Happy 100th day! (well, to those of you who started August 10th or 11th or so). I will have to post some of the activities later. Tonight, let's focus on the world wide web. The treasure trove of, everything. I find it hard to invent my own things because, well, most of it has been invented! I'm sure with my exploration of technology I will tweak lessons in new ways, but the days of creating lessons that work without knowing of someone who has done it before are quickly diminishing. Blogs and community sights like ProTeacher or A to Z Teacher pop up everywhere with amazing teaching ideas. So many that they can sometimes be overwhelming when you just need something specific. I surf the web a lot, but I like to have islands I can land on when I'm too tired to sift through the waves.
For reading comprehension I have found amazing lessons on Readworks.org. Not only do they lay out 2 or 3 great lesson for each reading skill at every elementary grade level, but they also align each of those lessons to every states standards AND the Common Core State Standards. Don't have the book that they suggest to use in the lesson? No problem! The site also lists alternate books for each of their lesson plans. So far each lesson I have used has been wonderful. The best part about it? Every part of this website is absolutely free. It's run by a not for profit that just wants to make sure everyone figures out how to read.
Another great site is themathworksheetsite.com. If you want access to the entire site you have to pay, but the fee is minimal. Still, what you can get for free is awesome. You can create math worksheets for any subject and they are good! Simply choose the number of problems, the parameters, etc and hit publish. Voila, yours for the taking. Need multiple versions of the same quiz? Done! Not just facts either - they have geometry, time, money, measurement, early education, place value, fact families, function tables, graphing, algebra, logarithms, games, tangrams, checks and registers, and more!
A great site to have an actor read some great stories to your kiddos is storyonline.net. The Screen Actors Guild members got together and volunteered to read stories of some really great children's books. They do the voices, show the pictures, all of that. It's fun for the kids. Great for you if you don't have a book and they have it on there, or if you just want a picture book told to your students by someone who can tell a story better then you.
For my fun, crazy, classroom songs I turn to teachertipster.com. This guy teaches 1st grade and has loads of fun with his kids. I'm a rockstar at heart, so I have no problem belting out these tunes in an off key voice and my kids love it!
Of course there is teacherspayteachers.com. This site has so many activities created by teachers for teachers that it can be too much. However, they just reworked their site so you can now narrow by subject, type of document, grade, and price. I spend a lot of time in the "free" zone. Every seller is required to have at least one item offered for free so there are a TON of things in all subjects that are available for download without paying a penny.
What are your "go to" websites? I am always looking for more islands! Surfing is hard work!
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