General Elementary Education
Many sites on elementary education do a good job of pulling together
info from every class subject or just sharing advice on how teachers can
work with the education system to provide the
best learning experience to their youngsters.
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Edutopia helps Identify trends in education and what methods are
currently working. The articles present very useful information for
teachers and the site provides fantastic perspective on a number of
issues.
—Keep Learning: Schools That Work—
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The International Reading Association helps promote literacy and
their large base of content concerning reading is great for any teacher
looking to get students more into reading.
—Keep Learning: Reading Lists—
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Discovery Education is great site from the Discovery Channel that
promotes different educational initiatives and good ways teachers can
change the face of learning for students. The site provides curricular
resources, digital text books, along with assessment services any
teacher will find useful.
—Keep Learning: Teachers—
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Mind Shift is an incredible site launched in 2010 by KQED and NPR
that looks at many different aspects of education and the different ways
it’s changing due to technology.
—Keep Learning: Big Ideas—
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Teaching Channel promotes stronger educational values and works with
teachers to make high quality videos that engage more students and
increase the effectiveness of curriculums through technology.
—Keep Learning: Videos—
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Arkive focuses on different educational games that empower kids to
become smarter while having fun learning the information. The content
primarily focuses on science, puzzles, animals, the environment, and
conservation efforts.
—Keep Learning: Team WILD—
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HistoryPin is an exciting and current way to learn history through
tours and collections that engages users “pin” to the site. The pins are
arranged chronologically to create timelines that are both memorable
and fun.
—Keep Learning: Tours and Collections—
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Teachers need support, and peer community is one way to gain
validation for your time and efforts in educating kids. EducationWorld
provides that resource and it is free for you to visit, gather valuable
resources, gain professional development, and network with other
like-minded educators.
—Keep Learning: Lessons From Our Nation’s Schools—
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Curriki is an exciting community filled with volunteers, teachers,
contributors, and partners who support technology blended with teaching.
People can either sign up for membership or peruse over 50,000 free
resources that are accessible without joining. The site offers plenty of
resources and curricula ideas.
—Keep Learning: PD Workshops—
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This online resource provides teachers with middle school lesson
plans, activities, games, and other tools to use in classrooms. Teachers
can add new resources or use the hundreds of tools already filed and
organized by grade.
—Keep Learning: Share My Lesson Community—
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Lakeshore has been in the arts and crafts supply business since 1954,
providing teachers with great prices and clever ideas for
elementary-age activities. Their online presence offers resources such
as lesson plans, flash cards, and even a classroom designer for
efficient use of space.
—Keep Learning: Crafts and Activities—
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Vocabulary Spelling City.com provides many different spelling tools, along with games, fantastic teaching resources, and videos.
—Keep Learning: Teaching Resources—
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This resourceful Zinn Education Project focuses on Howard Zinn’s
best-selling book, “A People’s History of the United States.” Teachers
can tap this site for more than 100 free history lessons organized by
theme, time period, and reading level, as well as analytical tools to
help students get the most from these lessons.
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This tool helps teachers and their students by providing
research-based strategies for teaching foundational reading skills to
any beginning reader. Each workshop, which lasts four to six hours, can
be saved and paused at any time, and a certificate of completion is
created for the reader at the end of the workshop and can be submitted
for professional development credit.
—Keep Learning: Results—
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Docs Teach from the National Archives Experience is an awesome site
that allows teachers to create their own teaching materials featuring
thousands of primary sources from the National Archives.
—Keep Learning: Find Documents—
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The Librarian’s Internet Database is an intuitive tool that teachers
can recommend to students, partially due to the high quality resources
designed specifically for kids and teens. Additionally, they have
special collections and a large array of newspapers and magazines to
view.
—Keep Learning: Resources by Subject—
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Teacher’s Tech is an app for iPhones and iPads that offers resources
and news that can save you time and help to avoid headaches. This app
offers step-by-step instructions on how to set up and use the most
popular and useful Web 2.0 tools for any classroom.
—Keep Learning: Micro-blogging for Teachers—
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Mandy Neal’s goal with this blog is to provide other teachers with
tools to simplify the teacher’s life in the classroom. Her ideas also
are great to use in the home if you have elementary-age kids…she offers
everything, from crafts to ways to build character.
—Keep Learning: Give Me 5 Strategy—
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This nonprofit educational research and development organization is
dedicated to making technology work for science, math, and engineering.
