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The ABC's of Using the Internet
in Grades 4-6

Compiled by Julie Coiro, Software and Curriculum Specialist

A
Almanac from Yahooligans Kids:  Access great maps, statistics, and almanac type facts through this page designed for kids.     http://www.yahooligans.com/content/ka/index.html

American Memory  Original documents, maps, photographs, sound recordings and more from American history.  Features a collection finder, search engine, learning activities that build on information literacy skills and "today in history".    http://rs6.loc.gov/

Ancient Egypt Webquest for Kids:  Learn about Ancient Egyptian daily life, Egyptian mummies, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, King Tut (Tutankhamen), Egyptian games, and Archeology in this excellent webquest for elementary and middle school students. http://users.massed.net/~mdurant/AncientEgyptWebquest.htm

Aeronautics Interactive Textbook for Kids  Activities, lesson plans, interactive textbook on two levels and more feature information about air, space and flight.  http://wings.ucdavis.edu/

B
Bonus.com  Kids' supersite that offers a protected "playground" of internet content, featuring hundreds of games, puzzles and other activities.  Play interactive games and imaginative activities, use online coloring books and explore worlds of information.   http://www.bonus.com/
C
Candlelight Stories Index  Many activities related to books like reading book reviews, viewing interactive picture books and animation, hear free audio-books of many classics,   http://www.candlelightstories.com/index.asp

Classroom Webpages: Great examples of student created work

CyberSurfari:  World-wide Internet Treasure Hunt contest with three sessions each year.  Mission is to promote use of valuable, safe and legitimate Internet resources for entertainment and learning value.  http://www.cybersurfari.org/
D
Digital Magazine: Midlink This is an award winning digital magazine for kids ages 8-18.  Your students can read about or submit examples of exemplary work that demonstrate the use of technology with a focus on academics.   Some great opportunities for authentic writing, research and collaboration.  http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/

Discovery Channel School Online  Games and adventure units, a science fair studio, homework help and lesson plans galore. Try the online puzzlemaker, find some great school related clip art or access Discovery Channel Teacher Guides too.  http://school.discovery.com/

Discovery Kids  Incredibale, online interactive adventures handpicked by each individual child depending on self-described interests and hobbies.  http://www.discoverykids.com/KIDS/
 
 

E
Earth and Space Science from Athena  Enchance your science curriculum with engaging projects that involve students in using data to construct knowledge about space, weather, earth, oceans and more. http://www.athena.ivv.nasa.gov/

Enchanted Learning  Very kid friendly and always updated with new information, this has an awesome online dictionary/encyclopedia, incredible thematic "Zoom Units" and great diagrams for kids of all ages.  This is a must see.  Can also access through Zoom School  http://www.enchantedlearning.com/

Encyclopedias Online

Encarta Learning Zone  http://encarta.msn.com/default.asp
World Book Online: ($fee) http://www.worldbookonline.com/
and World Book Encyclopedia  http://www.worldbook.com/
Let's Find Out Knowledge Adventure  http://www.letsfindout.com/
Funk and Wagnalls (part of LycosZone)
Exploratorium Learning Studio from San Francisco: Build, explore, compare and interact with just about anything related to science.  Includes popular archive of ten cool science, art and education sites every month.  http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/index.html
F
Fifty States and Capitals  Not the most thought-provoking site without a little expansion from a teacher, but a simple way to access facts and links about each states in the United States.  http://www.50states.com/
For up-to-date facts and maps on any location in the world, check out the huge CIA World Factbook.  http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

Flags From Around the World Your one-stop connection to great images of any country's flag, coloring book pages to print out and color plus information about each flag's design and history.   http://www.fotw.net/flags/

Fourth and Fifth Grade Class Web Resources: This classroom collection was so good I just had to include it.  A wealth of resources for students and teachers.  http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Tower/1217/

FunBrain.com  Games for Kids plus lots of classroom managment tools  Some example links are listed below:  http://www.funbrain.com/

