Category: Websites

33 Online Research Resources

Quick, safe spots to send your students for research (click here for updates):

  1. BrainPop–with the BrainPop characters, a launchpad to curiosity
  2. CoolKidFacts–kid-friendly videos, pictures, info, and quizzes–all 100% suitable for children
  3. Dimensions–academic research geared for college-level
  4. Fact Monster–help with homework and facts
  5. Google Earth Timelapse–what changes to the planet over time
  6. Google Trends–what’s trending in searches
  7. History Channel–great speeches
  8. How Stuff Works–the gold standard in explaining stuff to kids
  9. Info Please–events cataloged year-by-year
  10. National Geographic for Kids
  11. Ngram Viewer–analyzes all words in all books on Google Books
  12. TagGalaxy–search using a cloud
  13. Wild Wordsmyth–picture dictionary for kids
  14. World Book–requires membership

Citing Resources

  1. BibMe
  2. Citation Machine
  3. EasyBib

Kids Search Engines

  1. Kiddle–visual search engine for kids
  2. Kid Rex
  3. Kidtopia

How to Research

  1. A Google A Day
  2. How to Search on Google
  3. Power Searching (with Google)
  4. Teaching students to search/research
  5. Internet Search and Research–a lesson plan for K-8

Lesson Plans

  1. Image Copyright Do’s and Don’ts
  2. Internet Search and Research

Resources/Research

  1. BrainPOP–Bring learning to your fingertips™ with the BrainPOP® Featured Movie app
  2. Kids Picture Dictionary
  3. Primary Source Documents
  4. SparkVue–collect and display live data from iPhone etc to the iPad
  5. Talk to Books–research your topic based on books
  6. TED app–TED’s official app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people

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Human Body Websites for 2nd-5th Grade

In my school, 2nd grade and 5th grade have units on the human body. To satisfy their different maturities, I’ve developed two lists of websites to complement this inquiry. I put them on the class internet start page so when students have free time, they can visit (check here for updates):

2nd-3rd Grade

[caption id="attachment_5364" align="alignright" width="212"]second grade Place organs where they belong[/caption]
  1. Blood Flow
  2. Body Systems
  3. Build a Skeleton
  4. Can you place these parts in the correct place?
  5. Choose the systems you want to see.
  6. Find My Body Parts
  7. How the Body Works
  8. Human Body Games
  9. Human Body websites
  10. Human Body—by a 2nd grade class—video
  11. Human Body—videos on how body parts work
  12. Inside the Human Body: Grades 1-3
  13. Kids’ Health-My Body
  14. Matching Senses
  15. Muscles Game
  16. Nutrition Music and Games from Dole (more…)

3 Projects to Teach 1st Grade Architecture

Many Fridays, I report on a wonderful website or project my classes and parents love. This one is teaching architecture to youngers:

Lesson Plan:

Three projects over six weeks and your students will learn about blueprints, room layout, dimensions, and more. Plus, they’ll understand how to think about a three-dimensional object and then spatially lay it out on paper. This is challenging, but fun for first graders.

Spend two weeks on each projects. Incorporate a discussion of spaces, neighborhoods, communities one week. Practice the drawing, then do the final project which students can save and print. Kids will love this unit.

  • First, draw a picture in your drawing program of the child’s home. If you don’t already have a class favorite, check this list. Many have architecture tools so show students how to find them. Have kids think about their house, walk through it. They’ll have to think in three dimensions and will soon realize they can’t draw a two-story house. In that case, allow them to pick which rooms they wish to include and concentrate on what’s in the room.
[caption id="attachment_4159" align="aligncenter" width="585"]first grade Classroom layout–through the eyes of a First Grader[/caption]

7 Online Resources to Teach About Vehicles

Do your first graders love vehicles? Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using to teach about them:

  1. Build a car–abcya Design your very own vehicle with ABCya’s Create a Car! Choose from cars, trucks, buses, and even construction vehicles. Customize your vehicle with different wheels, engines, and more. Enjoy the ride!
  2. Vehicle Puzzle–click and drag puzzle pieces into place for this picture
  3. Freight Train Cars–video about all the cars in the freight train from Railway Vehicles
  4. Patterns in Vehicles–learn about patterns in this video by recognizing them in a video
  5. Transportation matching–mix and match vehicle parts to make your own unique vehicle
  6. Transportation Sequence Games–a lesson plan about transportation (but it does require a BrainPop Jr subscription)
  7. Vehicles–a wide collection of coloring pages for many different vehicles

Do you have any I can add to the list?

–image credit Deposit Photos

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