Their site focuses on their mission, but the team also offers resources
for home and school at all educational levels.
—Keep Learning: Featured Elementary School Resources—
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Teachers always need more time, and if time isn’t available, then
they need more help. Timesavers for Teachers provides that help through
tools such as worksheets, classroom activities, class management ideas,
and other resources that can save time and avoids headaches.
—Keep Learning: The Substitute Teacher Kit—
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Smart Classroom Management provides simple, yet effective, tips and
strategies for managing any classroom. Michael Linsin, site author, has
written several authoritative books on classroom management, including
“Dream Class: How to Transform Any Group of Students into the Class
You’ve Always Wanted.”
—Keep Learning: About Dream Class—
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Marcia is a teacher who loves technology, and she uses it to enable
exciting learning situations in upper elementary classes. She shares
resources, links, “how-to” articles, and ideas that can make your
teaching experiences fun, too.
—Keep Learning: Goin on a Blog Hunt—
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Fact Monster is a great site from “Information Please” that breaks
information down into different subjects, presenting it in a way that is
meant to engage children and be the most beneficial.
—Keep Learning: World—
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Greg Lieberman studies computer sciences, and makes games for
elementary-age children to help them learn. The Grammar Ninja is one of
those games, a tool that teaches grammar and sentence structure in a fun
and kid-friendly environment.
—Keep Learning: Portfolio—
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HotChalk’s Lesson Plans Page makes life easier for teachers by
providing over 4,000 relevant lesson plans created by teachers. This
site also offers a format for teacher networking, as lesson plans are
shared, discussed, and modified to fit various grade levels or age
groups.
—Keep Learning: News & Tips for Teachers—
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The late Jane Straus encouraged proper English usage through her
book, “The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.” This site and its
accompanying newsletter continue her work in a fun, easy-to-use
environment for both teachers and students.
—Keep Learning: Word nerds: Verbal custodians trapped in a time warp—
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Digital History is all about learning history in a digital format.
The site contains historical timelines, interviews, primary sources, and
multimedia stories. Teachers also can find classroom handouts, lesson
plans, quizzes, history topics — all defined by historical eras.
—Keep Learning: Lesson Plans—
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RubiStar helps teachers quickly and effectively create rubrics for
different projects. The site has teachers fill in a form and expedites
the process.
—Keep Learning: Reading—
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Fun for First is a blog written by a group of individuals focused on
providing ideas and activities for the youngest school kids. The ideas
are easy to implement, and you’ll never run out of projects to use in
your classroom.
—Keep Learning: Whole Brain Rules Freebie and Giveaway Winner!—
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Education Station is a great site for parents to search through many
different educational resources, allowing their children to catch up, if
behind, or also accelerate their learning if their ahead in their
school’s curriculum.
—Keep Learning: Mathematics—
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Laura Candler’s Teaching Resources provides hundreds of different
printable ideas for activities and useful schoolwork sheets designed to
stimulate children and engage them further.
—Keep Learning: Strategies—
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Cool Cat Teacher Blog follows Vicki Davis, a teacher and author that
is heavily involved in improving the education process. Her blog also
has a very engaging podcast that is great for teachers to get insightful
information.
—Keep Learning: Books—
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Teaching Ideas stresses how instead of throwing information at
students to simply memorize, the focus should be on fostering an
environment conducive to learning ideas. The site’s content is great for
teachers looking to reconfigure their content.
—Keep Learning: Maths—
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SmartBrief Education outlines the most important information
pertaining to education and uses a concise and informative method to
quickly relay news.
—Keep Learning: Academic Specialization—
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Little Giraffes Teaching Ideas is a fun site with great tools for
teachers, such as monthly themes, ABC Activities, Book Ideas, and much,
much more.
—Keep Learning: Centers—
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The Teachers Corner is great because of its wealth of teacher
resources, lesson plans, worksheets, activities, and more. In addition
to seasonal items and useful collaboration tools, the side has a great
message board for engaging with other teachers.
—Keep Learning: Teacher Resources—
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The Reading and Writing Project helps promote the core values
associated with young people becoming avid and skilled readers through a
lifelong love for books. The project instills integral values in
students and has fantastic evens throughout each year.
—Keep Learning: Professional Development—
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C-Span Classroom is a source of educational materials for social
studies teachers, which encourages them to promote current events in the
classroom to better their own curriculums.