G
Geography World Games includes, among many more, National Geographic Geo Bee Challenge and Discovery Channel Geo Game as well as a link back to the Geography World homepage of related resources. http://hometown.aol.com/bowermanb/games.html

Global Grocery List Project  Students from around the world share local grocery prices to build a growing table of data to be used in social studies, science, health, mathematics, and other disciplines. http://landmark-project.com/ggl/
 
 

H
Headbone Zone   These Internet research contests are packed with puzzles your class will solve by finding information online! Your students learn Internet research skills while investigating topics such as technology, history, and more.   http://www.headbone.com/education/

Homework Helper by B.J. Pinchbeck  Not just for elementary school students, but you'll be able to access sites that may enhance certain units, help keep your brighter students challenged, or help you brush up on your own knowledge on certain topics.   http://www.bjpinchbeck.com/

How Stuff Works  Created by author Marshall Brain and designed to help students understand complex ideas about how many things work, from sports to engines to electronics to food and much more.   http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm
 
 

I
International Kids' Space  Kids' Space was created to foster literacy, artistic expression, and cross-cultural understanding among the world's children.   cool stories, a place that helps children world wide explore and communicate with new technologies.   http://www.kids-space.org/

Inventors Home Page from About.com  http://inventors.miningco.com/science/inventors/

J
Just for teachers... link to the list at the bottom of this page
K
Kids Zone of AFRO-America  A place to learn more about cultural games, myths & fables, lots of brain teasers and facts about African countries.  http://www.afroam.org/children/children.html

KIDS: Kids Identifying and Discovering Sites  Participate in this ongoing, cooperative effort of classrooms in which students, under the supervision of teachers, discover, evaluate, and review useful curricular-related Internet resources. Students develop their research and evaluation skills and help produce an authentic, important project for other students and their teachers.
http://kids.library.wisc.edu/

L
Language Games Literature CyberGuides Many good and some great internet-based activities for students related to popular literature titles on most classroom reading lists.  http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/cyberguide.html
M
MATH:
Math Webquests    Webquests related to geometry, cost analysis, advertising, art, investing and physics designed for fourth grade students and older.   http://www.nhptv.org/kn/vs/mathla15.sht

Mathematics Lessons  Extremely well-designed lessons covering difficult math concepts http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Lessons/

Mega Math: A unique look at various math concepts related to knots, algorithms, machines, graphs and daily life;  Facts and interactive activities are included for each.   Use the text links, not the large image. http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~casey931/mega-math/menu.html

MAPS:
Maps and Globes  Read and then take on online quiz about various basic concepts concerning maps and globes including Earth, water forms, land forms, climate, time and different types of maps.
http://pittsford.monroe.edu/Schools/Jefferson/Maps&Globes/MapsGlobesFrame.html

Maps by Yahooligans  Quick and easy connection to country maps, historical maps, regional maps, world maps and information about Map Making. http://www.yahooligans.com/School_Bell/Social_Studies/Geography/Maps/

MaMa Media  Join the new craze among kids!  Explore digital tools, handpicked websites, over 100 interactive games, and a new learning section designed for teachers and parents. http://www.mamamedia.com/

Music Library of Online Video Tutorials http://www.danmansmusic.com/members/main.htm

N
National Geographic Kids:  Features amazing facts, cartoons, family expeditions, and many interactive activities each month.  Many archives of articles and online surveys in very readable text about animals, space, and other science concepts. Also home of online companion website to National Geographic's World Magazine for Kids. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/index.html

New York Times Learning Network  Designed for Grades 3 and up, it includes news summaries, a daily quiz, science questions, student letters to the editor, a crossword puzzle, ask a reporter and lesson plan archive. Articles contain links to vocabulary and geography "knowledge tools" to build background while reading.  http://www.nytimes.com/learning/
 
 

