Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Amelia Earhart's birthplace and home in Atchison, Kansas has been turned into a museum to honor her accomplishments. Their website offers several resources geared toward showcasing her life and accomplishments. You can visit the link entitled Learn to read a short biography, childhood information, aviation accomplishments, and much more. Be sure to check out the Experience portion for podcasts and Trivia about her adventures. Unfortuately, the virtual tours are not free

tag(s): aviation (40), careers (156), women (151)

This site lets you keep study notes with you anywhere you go! Create flashcards and study even on your mobile phone. Share notes, flashcards, study guides, and quizzes with others for excellent collaboration. Study Blue also provides hints to help students study. Create a folder in "My Backpack." Make flashcards to get started or search flashcards already created by others.

tag(s): flash cards (44)

ABCya.com, created by a web developer turned computer teacher, provides educational games, videos, and activities for elementary students. Nearly every subject is included. Simply click on your grade level (K-5) and find what is available under language arts, math, and other subjects. Specific topics range from basic typing activities to creating word clouds to grammar games (at all levels) and so much more. The interactives are teacher approved and offer colorful and attention grabbing ways for learning. Opportunities for sharing on Facebook, tweeting, and sharing on social bookmarking sites are incorporated. This is a MUST SEE site for elementary teachers looking for some great practice sites for basic skills!

tag(s): alphabet (53), decimals (85), drawing (61), fractions (160), game based learning (205), geometric shapes (134), keyboarding (28), latitude (10), literacy (122), longitude (9), number sense (69), numbers (120), operations (72), preK (270)

Use this engaging mashup of Google Street View and Google Maps to hop around the globe by randomly teleporting into a continent. Use as a spontaneous way to learn about other areas and review how to determine longitude and latitude of a location. Choose a continent to visit and click "Teleport." View the street view in the large screen and the Google Map location in the smaller one. This site gives a "taste" of the area, not a wide variety of photos.
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tag(s): continents (33), countries (73), map skills (63), maps (220)

Learn all about the Commonwealth of Massachusetts including it's historic beginnings, fun facts, and the state government at this website just for kids. The site is divided into eight categories including State House trivia through Reconstruct MA Artifacts. One especially interesting area is The Ladybug Story, the true story of how a second grade class helped to make a new law. Also, be sure to take the Massachusetts history quiz to learn about the early setters of the commonwealth. If you are looking for state facts, there is a section just for this with almost anything you would want to know from symbols all the way through to famous sons and daughters of the state. This information is also available to download as a pdf.

tag(s): american revolution (82), massachusetts (8), states (124)

This site, created by the Kennedy Center, offers a wealth of interactive lesson plans for grades K-12 dealing with a variety of topics, all with an "arts" spin. Search by subject, keyword, or grade level (K-4, 5-8, or 9-12). Some examples of topics include Native Americans, Civil War, Shakespeare, myths, melodrama, adjectives, monsters, baseball, and countless others! Be sure to check out the category "Our Best Resources Organized by Subject." After that click on the the top menu for Education and get even more resources. There are many interactive lessons: some with video, audio, or slideshows. The lessons provide an estimate of time required and complete, step-by-step instructions. There are printables included with some of the lessons.
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tag(s): african american (115), baseball (32), civil war (139), comics and cartoons (55), dance (31), folktales (34), greece (47), habitats (92), immigration (68), literature (221), mexico (37), musical instruments (52), myths and legends (37), native americans (108), painting (54), surrealism (2)

Bring the forest into your classroom with these educational interactives. Match animal tracks, learn how to use a compass, and create leaf rubbings. Download and print the "Book of Stuff To Do" outside. Find Educator Resources (including lesson plans) under Get Involved on the top menu. Sound can be turned on or off along the bottom of the site.

tag(s): animals (294), climate change (99), environment (252), forests (30), natural resources (37), wetlands (7)

The State of Connecticut offers this informative site just for kids loaded with information and facts in an easy to use format. Follow links on the home page to learn about Connecticut history, state symbols, and the state government. Follow the Connecticut government link to take a pictorial tour of the state capitol filled with facts and history of the building. Other links lead to puzzles and games such as picture puzzles of Connecticut symbols such as the state flower and bird, word searches with state words, and coloring pages with everything from aquariums to zoos. The puzzles and games still use Flash, but the information on the rest of the site is worth your student's time.

tag(s): branches of government (65), connecticut (4), states (124)

Stixie and Globie help kids learn about maps and statistics with fun interactives on this site. Each character defines basic terms and concepts about maps and statistics, then provides a short review quiz. Activities included are Paint the Map (mean and median), Farmland (working with data sets), The Network Challenge (plotting a path on a map), Market Manager (creating equal data sets), and Data to Graphics (working with bar charts, tables, and maps). The link to Resources for Parents and Teachers provides an external link to standards for Geography and Math found in the site.

tag(s): charts and graphs (171), data (151), maps (220), mean (19), median (16)