—Keep Learning: Teacher Opportunities—
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LeArnin3.cOm helps teaching guide parents and students towards better
supplementary content for students. They provide useful solutions,
curriculum and assessment guidance as well.
—Keep Learning: Tools—
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Learning A-Z ranks books by their grade level and provides different
educational tools to promote better reading skills. The site helps
students through their in-depth activities pertaining to books.
—Keep Learning: Books—
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Ranger Rick On-Line is one of the most well-known children’s
magazines and regularly publishes high-quality articles on different
animals and environmental information. The site has effectively moved
into the 21st century, providing great games that promote stronger
educational aspects.
—Keep Learning: Ranger Rick Jr—
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Family Education – School and Learning is a good tool for letting
parents contribute to the educational trajectory of their children. The
site is dense with useful links for guiding children all the way through
college. This is a great source for teachers to pass along to parents.
—Keep Learning: Learning Differences—
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Strategies in Teaching outlines all the best ways teachers can
collaborate and help each other improve at what they do. The posts all
frame different problems in the education system in interesting and
engaging manners.
—Keep Learning: Teaching with Math Tasks: Systems of Equations—
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Lesson Planet is a search engine designed for teachers to educate
themselves on different subjects and create effective learning
objectives for students in the process. While they cover many different
subjects, the material is incredibly in-depth.
—Keep Learning: Math—
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Spellathon is a digital, sponsored spelling competition that helps
raise money for the learning disability charity, Mencap. The site
includes over 10,000 words and is very inclusive.
—Keep Learning: FAQ—
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Go Social Studies Go is a great side that presents educating in a
fun, informative way. The site’s useful links also propel it to
deserving significant attention.
—Keep Learning: Cool Links—
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K-12 Internet Resource Center is great for teachers in any grade to
find good supplementary tools for just about anything they would need.
The site provides great advice on computers and the internet as well.
—Keep Learning: Professional Development—
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Education.com is a well-recognized site in the education community,
largely due to its wide-ranging content and ability to instill large
amounts of change into the education system. Their in-depth sections on
various activities, worksheets, and workbooks are just a few of the
areas they touch on.
—Keep Learning: Workbooks—
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TVOKids is an interactive spelling bee game that helps kids up to the
age of 11 further refine their spelling skills. The site’s colorful,
inviting layout makes learning a fun experience for any child.
—Keep Learning: Ages 6-11—
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SmartyGames is a useful site that provides really great educational
games for children to refine their skill sets in a number of areas. The
site’s colorful layout is particularly engaging as well.
—Keep Learning: Math—
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Kingergarten-Lessons.com breaks down tips for educators into many
useful areas and encourages them to better their teaching methods
through the resources provided on the site.
—Keep Learning: Math—
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Book Adventure is a great site for promoting reading in children and
maintaining that interest as they grow older. The site has useful
sections for anyone who uses the site, from kids, to teachers, to
parents.
—Keep Learning: Teachers Lounge—
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LessonPlans.ws provides a ton of solutions for teachers to develop
better lesson plans and save them the time from the cumbersome aspects
of planning lessons.
—Keep Learning: Grades 3-5—
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School Express helps teachers manage content in classrooms and
features over 17,000 worksheets for them to use, increasing the
effectiveness of lesson plans.
—Keep Learning: Make Worksheets—
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K12 Lesson Plans is a site that provides free teacher and classroom
websites, allowing for better communication among teachers, students,
and parents as well. Getting started is incredibly easy and the site is
designed with teachers in mind.
—Keep Learning: Sample Site—
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The Annenberg Foundation is a comprehensive teaching resource,
contributing to professional development across the curriculum. The site
has a great video series and also tips for improving lesson plans.
—Keep Learning: Interactive—
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Busy Teacher’s Café is for K-6 teachers and understands their busy
schedule. The site provides themes, strategies, and even printable
resources to help teachers stay on top of the constant stream of work
coming through.
—Keep Learning: Strategies—
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4th Grade Frolics is a useful site that helps 4th grade teachers with
the particular challenges people confront when working with that
specific age group. The author uses the site to paint a picture of what
it’s like in her classroom and the content is great for helping other
teachers understand what’s currently working in education.
—Keep Learning: My Classroom—
Beginning
Teachers’ Blogs
There’s hardly a better place to learn about elementary education
than from an actual working professional. The sites listed here are
created by teachers, for teachers, and include stories from the
classroom and more general information that elementary educators have
learned on the job.
