Scholastic Study Jams

This site -Scholastic Study Jams - has over 200 study jams on different topics. It has  math and science topics. Each one has a video, possibly a song and a test that goes with it. I think it is an excellent way to introduce a topic or review work. I highly recommend it.

Math Games - SumDog

Sumdog.com is a great site for students to practice their math facts. From their website, we read, "All of Sumdog's games are free to use at home or in school (why is this?). Each one covers 100 numeracy topics across 10 levels, and most are multiplayer - letting you play with other students around the world.
Students can sign up free to customise their profile picture and track their individual progress.
Teachers can sign up free to set up their school, create free student logins, see students' activity in the last week, and set up multiplication competitions."
It does appear that if you don't pay for the service, you can setup your whole class, print out cards for them to access their accounts and see how many problems they solve, but they can not compete within the class. I actually think that is good as I don't really need for my students to be more competitive with each other, I do want them to be more focused on improving their own skills. The level of skill is easily set by the player. I think that the students will choose to play this.
I recommend you looking into this.

Laura Jernegan: Girl on a Whaleship

 Laura Jernegan: Girl on a Whaleship
This site, http://www.girlonawhaleship.org/ is a beautifully crafted site. It would be great for anyone just interested in a good read, learning about artifacts, or information on whales. A six year old girl in 1868 travelled on a whaling ship with her dad. Her journal was discovered and is photographed and placed on the site. You can read the journal or have it read to you. It has maps about where she travelled, where whales migrate and diagrams of the ship she travelled on. You have to experience this beautiful site to understand how much there is here. I can visualize it being used in a science class about migrations, a history class learning about the importance of artifacts and having primary sources to study. I can see how you might use this site in a class about journalling. I couldn't believe how wonderfully this six year old girl could write!

How Big Really?

This BBC site is awesome. I plan on showing it to my students soon, to have them really appreciate the scale of historical and scientific events. The site says to type in your zip code, but it is even better if you type in your whole address. Then you choose the event. Want to see how big the Egyptian pyramids really are? Center them on your home address and you can see how much area they would occupy. How big was the oil spill? How far did Hannibal actually march?
I love this site and think your students will get a new understanding of events, both current and past. Also, to see how big the moon actually is compared to an area they understand - very interesting.
http://howbigreally.com/

Progressive Phonics

I wish I had found this site this summer. It has a series of books to print to use with beginning readers. They are meant to be read with a parent or teacher. The books have words that the students read and words the adult reads.  You do have to be registered to download the books, but you can see them on line. It seems to have a great progression. Certainly a good tool to be able to give to parents to supplement your phonics program! http://www.progressivephonics.com/~suzettew/

National Geographic Gems

I have been watching the National Geographic sites and think that they are worth mentioning here. The National Geographic Young Explorer is on line and the students can either read the magazine or they can have it read tot hem. It is a wonderful place with beautiful pictures and text. It is geared to the kindergarten and first grade reader. It really looks like a magazine. It would be wonderful to be displayed on the Smartboard in your room!
The website for older elementary students, National Geographic Explorer, is more like a website with games, ecards and articles. It is a beautiful place as well. It comes in the Pioneer and the Pathfinder edition, similar content, different size text and vocabulary. There is also a nice Teacher's Guide that goes with each issue, that offers worksheets and ideas for discussion. There is a National Geographic Extreme Explorer that is for middle school students that might be having some struggles with reading. By clicking here, you can see the digital edition of Extreme Explorer that goes along with the website.
National Geographic has a web just for educators that puts many of these tools and links in one place.
One more site, but not from National Geographic - but you will see how it fits with these. BBC has a great video magazine that is called BBC Earth. Each month they feature a beautiful montage that shows animals and the earth. It would be a great writing prompt!

Just for fun

I have found this site that will make a personalized envelope using Google Earth. I am not sure of how you would use it in school, but it is too clever to not make a note of it.
http://www.mapenvelope.com/

Math Site for Practice and Assessment

I have notified my teachers of this website, but I think it is worthwhile to write about it here as well.
http://xtramath.org/ is a free website for parents, teachers and students. Accounts are created that will give the students personalized drills for their math problems. I am hoping that each student in my school will have an account. Once they sign in, a list of pin numbers is generated for the teacher to have so they can assist the child in signing on. The grade levels are from K - 12 on the website. It is a real find.

