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