This site highlights the beautiful tropical oceans in the world. The focus is on coral reefs, ocean animals, and additional ocean links. Learn about the location of coral reefs, threats to coral reefs, and more. Take your students on an underwater adventure with this simple, yet informative website.

tag(s): coral (11), oceans (149)

This eclectic site has something for everyone about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. For younger students, be sure to meet the mascots of the site, view the interactives, and more. Students of all ages can use this site to learn about the schedule, view photos and videos, learn about each sport in the winter 2010 Olympics, trace the torch relay, view a spectator guide, meet the athletes, view the interactive map, and more.

tag(s): olympics (45), sports (82)

Find facts, play games, and learn about Michigan at this kid-friendly site. At first glance there doesn't appear to be much to the site, however; there is a great deal of information found by exploring the links on the left-hand side of the home page. Games and internet safety information are available through the links on the main portion of the home page. The history link on the left includes many interesting and unique resources such as Tweets from "A Boy at Fort Mackinac: Diary of Harold Dunbar Corbusier 1883-1884" recounts adventures of a 10-year-old boy on Mackinac Island. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) to learn what it was like to grow up on the island in the late 1800's. State symbols and facts are also available through a link on the left portion of the home page. Some information, such as the Getting to Know Michigan booklet, is available for easy printing in pdf format.

tag(s): michigan (5), states (124)

If you are looking for facts and figures about the state of Illinois, then this is the site for you! Each set of links from this page takes the user to specific categories of information such as agriculture, history, and economy. Most useful for teachers and students will be the History & Culture and State Symbols links. The History & Culture page includes a historical timeline of the state beginning in 1673 with the arrival of Louis Jolliet and Father Marquette in the state all the way through to the 2005 World Series win of the Chicago White Sox. Learn about state symbols such as the official state snack food and state amphibian while exploring the State Symbols portion of the site.

tag(s): chicago (4), illinois (6)

Learn about the state of Maryland and its' laws, history, symbols, and more at this site presented by the Secretary of State of Maryland. The site is divided into sections with sub-categories included on the home page. The history portion includes a great deal of information including a timeline of Maryland, women's history, Native American history, and African-American history, plus famous Marylanders. The government portion of site includes a very nice graphic demonstrating the bill-creation process. Learn all the state symbols such as the state song, bird, and even the state dog in the state symbols portion of the site. Be sure to visit the geography links and choose fun stuff to find lots of fun facts and state trivia.

tag(s): biographies (94), maryland (7), states (124)

Learn all about Maine (for kids) without having to leave the room! The "All About Maine" portion of the site includes information about the state including famous people, a history timeline, maps, state symbols, and more. Be sure to check out the "Tree of Facts" that includes information outlined in the image of a tree. Another useful link takes you to a list of children's books about Maine. The "Fun and Games" section includes several activities for kids including a symbols matching game, recipes, a coloring book, and more.

tag(s): maine (4), states (124)

This easy to navigate site includes basic information for kids about the state of Louisiana. Click on each of the icons to go to a different place on the site such as state symbols, learning about how a bill becomes a law, activity and coloring books/pages, and a quiz on state facts. Note: completing the quiz online requires entering your institution (school) name and email address before answers can be submitted. Rather than using your personal or professional email, create a FREE gmail account. Activity book pages can all be easily printed by using the print portion of your toolbar.

tag(s): branches of government (65), louisiana (6), states (124)

Learn a Little and Have Some Fun! Idaho's government website for kids offers facts, information, and history about the state. Capital Building Trivia offers an extensive history about their capital building including construction dates, materials used (four types of marble among them), and estimated replacement cost in today's dollars. The School Report Resources section contains all the vital state information such as the state seal, motto, flag, population statistics, and more. Be sure to check out all of the information about the famous Idaho state potatoes included in this section. At the time of this review, one of the links on the "Student Links" page, was no longer active.

tag(s): states (124)

You can find interesting facts and information about the state of Colorado by visiting this interactive website. Learn about 14er's (no, not 49er's) found in the state, people and places, and Colorado facts. Be sure to visit the link with Colorado podcasts to view many videos about wildlife found in the state, activities to do such as biking and water rafting, and snowshoeing. Also available for download from the site are puzzles and pictures in pdf format. Many portions of the site containing facts that are also available to print easily.

tag(s): mountains (10), states (124)

This site offers directions and resources for 132 educational card and board games. Games are listed in alphabetical order with a direct link to the description of the games. Most games have a name that gives a clue to the content; however, it may be worthwhile to search other games that may be modified for different uses. Each game includes information on appropriate use of the game, rationale, directions, modifications, and information on designing game cards.

tag(s): capitals (16), logic (161), number sense (69), nutrition (140), puzzles (149)

This is a site that contains numerous links to lessons and websites on various social studies and world history subjects. There are numerous subjects: Ancient History, American History and American Government, World History, Geography, and others. For each subject there is a For Teachers with lesson plans, links, quizzes, and more.
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