Simulation History Game

Mission US

This site is still in beta, but it should be up and running by the end of September. It is an amazing site. It has simulation games that teach American history. If you register as a teacher, you can log the progress of your students. It has primary resources in the game and many other teacher resources. The first one takes you to Boston in the 1770s. The game can be downloaded to the computer so it will play quicker than on the web, but it only can be downloaded for Windows or Macs. If you are in a school that uses Linux, you will want to play it on the web. It looks wonderful. I am anxious to see what other areas of history they are going to feature. The site is done by Public Television, Channel 13. It is geared to Grades 5-8.
http://www.mission-us.org/

Using Tech to do fun Book Reports

There is a website called Digital Booktalk. The premise of this site is that teachers and students make trailers for books that they have read. Instead of a book report, maybe this would be a great book project for your students. All ages could use this, but I am visualizing that our fourth through sixth graders would have the most success with this. If you don't want to make the book trailer, but want to use one to increase interest for students to read the book, this is also a good site.
It is certainly worth checking out! Digital Booktalk
http://digitalbooktalk.com/

Interactive Simulations - Math and Science

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/index
Clicking on the above link will take you to a page with many different simulations. They are all relatively small programs that can be downloaded to your computer. You do not have to have access to the computer to run them although you can choose to just use them from the web. Magnetism, electricity and math are a few of the subjects that are covered. There are over 80 different sims and you owe it to yourself to check them out. They are great for exploration or review of topics.

Meegenius

I have just found this website, www.meegenius.com. 
If you register, you can personalize well known fairy tales for students to read. You can then mail the finished book to someone else. The books come with audio playback and word highlighting, so beginning readers can read along with the finished story. A great way for students to get involved in reading. Do take the time to check this out. It would be great to use with a white board in your classroom! I know I am using this site. It seems to be all free!

Origami Hang Gliders - Science Toy Maker

I have just finished working on origami with my students and the fifth and sixth graders have just finished a unit on flight and made rockets. I am going to suggest that they look into making these origami hang gliders. It sounds great. I haven't made any yet, but hope to this summer. This web site, http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/hangGlider/index.htm has directions to build and surf your hang glider. It looks fantastic.
This Science Toy Maker site looks like a real find. All projects use very cheap materials and there seems to be a lot of science explanations about why they work. Maybe this summer, you could spend some time looking at this site.

www.sciencetoymaker.org

Sheppard Software

This is a company that sells software, but they have a LOT of great games for kids that are free. I was amazed at how many different subjects were covered. http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/

There are great punctuation games, math games and science. It is not just for early learners. Do spend some time checking this out!

Teachers' Domain

This site is a wonderful resource for teachers. It is a library of resources that have been developed by public television. It is an easy search. It does ask that you create an account to use the resources. I was able to download most of them for off line use. Teachers’ Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. Once you register, you can personalize the site using “My Folders” and “My Groups” to save your favorite resources into a folder and share them with your colleagues or students.
Teacher's Domain - http://www.teachersdomain.org/about.html

Tagxedo - a new type of Word Cloud or Wordle

Tagxedo is a variation of Wordle. The one nice part about it is that you can do many more variations than you can in other word cloud programs. Well, this is a picture of the first page of Ferrisburgh School Website. I have to say it is really fun to play with and would make nice posters or cards.

ARKive! - world's species of animals

This is a beautiful site that has videos and pictures of endangered animals. http://www.arkive.org/

There are very clever photos and information about animals that are endangered - a great place for students to start their reports.

Alternative to Wordle

Word it Out is a good alternative to Wordle. It has a bit more customization features and seems to have a bit of a censor built into what is displayed. Wordle is not really as kid friendly.
http://worditout.com/

KS2 Bitesize Science

This is a great site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/ This BBC site has lots of science, English and math interactive pieces that can be embedded in your webpages or just used on a computer. You do need to have Flash installed on your computer. I have found that even if I have Flash installed, sometimes a few of the interactives don't work right away. I really recommend that you spend some time looking at this site.

Field Trip - Virtual Forest

This is a beautiful website that allows students to "walk" through a virtual forest in Finland. As you go on this trip, you learn about how to keep forests sustainable. You will hear the sounds and see a lot of information about forests. I recommend it highly.
UPM Forest Life For those of you that are reading this in email, the address is http://w3.upm-kymmene.com/upm/forestlife/index.html

Math Snacks - Videos to teach Math Concepts

This great site from NM State has videos that can be seen online or games that can be downloaded to the students' Ipods.
"Math Snacks are short animations and mini–games designed to help learners "get it". Each snack presents a mathematical concept, particularly those addressed in grades 6, 7 and 8. Ideal for use in a classroom or on your own, they can even be placed on mobile devices for "homework". The accompanying print materials can assist learners in applying their conceptual understanding to math problems." The website is http://www.mathsnacks.org/
The site shows how to do ratios, scale and proportions and equality. I think that the for some students, this would be a very cool way to learn a new math concept. 

Classroom Blogs

I haven't set this up yet, but it appears to be a great place for students to blog without having to have email addresses. If anyone at my school is interested, I would set up a blog for their students for them. It certainly appears to be an easy setup and the price is right. There aren't any ads and teachers can require that posts be approved before they are posted. I would certainly recommend that you put that feature on if you are using it with students. The name of the site is http://kidblog.org/.
Let me know if you decide to try this.