Free Internet Resources for Elementary Teachers
JOSTI 2014
Bill Reeder, Jenna Reeder, and Diana Ree-Reeder
Fairfax County Public Schools
Reading and Language Arts
Storyline Online
http://storylineonline.net
The Screen Actors Guild Foundation brings you Storyline Online, an on-line streaming
video program featuring SAG members reading children’s books aloud. Each book
includes accompanying activities and lesson ideas. An awesome site!
Children's Storybooks Online
http://www.magickeys.com/books/
This web site has children's books that are interactive for students of all ages. There are
also “click” books that you can click on and hear the story.
Starfall
http://www.starfall.com
This site explores phonemic awareness skills, common sound-spelling relationships in
words, to use interesting stories to develop vocabulary and language comprehension.
GameGoo
www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
This site has engaging and interactive online games that explore different levels of
auditory skills.
ABCYA
http://www.abcya.com/
This website offers free educational computer games for student and teacher use.
Lessons are searchable by grade level and incorporate areas such as math and language
arts while introducing basic computer skills.
Vocabulary and Spelling City
www.spellingcity.com
Over 42,000 spelling words with customizable sentences, definitions, and review
Quizlet
http://quizlet.com
Sign up for a free educator account and upload your own vocabulary units for students to
review using online flashcards and games.
Wacky Web Tales
http://www.eduplace.com/tales
Everyone loves Mad Libs! This site provides students with opportunities to practice
grammar. Numerous activities require students to fill-in the blanks to create and
personalize their own webpage.
Children’s Poetry Archive
http://childrenspoetryarchive.org/
This is a large collection of poems with many poets reading their own work. We’ve linked
to the Children's Archive, which has poems for younger students.
Math
Pitara Kids Network: Math Activities
http://www.pitara.com/activities/math/
This site has kindergarten through 2nd grade math games, lessons and flash cards for all
of the basic four operations. There are also other activities available for different subject
areas!
Fun Brain
http://www.funbrain.com
This site has a variety of math games and activities for students, as well as teacher and
parent resources for various age levels and subjects.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/
This site contains uniquely interactive, web-based virtual manipulatives or concept tutorials
for mathematics instruction.
WebMath
http://www.webmath.com
This is a math-help website that generates answers to specific math questions and offers
lesson plans and puzzle-making resources for teachers.
National Center for Education Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/
This site allows kids to practice their math skills through games, quizzes and interactive
tools about probability and graphing. It can also be used to find statistics for comparisons.
Interactivate
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/byAudience/
Find various interactive web tools to demonstrate mathematical concepts. Activities start at
a 3rd grade level.
Illuminations
http://illuminations.nctm.org/
This website has a variety of lesson plans and interactive math tools. You can search by
standard (NCTM or Common Core), grade level and math skill strand.
Aplusmath
http://www.aplusmath.com
This website allows you to make custom math worksheets, both print and digital, that
cover the topics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, geometry and
algebra. You can also access games and flashcards.
Science
National Geographic Creature Feature
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature
Everything about animals in an interactive and easily searchable format
OLogy from the American Museum of Natural History
http://www.amnh.org/explore/ology
So much content! If it’s at the American Museum of Natural History, it’s presented in an
interactive format on their website.
Windows to the Universe from the National Earth Science Teachers Association
http://www.windows2universe.org
This site is available in both English and Spanish and is rich in content.
Museum of Science and Industry: Simple Machines
http://www.msichicago.org/fileadmin/Activities/Games/simple_machines/
This website allows students to learn about using simple machines through an interactive
Adventure.
Science Net Links
http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/
This website allows teachers to search for science and math lessons, activities and tools
by grade level and subject K-12.
Jefferson Labs
http://education.jlab.org/index.html
This website has teacher lesson plans, worksheets and other resources, a student
learning area and games and quizzes.
Social Studies
BBC History: Interactives, Games and Virtual Tours
www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive A comprehensive history site filled with many interactive
resources. Don’t miss the game section where you can do things like become a gladiator.
Lots of fun!
Time for Kids
http://www.timeforkids.com
Sponsored by Time magazine, this site has current event articles written for younger
students and by student reporters.
Lesson Plans and Study Resources
Goodwill Community Foundation Free Learning
http://www.Gcflearnfree.org
This website has tutorials for a variety of software programs, interactive activities for many
when am I going to use this in real life situations and other academic skills.
Discovery Education’s Lesson Plan Library
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans
An amazing amount of online curriculum content formatted as lesson plans. Also see
these sites recently highlighted in the February Educational Leadership magazine:
TeachersFirst.com
http://www.teachersfirst.com/index.php
TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save
teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free
format.
Teaching Channel
https://www.teachingchannel.org/
The Teaching Channel offers lesson ideas and teaching practice in short video form, so
you can hear the teacher talk about the method and also see it implemented. You can
search by grade level and subject, and each video includes a lesson objective and focus
questions to consider.
Keyboarding
Dance Mat Typing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/
Meet the gang and learn to type in these interactive lessons. Activities can be done using
the Flash or non-Flash version and the British accented lessons are fun follow along!
Sense-Lang
http://sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/keyboarding.php
This website has free typing lessons in the traditional ten finger, home row manner as well
as an option for students to practice typing with their own text or the BBC news feed.
There are also typing games available as well.
Project and Presentation Tools for Teachers and Students
Sparklebox
http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/usa/
Sparklebox offers thousands of free printables and teaching aids for preschool and
elementary teachers
Prezi
http://prezi.com
An online presentation tool that allows users to work on a virtual draftboard to create
"zooming" presentations or to access thousands of Prezis already created for classroom
Dipity
http://www.dipity.com
So easy to use! Create an interactive, visually engaging timeline in minutes. Use dynamic
visualization tools to display photos, videos, news, and blogs in chronological order.
Teacher Tools and Resources
Time Me
http://www.timeme.com/
This is a virtual timer tool that counts up or counts down using various time formats, with or
without alarms, in a loop or not, and in various display colors, sizes and fonts.
QR Stuff (QR code generator)
http://www.qrstuff.com/
Have a website to share? Use this source to generate a QR (quick response) code, which
allows students and colleagues to scan it with their cellphones and gain immediate access
to a website, email address, YouTube video, calendar, and more!
Tag Galaxy
http://www.taggalaxy.com/
Awesome graphic search program you don’t want to miss!