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Shannon McClintock Miller is not your stereotype librarian. She is an
award-winning advocate for learning who loves noisy enthusiasm. Her
website includes a blog, publications, library resources, and ideas that
can turn your classroom into a creative collaboration for learning fun.
—Keep Learning: Lets All Connect For Dot Day and Make Our Mark On The World!—
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Education Nation from NBC News provides some of the most up-to-date
information pertaining to the current state of education and the ways we
can all work together.
—Keep Learning: Events—
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TeachThought provides a platform for teachers to learn using
21st-century technology and bending it to explore new learning models
such as blended learning or project-based learning. The goal is an
open-source model of teaching and learning that can benefit anyone who
wants to grasp knowledge.
—Keep Learning: Mobile Learning Trends—
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Apponomy is a useful site that looks at how different digital
materials are further changing the landscape of elementary education.
Site-runner Diane Darrow works extensively to promote high quality
materials to further the field.
—Keep Learning: iPad Literature Circles—
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Nancy enrolled in an Assistive Technology graduate program and then
began to blog about how she used this newfound knowledge in her
classroom. Her fourth-grade students seem to benefit and any reader can
benefit, too, from tips, ideas, and methods that Nancy shares on her
site.
—Keep Learning: Helping Kids Cope with Terrorism—
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Stephanie is a third-grade teacher who shares her teaching insights
on her blog, along with tools that other teachers can use in their
classrooms. Feel free to share your thoughts with her, but beware…she
might turn you into a Pinterest addict, all in the name of her love for
teaching.
—Keep Learning: Whole Brain Teaching—
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Greg Nussbaum teaches sixth grade Advanced Academic students in
Virginia. Nussbuam believes that technology can help enhance a learning
environment, especially with games that reinforce skills as well as
provide challenges. His site is built upon this belief, as he shares his
ideas and resources for a number of classroom topics.
—Keep Learning: Mr. Nussbaum Premium FEATURES—
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Ms. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog is a classroom of students at a school
in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in Canada. Each student has a blog of their
own and then the entire classroom has a blog as well.
—Keep Learning: Reader’s Theatre—
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Jessica Carlton shows her enthusiasm for teaching through this
colorful site and its contents. She offers award-winning ideas on how to
have fun in the classroom while teaching a variety of topics, as well
as ways to teach kids how to appreciate the world around them.
—Keep Learning: Teachers/Nurses Appreciation Week Gifts—
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The Teaching Thief is run by a teacher who has taught for 6 years and
primarily has focused on 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. The blog posts great
books for children in the midst of elementary school and is a fantastic
resource for those wanting more comprehensive insight into teaching.
—Keep Learning: Fiction Friday 2013—
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Teacher Created Resources is a great site to check out as a teacher
who is looking for additional calendar tools and wants to increase their
effectiveness as an educator. Additionally, it will save significant
time designing smaller items and allow focus to remain on creating an
engaging curriculum.
—Keep Learning: Geography—
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The Book Monsters is a blog that looks at different children’s books
and provides reviews and great information on what to look for.
Additionally, it provides great advice for those looking to recommend
new books to students.
—Keep Learning: Author Archive—
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Think * Share * Teach follows a 4th grade teacher as she gives
first-hand experience to teaching her students and useful tidbits she’s
picking up along the way. Her commitment to education radiates in her
posts and is great for elementary educators looking to connect.
—Keep Learning: My Classroom Website—
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Reading with Mrs. Bast aims to engage students by encourage them to
become lifelong readers and continuously focus on promoting reading
initiatives.
—Keep Learning: Reading Apps—
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Adventures in 6th Grade is a blog written by a teacher and for other
teachers. She highlights different activities she’s working with her
students on and the joys of being a teacher.
—Keep Learning: My Classroom—
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The Idea Back Pack is an educational blog that helps teachers have
the resources and fundamentals to effectively impact students and
further their impact. The site provides useful advice and even
organizational ideas.
—Keep Learning: Organization Ideas—
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Pencils, Books, and Dirty Looks is a fun, colorful blog that gives
teachers great tips for the classroom, including great design advice.
—Keep Learning: Monday Made It—
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Primary Inspired is run by a 1st-2nd Grade Teacher and loves watching
students develop and foster stronger relationships. Her blog looks at
useful educational tips and conveys the best information possible.
