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.