O
Oodles of Lesson Plans
  • AskEric Lesson Plans Over 1,000 lesson plans, many not using the computer http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/
  • Classroom Connect: One of the most well known resources for teachers using the Internet. Includes links to Classroom Today (weekly themed activities) and Connected Teachers (lessons, discussion groups) http://www.classroom.net/home.asp
  • Gateway to Educational Materials The entrance toa huge database of thousands of lessons, sponsored by AskEric. http://www.thegateway.org/
  • Scholastic.com   Hundreds of excellent and always changing Web-based curriculum projects and activities to use with students. http://teacher.scholastic.com/index.htm
  • Weekly Lesson Plans from Online Educator: New interactive lessons on one theme generated every week which includes numerous links to the Internet http://www.learnersonline.com/lessons/lessonindex.htm
P
Plants and Our Environment  ThinkquestJr. project by fourth graders designed to teach students about the different parts of plants and how plants grow. http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/3715/

Probability Project:  Take A Chance  A series of inquiry-based activities that helps students in grades five and up understand and apply the principles of probability.  http://www.levering.k12.pa.us/WWW/probability/

Presidents of America with Grolier Online  The reading is a little harder, but this well-organized site includes bios on every president, the first ladies, vice presidents, and all subjects related to the presidency, as well as a 25 question online quiz.  http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/ea_toc.html

Presidential Election 2000 News  http://teacher.scholastic.com/newszone/specialreport/updates/index.asp
Q
Quia  You or your students can easily make or take your own online quizzes as well as access quizzes designed by other teachers and students in many, many categories.   http:///www.quia.com

Quiz Star 2000 Excellent place for well-designed quizzes for sixth grade topics in science, math and geography.  Available to take online or download for later use off-line.  http://www.aquiz.com/page6.html

Question of the Day / Week:

  • Guided Classroom Inquiry: Have children drop questions into a box(relate to one theme if you want); pull one once a week; search and explore together and record findings to compile into a class book of Things We Learning Using the Internet
  • Math Problem of the Week  http://forum.swarthmore.edu/pow/

  • also 5/6 Finch Class List http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/~jfinch/math.html
  • Word of the Day from Merrium Webster   http://www.wordcentral.com/
  • Today in History: Those Were the Days  http://www.440int.com/twtd/today.html
R
Rader's Terrarum  Very informative and readable site for kids about energy, the sky, land, water, earth, and climate.  http://www.kapili.com/terrarum/

Rainforest Workshop  Visit this virtual tropical or temperate rainforest created and maintained by sixth 6th and 7th graders.  http://kids.osd.wednet.edu/Marshall/rainforest_home_page.html

Reference for Kids at Lycoszone  One stop site for kids almanac, encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, animal locater, and online library http//www.lycoszone.com/

S
Scholastic Newszone  A friendly, interactive means of enriching the Scholastic weekly flyers that many teachers already subscribe to for students.  Lots of fun if you don't have access to the offline texts too! http://teacher.scholastic.com/newszone/index.asp

SearchEngines for Kids:  This webpage was created by Julie Coiro in an attempt to provide a one-stop source of links to the best search engines for kids as well as an explanation of how they work.  You can quickly link to the big index page on the Internet too.    http://www.learn.k12.ct.us/julie/kidsearch.htm

Sound Waves for Kids to Use at The WavPlace.com: The coolest place for easily downloading well organized categories of great sound clips. Just play them, then copy and paste into your own documents. http://www.wavplace.com/sounds.htm

Space Place  Spacey things to make, explore, learn about and ask others.
http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/spacepl.htm

Study Web Search for articles and find on appropriate reading level. http://www.studyweb.com/

T
Tom Snyder Productions Online  Creator of great software for students.  Purchase products online, order preview copies to use with students, or access free online challenges.  http://www.teachtsp.com/classroom/index.asp
Thinkquest http://www.thinkquest.org Winners Library   http://www.thinkquest.org/php/lib/winners.php3
Explorers Hall of Fame   http://tqjunior.advanced.org/4034/index.html
Online Math Applications  http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/4116/
Animals of the Arctic  http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/3500/
Architecture Through the Ages  http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/3786/index.html#Ancient
Real Truth About Fast Food and Fiction  http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/4485/
U
Universe Exploration with StarChild  http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html
V
Virtual Science Activities at Franklin Institute Online    Online Learning Resources and much more from the museum   http://www.fi.edu/learning.html