—Keep Learning: Flip Flop Swap – Addition to 20 Pack—
Beginning
Interactive Tools & Games
Educational games and interactive activities are wildly popular with
elementary school kids, and teachers with computer-equipped classrooms
should be sure to make use of the great games and activities available
to them.
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The Dino Dictionary breaks down the differences between many
different dinosaurs in this great source from the Natural History
Museum. The “Kids Only” material is also a great tool for teachers to
give to their students.
—Keep Learning: Explore—
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Kleinspiration is a forward thinking educational resource that aims
to combine traditional learning elements with technology to promote
stronger values in children. The site’s useful sections, including “work
together” and “tiny tech tips” provide all the tools for teachers to
jumpstart their teaching methods.
—Keep Learning: Work Together—
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TeacherTube is an incredibly comprehensive tool for educators to
develop curriculum plans, view useful videos, and get valuable advice on
running a classroom.
—Keep Learning: Docs—
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Not all education apps are created equal, so Jayne Clare and Anne
Rachel joined together to form TWA to help teachers and their students
wade through these apps to find the best. Clare and Rachel also can
consult with you to build an app that you might need, aligned with
Common Core Standards.
—Keep Learning: 10 of the Best ABC iPhone Apps for Kids—
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Storybird is a website that acts as a digital publishing platform,
allowing users to create, read, and share visual stories between each
other. Typically they are art-inspired and feature colorful imagery.
—Keep Learning: Teachers—
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Poll Everywhere is one of the best ways to create stylish polls that
capture attention. These polls can be used anywhere, through texting,
web, or Twitter, and the price is right — free for audiences of fewer
than 40 people (perfect for a classroom!).
—Keep Learning: How Poll Everywhere Works—
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TimeMaps helps students engage in history in a creative and
comprehensive way through timelines that make history accessible and
understandable. The tools focus on the big picture and on specific
historic episodes, providing a thorough understanding of events within
contexts that are memorable.
—Keep Learning: Time Map of World History—
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So, you want to use a mind map, but you’re intimidated by the
hundreds of tools available and the learning curve time? Use Mindomo, a
tool that is easy to use and that comes with detailed instructions and
ideas for using mind maps.
—Keep Learning: Why Mindomo Desktop?—
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The Totally Free Children’s Learning Network is peer-reviewed for
accuracy. Although the site contains ads to help pay for its goal of
helping kids learn through interactive games, those ads are unobtrusive
and do not detract from the site’s speed or mission.
—Keep Learning: Educational Songs—
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In Class App is a useful app that helps students reorganize their
priorities, share notes, and maximize their learning potential. An added
bonus is that the app is free.
—Keep Learning: Gallery—
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Anyone can use Puzzlemaker to create and print customized word games
and math puzzles, using personal word lists. Just choose the type of
puzzle from a list and make it immediately for classroom or home use —
for free.
—Keep Learning: Math Squares—
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Use TimeRime’s web application in the classroom to create, view, and
compare interactive events in any topic through a timeline. Timelines
can be filled with movies, maps, text, and music to help create a fun
tool that kids will remember.
—Keep Learning: TimeRime Edu Standard—
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Every elementary teacher knows that their students need to master the
core basics if they are to succeed in school. The pressure is off on
students and teachers both with this tool, which enables students to
learn free on the Internet through best-in-class courseware in math,
science, reading, and keyboarding.
—Keep Learning: Math Courses—
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Fun Fonix provides a plethora of tools that make learning interactive
and fun. You can find phonics worksheets, free printable phonics
workbooks for kids, and games in topics that range from math to science.
These tools also are great for ESL or adult literacy programs.
—Keep Learning: Phonics Worksheets—
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neoK12 is a large bank of educational videos on a variety of
subjects. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade can use the site
to gain a wider breadth of knowledge and more aptly solidify their
educational route.
—Keep Learning: Animals Wildlife—
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Online Hieroglyphics Translator is a very cool idea that helps
translate any word, name, or phrase into hieroglyphics. The site is very
straightforward and leaves no room for confusion.
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Teachers can introduce their K-12 students to this site, which can
act as an interactive math tutor. Game rooms, flashcards, and puzzles
all help students get a grip on math — some games are available for
smartphones, too.
—Keep Learning: What’s New—
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The Story Starter is an excellent teaching tool that randomly
generates over three million story starters. Use it to break writer’s
block or to generate ideas about a story. This site was selected as “The
Best of the Best” in creativity by Writer’s Digest Magazine.
