Reading
Reading Rockets - Reading Rockets offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in working with struggling readers who require additional help in reading fundamentals and comprehension skills development. Reading Rockets is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. (Y, T)
The Exquisite Corpse Adventure - Our "Exquisite Corpse Adventure" works this way: Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, has written the first episode, which is "pieced together out of so many parts that it is not possible to describe them all here, so go ahead and just start reading!" He has passed it on to a cast of celebrated writers and illustrators, who must eventually bring the story to an end. Every two weeks, there will be a new episode and a new illustration. The story will conclude a year from now. If you sign up here (hyperlink to LC's email messages page), and click on "Exquisite Corpse Adventure," you can get an e-mail whenever a new episode appears. "This story starts with a train rushing through the night...." No one knows where or how it will end! (Y, M)
Dolch Word Flash Cards - The Dolch words are the 220 most frequently found words. Students who learn these words have a good base for beginning reading. Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding rules. These words must be learned as sight words. (Y)
Starfall.com - Inspire a love of reading and writing. Parents use Starfall to prepare their children for school, and to support them once they are there. Starfall is an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children. Primarily designed for first grade, Starfall is also useful for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and second grade. Starfall is perfect for home schooling. PreK-Grade 1. (Y)
Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park - Pinson Mounds, one of two state archaeological parks, is a special park, set aside to protect the prehistoric remains found there. Managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's Division of State Parks, the Pinson Mounds grouping consists of at least 15 earthen mounds, a geometic enclosure, habitation areas and related earthworks in an area that incorporates almost 1,200 acres. Pinson Mounds is a national historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Y, M, O, T)
Farny State Park - This forested wilderness connects watershed lands and is crossed by an old logging road. Streams, mixed oak-hardwood forest and swamps comprise the park. Trail entry is through the Farny Natural Area. Split Rock Reservoir is adjacent to the park (Y, M, O, T)
Literactive - Literactive was devised and developed by a professional team of educators and technical developers to help early learners develop their reading and comprehension skills through a carefully balanced and progressive reading program. It includes resources for both early readers and ESL students. The site is large with many sections. Each section is a set of Flash activities/interactive lessons that can be worked through. Free registration is required and minimal information is gathered. (Y)
Book Adventure - Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes. Book Adventure was created by and is maintained by Sylvan Learning. (Y, M)
Just One More Book - This website with a podcast is was create by the authors to tell "about the children's books we love and why we love them, recorded in our favorite coffee shop". Through this podcast and website, the site is building a lively, interactive community linking children's book authors, illustrators, readers (parents, children, librarians, teachers and literacy activists) and publishers. Busy parents and educators can now discover great read-aloud children's books while they are busy doing the many tasks that would otherwise rob them of the opportunity to research great children's books in more traditional ways. (Y, M, O, T)
Homeschooling Together - one family's attempt to make finding books and curriculum a lot easier for homeschoolers. They have categorized thousands of books, and for each book they display or link to reviews and prices from around the web and make it easy for you to check the book's availability in your local library (just follow the link on the book page and enter your zip code). The best feature of this site is the reviews by real people who have used the resources. The items are not limited to just curriculum, but also include topical books to supplement a subject. Free registration allows users to submit their own reviews. (Y, M, O, T)
Soaring Through Our Solar System - Reading Comprehension worksheets for solar system unit. (Grades 2-4) (Y)
Seussville - All things Seuss. A recipe for Green Eggs and Ham, Click & Play games, and Print and Play Activities. (Y)
Read to Feed free educator resource packet - Read to Feed is about global education, awareness, and action! Children are motivated to read books so they can help impoverished people around the world. Read to Feed has many flexible, interconnected components for educators. (T)
Book-It Reading Incentive Program - Pizza Hut's reading incentive program is now enrolling for the 2005/2006 school year. When a child meets a monthly reading goal, the teacher gives him or her a Pizza Award Certificate. Grades K-6 (Y)
DebFourBlocks - The Four-Blocks framework --- Guided Reading, Self-Selected Reading, Writing, and Working with Words--- represent four different approaches to teaching children to read. Daily instruction in all Four Blocks provides numerous and varied opportunities for all children to learn to read and write. Doing all four blocks acknowledges that children do not all learn in the same way and provides substantial instruction to support whatever learning personality a child has. (T)
Bembo's Zoo - Although not strictly educational, this site elicited a "That's cool!" the first time I saw it. It is a simple Flash application using the alphabet and zoo animals, but young children will love it. Each letter of the alphabet, when clicked, gives the name of an animal. The letters in the name then are rotated and resized into a picture of the animal. Very cool use of Flash! (Y)
The Paperback Swap - The source for free paperback books! "We are a group of real people who have formed a Club to swap paperback books with each other. No gimmicks. No spam. No advertising. No kidding... When another member requests one of your books, you mail it to them. (Y, M, O, T)
A Book In Time - Timeline of Historical Fiction and Nonfiction - 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, which are listed by time period. (Y, M, O, T)
1000 Good Books - Gear up for great summer reads with this list (separated by age and category) from Classical Christian Homeschooling. "This 1000 Good Books List is by no means exhaustive. It is a listing of the books that 25 homeschooling mothers have come up with over the course of a year’s time through discussions of criteria to use in choosing a good book, and many other discussions about individual titles to include or exclude. (Y, M, O, T)
Educational Software - Help your child learn with games, software and educational activities from Owl & Mouse Educational Software. Early reading software—phonics software, alphabet games, and Dolch sight words in a fairy tale story. All of it FREE! Free online USA maps, world maps, map of Europe, map puzzles of the US, Europe, Africa, Asia, and many more. You can build your own castle and coat of arms—free downloads. (T)
BBC Education - Online games and activities for phonics (Y)
iKnowthat.com - Online phonics activities and games (Y)
Saxon online phonics activities - (Y)
Alphabet Sounds Lotto - Alphabet Lotto is a free printout for beginning readers. Similar to BINGO, it has a caller who calls out phonics sounds which the players must find. The first person to cover the middle and all four corners or any five in a row is the winner. (Y)
Book Adventure - For each book that your child reads, they look that book up in the Book Adventure database. Based on the reading level of a book, the site presents the child with a short quiz on the content of the book. As the child takes the quizzes they earn points and prizes for their literary successes. (Y, M, O, T)
Reading Comprehension - From rhlschool.com; free online worksheets to re-enforce comprehension (M) (M)
Rebus Rhymes - From Enchanted Learning; designed for children who are learning how to read; Preschoolers and Kindergartners enjoy picking out the words they can read in their favorite nursery rhymes (Y)
Just for kids who love books - Alan Brown, a Canadian librarian, hosts this site that can save you time if you want to find the home of many popular series books. There are also places to submit reviews and stories. (Y, M, O, T)
Word Walls - Find out what a word wall is, as well as how to create and use one (T) (T)