00

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

2012-11-24T22:45:00.001-05:00

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

2012-04-29T10:50:00.000-04:00

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/

Dropbox

2012-04-09T12:06:00.004-04:00

Being a teacher often means that you do a lot of work from home to prepare for class. I finish up class presentations, write report cards and prepare lessons as often from my home computer as I do my school computer. Dropbox has helped me tremendously by allowing me to share folders between these two computers. Dropbox is a free folder that you install on your computer and that will allow you to share across computers. All you have to do is install it on whatever other computers (or smart phone or tablet) you use and all those files and folders you store in the dropbox are always available. Another great feature of dropbox is that you can share a folder with other people. I share folders with colleagues so that we can both have access to lessons we are collaborating on. It's also an easy way to share documents without the need of a memory stick. The free account gives you 2GB of storage but you can earn more space by completing simple getting started tasks or by referring your friends. If you use my referral link you will also be granted an extra 500mb of space. You can also subscribe to get even more space but I find that for my purposes the free account is plenty.

Math Worksheets

2012-02-03T10:41:00.001-05:00

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.

Calmness Counter

2011-08-14T10:29:00.000-04:00

Life in a classroom can sometimes get hectic and noisy! This free tool might be the answer to try and control some of the chaos. This is really cool especially if you have a smart board in your class. You plug in a microphone to your computer, go to this website and it actually measures the amount of noise in your class with an easy to read gauge. You can set the sensitivity to the level that you want and it will clearly display if the noise-level is getting too high. Amazing!

http://www.ictgames.com/calmCounter.html

Literactive

2011-07-18T20:12:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-21T09:58:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-21T09:47:00.000-04:00

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

2011-02-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

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/

Math Worksheet Wizard

2011-01-24T09:10:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-18T12:33:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-16T16:12:00.000-05:00

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/

Billie Brings His Buddies - Safety Curriculum

2010-04-10T16:24:00.000-04:00

Keeping kids safe is a constant worry. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has created a free program for grade one students to teach them "the buddy system". It's complete with a lesson plan for the teacher, a letter for the parents with activities to do with their child, an online storybook and a new game to reinforce safety at Halloween.

http://kidsintheknow.ca/app/en/billy_brings_his_buddies

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

2010-03-31T14:18:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-23T11:27:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

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

Bus Songs - Huge collection of kids' songs

2010-03-10T10:22:00.000-05:00

How many times have you begun to sing a familiar children's song only to realize you only know the first verse and end up humming the rest? Here's a fantastic site with lyrics for over 2000 children's songs. There are lullabies, nursery rhymes as well countless sing-a-long songs. There are even songs from favourite family movies such as Willy Wonka and The Jungle Book. Many of the songs also come accompanied by a video clip and audio of the music. Some songs also have alternate versions. It's a great find for any parent or teacher of young children.

http://bussongs.com/

Make Beliefs Comix

2010-03-10T09:01:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-10T08:49:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-09T15:44:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-09T15:33:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-21T16:45:00.001-05:00

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/