Tag: lists

Online Summer Educational Activities

What are parents and teachers most worried about over the summer? That kids will lose their sharp education edge, dulled by sun and sand and something else. Worry no more.

Your cure: learning disguised as play. Kids will think they’re playing games, but are actually participating in [mostly] free simulations available in the education field. A note: some must be downloaded and a few purchased, so the link might take you to a website that provides access rather than play. Choose what works for you:

iCivics—experience what it means to be part of a democracy
Second Life—simulates just about anything if you can find it
Coffee Shop—run a coffee shop business

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50 Websites About Animals

Here are 50 animal websites for grades K-5, everything from Dinosaurs to the wildly popular Wolfquest (click here for updates):

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Easter Classroom Resources

Many Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. To non-Christians (or non-traditional Christians), that event signifies a rebirth of spring that is filled with joy and gifts — and chocolate! Overall, it is America’s most-popular holiday with Christmas a close second. Here’s a good mixture of games, lesson plans, stories, and songs that can be blended into many academic subjects (for updates on Easter-themed websites, click here):

18+ Interactive Easter websites

Preschool-2

This website includes a colorful collection of Easter (and Spring) games and information that is visual and enticing to youngers. Games are Easter Math, Easter Egg Hunt, Easter Egg Dress-up, Easter Word hunt, complete-the-sentence, and more. Also, viewers will find websites about the history of Easter around the world.

ABCYa Easter Egg Hunt

Preschool-Kindergarten

Like all of ABCYa’s games and activities, Easter Egg Hunt is a colorful and intuitive educational game for young children. It is easy-to-understand, playful, with favorite Easter symbols and energetic music that will engage children. The five Easter-themed games are easy-to-understand (no directions required) with a countdown clock to motivate activity. Nicely, it also aligns gameplay with the national standards met.

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17 K-8 Digital Citizenship Topics

Education is no longer contained within classroom walls or the physical site of a school building. Learning isn’t confined to the eight hours between the school bell’s chimes or the struggling budget of an underfunded program.

Today, education can be found anywhere, by teaming up with students in Kenya or Skyping with an author in Sweden or chatting with an astrophysicist on the International Space Station. Students can use Google Earth to take a virtual tour of a zoo or a blog to collaborate on class research. Learning has no temporal or geographic borders, and is available wherever students and teachers find an internet connection.

This vast landscape of resources is often free, but this cerebral trek through the online world requires students know how to do it safely, securely, and responsibly. This used to mean limiting access to the internet, blocking websites, and layering rules upon rules hoping (vainly) students would be discouraged from using an infinite and fascinating resource.

It didn’t work.

Best practices now suggest that instead of cocooning students, we teach them to be good digital citizens, confident and competent in 17 areas:

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National Library Week–Resources, Links, Ideas

National Library Week is an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities.

In the mid-1950s, research showed that Americans were spending less on books and more on radios, televisions and musical instruments. Concerned that Americans were reading less, the ALA and the American Book Publishers formed a nonprofit citizens organization called the National Book Committee in 1954. The committee’s goals were ambitious. They ranged from “encouraging people to read in their increasing leisure time” to “improving incomes and health” and “developing strong and happy family life.”

In 1957, the committee developed a plan for National Library Week based on the idea that once people were motivated to read, they would support and use libraries. With the cooperation of ALA and with help from the Advertising Council, the first National Library Week was observed in 1958 with the theme “Wake Up and Read!” The 2023 celebration marks the 65th anniversary of the first event.

Websites that add sparkle (and learning) to Spring

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A few spring websites, lesson plans, printables, activities:

7 Science Experiments that Teach About Spring
Books from Scholastic about Spring
Spring Puzzle
Spring Garden–click to find flowers
Spring Games
Spring Vocabulary (video)
Spring Word Scramble
Spring Word Search
What Happens in Spring (video)
What Happens in Spring–PS (video)

Life Cycles

Click for ideas from TeacherVision:

Printables

Lesson Plans

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Invention Convention 2025 is coming

Invention Convention Worldwide is a global K-12 curricular program mapped to national and state educational standards that teaches students problem identification, problem solving, entrepreneurship, creativity skills, and confidence. RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2025 runs June 4-6, 2025 at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI. (more…)

25+ Video Collections

Here are some excellent themed video collections to use in your classroom (click here for updates on the list): (more…)

11 Valentine Sites For Students K-2

Here are fun Valentine sites to fill those few minutes betwixt and between lessons, projects, bathroom breaks, lunch, and everything else (click here for updates on this list):