—Keep Learning: Story Starter for Kids—
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Andy Giger is interested in the seemingly odd combination of art,
science, and communication. But, the Internet makes this juxtaposition
work in ideas like his B-EYE, a tool that can let watchers see the world
through the eyes of a Honey Bee.
—Keep Learning: IWISTER #4 – Build your own stereogram—
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Any free resource is good, but when it comes with sample study sets
and support it becomes even better. Quizlet is a great way to develop
quizzes that educators can use to develop lesson plans or to test plans
using a professional set of questions.
—Keep Learning: You Can Study Anything—
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Typing Club helps teachers monitor their students typing progress to
see how fast they’re learning to properly type on a computer. Along with
tracking tools and other useful metrics, they also allow teachers to
customize their lesson plans.
—Keep Learning: Get Started—
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Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools is loaded with great materials for
teachers to more effectively work with students. The site is so dense
with material and features almost 20 categories.
—Keep Learning: Collaborative Tools—
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The Exploratorium in San Francisco is one of the best science centers
in the country and provides incredibly engaging methods for keeping the
attention of children. The activities at the Exploratorium promote the
imaginations of students on an incredible level.
—Keep Learning: Explore—
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Nat Geo Education: Mapping is a very interesting site that shows a
variety of maps around the country, along with overlays of interesting
information pertaining to weather, environmental issues, and more.
Additionally, there are games for kids that present maps in a fun way.
—Keep Learning: Fun With Maps—
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The Magic School Bus Games is an online portal of educational games
based on the book series, The Magic School Bus. The games all convey
useful building blocks of knowledge to help any students.
—Keep Learning: Where Will The Bus Take You?—
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IXL Learning breaks down educating children into useful sections
ranging from Pre-K through 8th grade, then focusing on algebra and
geometry as well.
—Keep Learning: Practice—
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Gameaquarium breaks down educational games into many different
categories that are intuitive for learning in children. The site also
has videos and eBook materials for children as they age.
—Keep Learning: Games and Activities—
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The 1:1 Classroom posts different musings from a 3rd grade teacher in
a 1:1 environment. The site highlights interesting developments in
education and frequently ties to current events.
—Keep Learning: Does Education Need Its Own Edward Snowden?—
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Internet4Classrooms helps students build the important skills that
are necessary to successfully gain the education they desire. The
different skills that are offered range from kindergarten to 8th grade.
—Keep Learning: Kindergarten Skills—
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Turtle Diary is an educational website that teaches students through
engaging games that are fun and with content that is catered to specific
grades and the work they will typically face. Subjects typically are
math, English, and science, and there are even supplementary worksheets.
—Keep Learning: Games by Subject—
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Animaps is a simple and easy-to-use site that allows teachers to
create and view informative and animated maps, all for free. The
tutorial is very straightforward and useful to those even with little
computer experience.
—Keep Learning: Get Started—
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Funbrain is a site full of engaging, entertaining educational games
designed for children. The useful tools largely make a useful foundation
for students developing.
—Keep Learning: Math Arcade—
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AAA Math is a site featuring thousands of interactive arithmetic
lessons, which allows students for sufficient coursework to refine their
math skills. Additionally, the content is sorted by subject and grade
level, so time won’t be wasted looking for appropriate math problems.
—Keep Learning: Algebra—
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StarFall helps children learn to read and provides extremely adequate
resources for furthering their education through engaging and fun
reads.
—Keep Learning: ABC’s – Let’s Get Ready to Read—
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Phonics Student Online Components helps educate kids on the best ways
to learn and highlights some pretty innovative methods. Aside from
breaking down by grade, they also provide a breakdown of
subject-specific coursework students can expect to encounter in each
grade.
—Keep Learning: Memory Cards—
Beginning
Books & Publishers
Some publishers focus specifically on educational books, and
emphasize elementary-appropriate material. There are even those that
have branched out into e-books and other modern publishing formats as a
way of catering to the needs of elementary school kids and educators.
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Every teacher has at least one “bored” student or more, because they
are either too far ahead or behind in learning a particular topic. This
site can help keep those students engaged by making books come to life
through ideas such as meet-the-author movies and book trailers. Teachers
also gain benefits such as book guides and lesson plans.
—Keep Learning: Book Guides & Lesson Plans—
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O’Block Books Educational Materials is a very dense resource for
elementary students from preschool through sixth grade. The site
provides fantastic resources for alphabet, reading, Spanish, social
studies, and learning in many other areas.
