Miscellaneous:
Young Heroes of History - - The homepage of the author of this series of Children and Young Adult historical fiction (M,O)
Why & How I Teach with Historical Fiction - Scholastic article by Tarry Lindquist (T)
Reading Comprehension - From rhlschool.com; free online worksheets to re-enforce comprehension (M) (M)
Web English Teacher - Children's Literature (Y,M)
Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun - With 103 topics from which to choose and over 4500 vocabulary words, kids will have fun learning while playing games like hangman and word finds. Topics include astronomy, baby animals, biblical cities, chemistry, compound words, computers, geography, mus (Y,T)
Crazy Libs - The best way to learn Part of Speech! Read brief stories with your words strategically inserted to produce whacky results. Original stories, excerpts from classic literature, and excerpts from elsewhere on the RinkWorks site are featured. It's silly nonse (Y,M,T)
Power Proofreading - This interactive online editing game is part of the Houghton Mifflin English website. Stories to edit are available for grades 2-8 although I found the 2nd grade games too advanced for my late reader who is just finishing 1st grade. (Y,M,T)
A Book In Time - The Ultimate History Booklist! I have featured this site before, but they recently changed their URL and that was a reminder for me to mention it again. A Book In Time is a recommended reading list for history including fiction and non-fiction books liste (Y, M, O, T)
Aesop and Ananse: Animal Fables and Trickster Tales - In this unit, students will become familiar with fables and trickster tales from different cultural traditions and will see how stories change when transferred orally between generations and cultures. They will learn how both types of folktales employ various animals in different ways to portray human strengths and weaknesses and to pass down wisdom from one generation to the next. Use the following lessons to introduce students to world folklore and to explore how folktales convey the perspectives of different world cultures. Grades K-2 from EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities (Y)
It Doesn’t Have to End That Way: Using Prediction Strategies with Literature - After listening to a the beginning of a story, students use details in the text, personal experience, and prior knowledge to predict the way the story will end. To support their predictions, the class discusses the plot elements of the book to the stopping point as well as experiences they have had with other books in the genre and in their own lives. Students individually create illustrations of the story’s ending that reflect their predictions and share these illustrations with the class before the entire book is read again. After the entire book has been read, students compare their endings to the ending in the original story. Grades K-2 from ReadWriteThink, International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. (Y)
What a Character! - In this lesson, students analyze how a character's personality traits, actions and motives influence the plot of a story. Students also learn how storytellers use their face, body, and voice, as well as the five senses, to enhance the telling of a story. Grades K-4 from ARTSEDGE, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (Y)
Inferring How and Why Characters Change - Students use a think-aloud procedure to infer character traits and recognize a character's growth across a text. They also consider underlying reasons why a character has changed and learn to support those inferences with evidence from the text. (3-5) ReadWriteThink, International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. (Y)
Jan Brett - With almost 4,000 pages of free resources using Jan's beautiful illustrations, JanBrett.com is a wonderful place to find printables of all kinds, from alphabets to art instruction sheets. The site is updated by Jan herself, and fans of her books will enjoy reading about her travels as she does research for her books. (Y, M, O, T)
Miss Rumphius children's literature Lesson Plan - (Grades PreK-5) (Y)
News Bowl USA - The #1 Current Events Quiz Game! News Bowl is a one-of-a-kind activity that will immediately win over your student. News Bowl is the ONLY current events weekly quiz game in the education market that incorporates important weekly news and the fun not-so-serious events of the day. News Bowl questions integrate history, geography, language skills, critical thinking skills and cooperative learning skills. News Bowl is fun enrichment that promotes life-long learning education. Check out a free sample News Bowl game at the top of the page. Gr 3-12 (Y, M, O, T)
KinderSay - Kindersay is a free online video website designed to help preschool kids & English as Second Language (ESL) children learn English words. Over 500 online activities are available in a special Word Show format. One of the neatest features of this site is the ability to upload images and use those in your customized activities. Your kids will love a picture of Grandma on the G page for alphabet activities, or Mommy on the M page. The customized features do require registration but it is free. (Y)
Pokemon Learning League - Standards Based Interactive Animated Lessons. Free 30 days trial. All with a Pokemon appeal in Math Science, Life Skills and Language Arts. Grades 3-5 (Y)
Apples 4 the teacher - A Fun Educational Website for Teachers and Kids. Online Games and Resources for Toddlers, Preschoolers, Kindergarten, and Elementary Students. Kid Safe Teacher Created Primary Website with Homeschooling Activities. (Y, M, O, T)
Super Teacher Worksheets - Free, Printable Worksheets (Y, M, O, T)
Prince Caspian Educator's Poster, Guide and Student Activities - Activities in this poster allow students to explore the worlds of Narnia and England as well as the characters in Narnia. This poster includes a student essay contest about "who is your Dr. Cornelius." Grades 4 and up (M, O, T)
Hotchalk.com - HotChalk is a learning environment for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes a learning management system (LMS), a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment. Available through any Internet browser, the HotChalk Learning Environment is an easy to use system and brings teachers, students and parents together to improve education. (Y, M, O, T)