Virtual Museum Tours and Activities for Kids Click on "Cool Stuff for Kids" or "Links for Teachers" from the top menu bar.   http://www.karmaclicks.com/

W
Webquests: The famous WebQuest, orignially designed by Bernie Dodge, has many online projects for students of all ages. Link to Julie's collection http://www.learn.k12.ct.us/julie/webqstindx.htm  and Tom March's website created for Teachers using Weq-Based Learning in their classroom

Weather at Dan's Wild Weather Page Created for kids by an Atlanta-based meteorologist.  Features A-Z weather index and tips for teachers.  http://www.whnt19.com/kidwx/index.html

Weather or Not!  Try your hand at using satellite images to predict the weather for tomorrow or next week. Really designed for high school students, but it's pretty neat, if you've got some future meteorologists.  http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/weathernot/weathernot.html

Westward Ho!  (possibly another journey next year?)  http://www.internet-catalyst.org/projects/WWHO/wwho.html

World Village  Faimly Oriented Search Engine  http://www.worldvillage.com/

X
Pitsco's Ask An eXpert   http://askanexpert.com
Y
Yahooligans:  useful teaching tools from the popular kids search engine
What's New index  http://www.yahooligans.com/new/index.html  and
Teacher's Guide http://www.yahooligans.com/tg/index.html
Almanac http://www.yahooligans.com/content/ka/
News  http://www.yahooligans.com/content/news/
Yuckiest Site on the Internet For all those kids who love bugs, science, or really gross things, they'll really love this site! http://www.yucky.com/
Z
Zoo Animal Picture Archive Includes an easy search engine and a link to the Electronic Zoo Animal Image Collection. Just type in any kind of animal you can think of and immediately have access to beautiful up-close, full color photographs that your students can view. http://www.best5.net/animal/

Zoo Animals and more Encyclopedia Sponsored by the Lycos search engine, this great animal database searches by index, habitats, continents and classes. http://versaware.animalszone.lycos.com/
 
 
 

Just for Teachers:
Clip Art.com:  This is an indexed site of clip art websites, but using ArtToday's search engine on the left hand side will give you access to some great clip art quickly.  http://www.clipart.com

Copyright Issues from Landmark: Information about copyright, fair use policies for teachers and citing internet resources; two helpful areas are copyright links and  permission templates for teachers and students   http://www.landmark-project.com/d2.html

Dogpile Search Engine for TEACHERS: Use this meta-search engine with quotation marks around phrases and plus signs in between phrases to locate just about anything.  http://www.dogpile.com

Global Schoolhouse Collaborative Projects Home of many popular online expeditions, huge project registry, and features like Newsday and CyberFair.

Index to Children's Authors and Illustrators: An extensive list of links to author and illustrator homepages, teaching units and biographies, listed in alphabetical order. http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/biochildhome.htm

Lightspan.com   Online education portal for teachers, parents and students.  Also ncludes website maker YourClass Online, Study Web and LearningPlanet.  http://www.lightspan.com

SCORE Content Resources http://www.score.k12.ca.us/especially  Literature CyberGuides http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/cyberguide.html

TrackStar   http://scrtec.org/track/  HOME   http://trackstar.scrtec.org/

Useful Classroom Tools for Teachers  Access some time saving, really cool tools indexed at Julie Coiro's web page http://www.learn.k12.ct.us/julie/onlinetools.htm

Weather Channel for Educators  http://www.weather.com/education/index.html

Weather at NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  http://www.noaa.gov/

Why Files for Science Teachers  Science facts that focus on current news articles, cool science images,  http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/
 

See also Julie's ABC Links for Grades PreK-3

back to Julie's resources