—Keep Learning: Reading—
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Evan Moor Educational Publishers is one of the most prominently
publishing companies when it comes to educational materials. Their wide
range of courses and detailed methods for helping students overcome any
difficulties is particularly useful.
—Keep Learning: TeacherFileBox—
Beginning
Math & Science
Math and science are important topics to get kids interested in while
they’re young, and these sites have plenty of ways for elementary
educators to make sure their students get a head start on these
increasingly important subjects.
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The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is dense with great
elementary educator resources, partially because laying out the
fundamentals of math is so crucial. The site also provides useful
resource for middle and high school teachers as well.
—Keep Learning: Pre-K to Grade 5—
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Top Banana Education Foundation is a nonprofit organization that
works to help elementary-age children develop a love for math that lasts
a lifetime. Teachers can use this site to gain insight into tools that
make math exciting, even for kids who freeze at the sight of numbers.
—Keep Learning: My First Inside Look at Top Banana’s Approach—
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Discovery Science Center is a nonprofit organization designed to
educate young minds and to assist teachers in understanding and
appreciating science, math, technology, and engineering. The center,
located in California, offers field trips and camps. Their online
presence provides a teacher education network and other resources for
teachers.
—Keep Learning: Resources for Teachers—
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The Math Forum is the leading online resource for teachers to use to
help students improve their math skills. Use this site for a wealth of
problems and puzzles to use in classrooms, as well as for resources such
as online mentoring, team problem solving, and professional
development.
—Keep Learning: Teacher Exchange—
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JASON Learning is a nonprofit organization that helps connect
students to real science and exploration. The curricula, tools, and
training are designed to encourage students to enter STEM fields
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
—Keep Learning: Curricula—
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Science Kids makes science fun and engaging for children and does so
through colorful imagery as well as simple facts that are easily
understood.
—Keep Learning: Experiments—
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Science4Us is great for kids to have interactive educational tools
promoting stronger knowledge concerning science. Their incredible array
of tools can help any student further their education.
—Keep Learning: Physical—
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The Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California,
Berkeley uses the children’s section of their site to provide quality,
entertaining information that promotes stronger values and great sources
for science education.
—Keep Learning: Collections—
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Dreambox Learning helps children by using adaptive learning methods
to help get children behind back up to speed and assist them as much as
they can along the way.
—Keep Learning: Resources—
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Steve Spangler’s Blog highlights a bunch of fun science initiatives
he helps put together. His level of renown is almost unparalleled and
frequently engages in some of the most entertaining and educational
material.
—Keep Learning: Science Experiments—
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Jump Start has long been regarded as a fantastic educational resource
through the many different games they provide. The site shows all the
different games children can play that are not only tied to some of the
biggest children’s movies currently, but are also incredibly engaging.
—Keep Learning: Games—
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Science Buddies frames learning in a very fun and upbeat light, which
encourages students to stay focused and frequently engage in science
projects.
—Keep Learning: Project Guide—
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Super Teacher Worksheets is a site dense with useful worksheets for
teachers to use, allowing them to more effectively cater to the rapidly
changing demands of education. The worksheets can save crucial time from
having to design menial activities that are still crucial to
educational development.
—Keep Learning: Fractions (Basic)—
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MathGameTime is a site dense with games designed to sharpen student’s
math skills and it even breaks down the games by grade, ranging from
Pre-K to 7th grade.
—Keep Learning: Featured Games—
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Free Math Worksheets is a great way for teachers to focus on other
aspects of teaching by using this website to quickly compile worksheets
pertaining to math up to 6th grade.
—Keep Learning: Math Worksheets, Categories, and Topics List—
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Let’s Play Math! Is a great site for promoting different ways to make
math fun for children and reinforce their development. The site has a
very useful section on internet math resources as well.
—Keep Learning: Internet Math Resources—
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Math and Reading Help goes straight to the root of early education,
promoting the reinforcement of different teaching elements. The tutoring
section is particularly useful, as it outlines how to successfully
administer tutoring to children.
—Keep Learning: Tutoring—
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HomeSchoolmath shows how math can be invigorating and how students
can best prepare themselves to be successful in school. The breakdown by
subject and grade are particularly insightful.
—Keep Learning: Math Worksheets—
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Cool Math helps make learning fun for children and spin math as the
cool and happening thing. The site boasts math advice for students of
any age and even has a section with featured cool math games.
—Keep Learning: Math Dictionary—
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Math Bits breaks down the teaching process into small,
easy-to-understand pieces that makes digesting different knowledge much
more intuitive.
—Keep Learning: Jr Math Bits—
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A+ click is a clean-cut site that provides the essentials to
promoting better educational tools in students, no matter the grade.
Teachers can browse content by grade and also by subject.
—Keep Learning: Grade 8—
Beginning
Art, Reading & Music
“The Liberal Arts,” as these topics would be called at the college
level, are great for stimulating kids’ creativity and teaching them to
think critically about subjective topics.
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Instructables is a site where teachers can explore, document, and
share creative endeavors. This section of Instructables offers ideas and
tips on developing elementary school art activities. Even a
self-professed non-artist can explore and share these ideas with
students!
—Keep Learning: Map Monsters—
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Use recycled tools for learning and fun from Arts & Scraps, a
Detroit-based nonprofit that uses 28 tons of recycled industrial
materials to make art kits. Gain ideas from their site and learn how you
can order bulk-packed products, including kits that can be customized
to your learning themes.
—Keep Learning: Programs—
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CMN celebrates the positive power of music in children’s lives
through sharing songs, ideas, and community based upon this belief. This
is a membership organization, but even nonmembers can benefit from the
information on this site, including a blog, publications, and resources
to tap for classes and activities.
—Keep Learning: Children’s Music Links—
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Art in Action is an engaging site designed to promote stronger art
values through after-school enrichment programs. The non-profit also
focuses on fostering stronger education development and creativity among
children, crucial at young ages.
—Keep Learning: Art Education—
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Ted Edlinger, a Tennessee Art Teacher of the Year, offers his ideas
and experiences in this blog about building art programs for elementary
school children. His art and his encouragement in joining arts
organizations is further proof that he loves his work and his artistic
mission.
—Keep Learning: Line Design w/ Shading- The Steps—
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If you’re seeking free art resources for elementary art classes, this
site can provide you with what you need — from learning to draw
techniques to project freebies. Sign up for the newsletter to learn when
new items are posted on this site.
—Keep Learning: National Standards for Visual Arts Education—
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Pam Donkin, an award-winning children’s music entertainer, is
available to perform and to teach nationwide. She shares some of her
magic on this website, which offers songs and activities, music
downloads, videos, and other fun resources.
—Keep Learning: Resources—
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Reading Rockets works with students who struggle to read and provides
a strong foundation for them to succeed and not fall behind.
Additionally, the site has great tools for teachers to help students.
—Keep Learning: Helping Struggling Readers—
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KinderART provides fantastic art lesson plans to engage children and
further their ability to learn. The site breaks down lesson plans into
many different areas, so teachers can tailor their plans to any medium.
—Keep Learning: Lessons By Age/Grade—
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Success for All Foundation aims to aid those who may not have the
most opportunities to achieve like they could. The initiative is largely
broken into three parts, early childhood, elementary, and middle/high
school. The organization is known for its high-achievements and helping
push students in the right direction.
—Keep Learning: Elementary—
Beginning
Assorted Useful Sites
A creative elementary education teacher can find great uses for even
unconventional classroom tools. Even just reading about what other
teachers are doing, and participating in online communities for
teachers, can help educators develop new curricula and expand their
horizons and those of their students.
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Vimeo was founded in 2004 by a group of filmmakers who wanted to
share their creations. Today, anyone can use this format to create and
share video lessons or moments, including soundtracks and other lessons
that you can learn from Vimeo’s “resident experts.”
—Keep Learning: Create Something New—
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Ed Week Teacher focuses on how teachers can promote better
curriculums and work better as a collective in the education system. The
articles on the site cover just about anything you could imagine
pertaining so teaching, so there’s always great content to find.
—Keep Learning: Tougher Requirements Ahead for Teacher Prep—
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Edudemic handles different ways teachers can tailor their curriculum
to best align itself with the currently developing trends. The site is
very dense with content and great for teachers and students alike.
—Keep Learning: News for Teachers—
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You’ve probably used free clipart sites before that used pop-up ads
and other annoying distractions. This site eliminates those nuisances so
you can pick and choose the art you need — from agriculture to web
graphics — quickly and conveniently.
—Keep Learning: Create Templates, Photo Collages, Calendars & More!—
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BBC Dimensions is an interesting site that overlays how much space
different events take up. With this information, they overlay it onto
different parts of the world to draw a parallel to places people see
locally.
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